They are subject to severe exploitation from traffickers and their associates. But many have experience with exploitation both before and after trafficking.
Stories of human trafficking are inseparable from often lifelong stories of hardship and marginalisation.
For example, a Slovak man forced into unpaid labour in England returned home and found a job, but the new employer did not pay him and later threatened to kill him.
For many people, human trafficking is a harrowing experience. But it is only one episode in a much longer traumatic story.
There are others whose lives after human trafficking take a turn for the better. But they still face challenges of poverty, debt, stigma and – particularly in case of Roma people – of racial exclusion.
Gendered cultural norms sometimes play into the development of human trafficking, as young women from poor communities are pushed towards marriages with strangers or sexual exploitation.
