6 Risks Survivors Face When Going Against Their Traffickers

At Uncaged, we have had the honor of supporting survivors in court. Sometimes, they are defending themselves against traffickers who are trying to exploit them again. Other times, including recently with a survivor we'll call Talyssa, we support survivors as they take action against their traffickers.

Any time a trafficking survivor decides to confront her abuser in court, we stand in awe of her resilience and courage. She's already been through hell, and now she is facing the man who put her there. It's incredible! At the same time, we know that not all survivors will choose to testify against their traffickers. We understand this choice, too. Here are a few reasons why some trafficking survivors may not pursue legal action against their abusers.

#1 It can be retraumatizing to relive their experience

Investigators and law enforcement do not always take a trauma-informed approach when working with a survivor. The way they ask questions or interrogate a survivor may be frightening or even retraumatizing.

#2 May Jeopardize Health

Most of the time, trafficking survivors' bodies have been brutalized. We often work with survivors who have infections, poorly healed wounds, dental issues, or more. Testifying against traffickers can be exhausting, taxing their bodies when they're already weak.

#3 Fear of Retribution

Many traffickers are affiliated with organized crime. Even worse, traffickers often threaten survivors. Sometimes, this means threatening to shame them by telling lies about them back home, threatening to harm their children, or worse.

#4 Feelings of Powerlessness

The experience of being trafficked can crush a survivor's sense of choice, voice, and power. They may not think that anyone will listen to them, or they think their trafficker is too powerful to be taken down.

#5 Lack of resources

When a survivor goes free, she often has no income, housing, medical care and has few places to turn. She may not know how to start a case against her trafficker or know what rights she has. Even if she does, finding and hiring an attorney can feel out of reach.

#6 May still feel connected to Trafficker

One of the most damaging parts of trafficking is that traffickers often lure their survivors in with promises of love and affection. For survivors who have experienced previous abuse or child survivors, they may still feel like their trafficker loves them in a warped way. This can be even more complicated for child survivors whose parents were involved in trafficking them.

At Uncaged, we are working to end trafficking in our lifetime and unlocking transformation for survivors. We know that in order to restore survivors, we must make space to honor their choices. Even if a survivor chooses not to pursue legal action against her trafficker, she still needs holistic support, including legal counsel. Sometimes, taking care of her mental, emotional, and physical needs may open the door to action later on, too.

Together, we are fighting for freedom and coming alongside each survivor in her journey. You hold the key!

to a survivor's fight for freedom.

Blanketing Romania in Anti-Trafficking Efforts

Freedom always ripples outwards. Just last week, our European Director identified 1 survivor and helped her escape. That survivor led us to 16 more survivors. Finding and freeing one survivor can mean rescuing dozens, even hundreds more.

This is one reason why we are eager to start blanketing Romania and all of Europe in anti-trafficking efforts. We have built relationships with organizations who have resources to help us do this. Several of them have offered us their world-class materials for training others to locate survivors and set them free.

We are particularly excited about our partnership with Global Strategic Operatives, or GSO. They train healthcare professionals to identify potential trafficking victims and, once identified, take appropriate action.

Hospitals encounter millions of survivors. Up to 88% of survivors will seek medical care while being trafficked at some point. The vast majority of them will go undetected. By equipping healthcare providers, GSO estimates that up to 3.5 million survivors could be found in the US alone!

Now, they have asked us to pilot their program in Romania and Moldova. Remember that 78% of survivors across Europe come from these two countries. Many of them are trafficked within them before being taken across borders.

We are working to translate GSO’s curriculum into Romanian as we speak. Then, we will begin to establish anti-trafficking task forces within hospital systems. Soon, we will be locating survivors at the epicenter of trafficking in Europe with a scalable model.

If finding 1 survivor can help us free 16 more, imagine what will happen when we’ve equipped an army of healthcare providers. This is how we find and heal hundreds, even thousands of precious souls. Even better, we have the perfect place to bring these survivors once we find them - the Sanctuary.

Your support and encouragement is making it happen. We hold the keys to freedom!

Freedom Ripples Outwards

1 survivor is free! Just a couple of days ago, our European Director pulled into a truck stop off of the highway. He saw a young woman who looked afraid and unkempt being approached by a truck driver.

He went over to assess the situation and quickly found out that the woman was from far away. She didn't want to clearly explain how she got to the truck stop or who was with her.

Our director immediately connected with a Freedom Highway member, a Law Enforcement officer who was on duty nearby. She arrived and took the girl into custody in order to get away from her "customer" and any of her traffickers who were nearby.

Once the young woman was safe with us, she shared that she was being trafficked. Even more, she told our team about a house nearby where 16 other survivors are still being kept and sold for exploitation.

Right now, we are celebrating freedom for this precious soul. Within days, the authorities we were working with had found and taken down her trafficker. Now, we are crafting a plan to bring the other 16 women being trafficked to safety. Pray for God to be close to them as we fight for their freedom, too!

Freedom always ripples outwards and grows. 1 survivor can bring freedom to a dozen, or even dozens more. We've seen it before. We will see it again. It's how we know that working to scale our anti-trafficking efforts will throw the door to freedom wide open. It's why we're focused on blanketing the continent of Europe in anti-trafficking efforts. We're going to find these precious souls and let freedom roll out like a wave.

Your support and encouragement is raising an army of people who can recognize trafficking and know how to intervene. We hold the keys to freedom!