Crime Reduction Toolkits

Trafficking of People

Risks 

Victims are at risk of reprisal by their exploiters or traffickers. These traffickers do not want to lose their investment in the victim and certainly do not want their operation put at threat.[1] As a result they are keen that those they are

exploiting do not tell ‘outsiders’ about the situation they are in. Traffickers may therefore control contact with outsiders and keep victims under surveillance using minders or other previously trafficked individuals.  

To discourage contact with others, agents and employers may intimidate and punish women physically, or may penalise them financially. They may add working hours or deprive them of ‘privileges’, such as time off, sleep, food, amenities.  Abuse and penalties not only punish the alleged transgressor, but also serve as warnings to other women.   

It should not be assumed that once a woman is no longer in her work situation or in the country of destination that she is free from reprisals.  In most trafficking situations, agents know or can easily discover personal information about the woman, her home, family and friends.  It is very common for agents and employers to use threats against a woman’s family, especially her children, to manipulate and control the women.  

Women returned to their original country may simply be re-trafficked[2]. Measures taken in the UK may help to minimise

this risk