Page 42 - FMR64_Trafficking and smuggling & Climate crisis and local communities_2020_web

FMR 64
42 Trafficking and smuggling
www.fmreview.org/issue64 June 2020

Joshua Youle joshua.youle@gmail.com 1. The Walk Free Foundation (2013) Global Slavery Index
Abigail Long aelong361@gmail.com bit.ly/Global-Slavery-Index
Program Advisors, Everwatch Solutions Corporation 2. ILO (2012) ‘Hard to see, harder to count’
bit.ly/ILO-HardtoSee-2012
and Cherokee Nation Mission Solutions, 3. ILO (2018) ‘Guidelines concerning the measurement of forced
Contractors, the US State Department, Office to labour’, 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians.
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Geneva, 10–19 October 2018 bit.ly/ILO-ICLS20-Oct18
4. UN General Assembly (2000) ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
The views expressed in this paper are those of the and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and
authors and are not an official policy nor position of Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime’ (known as the Palermo Protocol)
the US Department of State or the US government. bit.ly/UN-Palermo-Protocol
www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary- 5. Johansen R (2019) ‘UNODC’s use of Multiple Systems
for-civilian-security-democracy-and-human-rights/ Estimation (MSE) to assist countries in measuring human
trafficking and reporting on SDG indicator 16.2.2’
office-to-monitor-and-combat-trafficking-in-persons bit.ly/Johansen-UNODC-MSE-2019
Understanding the psychological effects of sex
trafficking to inform service delivery

Jennifer McQuaid
Those providing assistance to survivors of trafficking should focus not only on the delivery of
services but also on building survivors’ capacity to engage in treatment and support.
When trafficked for sexual exploitation, This severe rupturing of attachment
women are subjected to extraordinary relationships can have a significant impact
physical, sexual and psychological on survivors – disrupting their sense of self
violence which puts them acutely at risk and affecting their ability to leave exploitative
for developing not just short-term physical situations, rebuild themselves emotionally
ailments but also lasting mental illness and engage with services. After periods
that can profoundly alter their ability to of imposed isolation, a loss of autonomy
navigate effectively in the social world. and forced servitude, survivors report
Survivors may be dealing with HIV feeling helpless and hopeless, struggling
infections, experience gynaecological issues, to feel competent with life skills, ashamed
succumb to substance and alcohol abuse, about their past victimisation, and angry
and suffer the prolonged effects of physical about missed education and job training.
injury. The impacts on their mental health Many feel lost in their personal search for
include anxiety, depression, self-harm and identity and meaning. Regulating difficult
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). emotions and interpersonal relationships
Violent exploitation may also result in can be challenging. All told, the effects
survivors developing a mistrust of care- of sex trafficking are wide-reaching,
giving individuals and systems, which profound and often not well understood.
can severely hinder service delivery. Sex Signs and symptoms of psychological
trafficking disrupts caregiving by hijacking distress may also fall outside diagnostic
the victim’s relationship with trust and categories and manifest in cultural
security. Victims rely on their traffickers to idioms of distress. Systems of care that
provide them with food and shelter but to adequately account for these experiences
obtain these victims must work, and that have a far greater chance of success. 1
work involves sexual violence and coercion.
The hand that feeds and gives shelter and The road map of complex PTSD
promises a path to safety is therefore also the The traditional reliance on PTSD as a
hand that leads to injury and persecution. diagnostic means of describing distress and