The crime and stigma!

She was trafficked as a child. Taken away from home, she was exploited sexually, mentally, emotionally and psychologically. Years have gone by and today she is a local recruiter/trafficker who travels back and forth to her village, luring and promising people of a better life like her own. With expensive jewellery and clothes, she is perceived as the icon of success in the village despite the fact that an unfortunate world is hidden behind her external dignity. How can any parents in a poor village deny their children the opportunity for a better life promised by such a convincing recruiter? Desperate people, struggle to resist the temptation of allowing themselves to fall in the trap of human trafficking. There are thousands all around the world who agonize over whether to give in themselves in hopes of evading what they perceive as a dead-end road in their lives or for the purpose of generating much needed income that would help their families survive.

Trafficked victims are as young as 10 years old, often illiterate or school dropouts and come from very poor families. Many are also victims of abuse early in their lives. Victims face major problems being reintegrated into their home communities when they are freed from the situation into which they were trafficked. They have often been treated by law authorities as criminals, either for prostitution or illegal migration, and, therefore social stigma and personal emotional scars make the recovery even more difficult. Assisting victims to resettle and start a new life is a huge challenge for organizations and concerned governmental agencies. The most difficult aspect of rehabilitation and reintegration of victims/survivors are the deep-rooted feeling of stigma associated with having been trafficked, which most often is an obstacle to providing the psychosocial and public health support needed to reintegrate the survivors. In fact, in my experience, in many cases, initial efforts to develop self-help support groups and provide specialized mental health and psychosocial support is met with fear and suspicion. They find it difficult to repose their trust in anyone, live in the constant panic of being exploited again and don’t find it easy to talk about their experiences. In addition to these psychological and social considerations, the victims face the practical financial challenge of providing for life's essentials.

A lot of organizations have been trying to empower the survivors as facilitators and further helping them become the change agents. Various techniques like group and one-to-one counseling (focusing on overcoming fear, shame, denial, guilt, and self-blame), training in life skills, positive thinking, trust building, self discipline and leadership, have proved to empower women significantly and is helping reach out to a far wider network of survivors. With empowerment, survivors are found to be increasingly confident, open and trusting of each other.

What is most needed is to help the survivors organize, participate and speak for the decisions that affect them. Without the input of survivor voices, their priorities of need will continue to be decided by others. And this would always leave us behind 'true empowerment'!