First Person Report: What Happens to Trafficking Victims Without a Safe Reintegration Plan?
FrontLines - May 2009
By Kelly Cronen
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This drawing was produced by a student who participated in an anti-trafficking awareness raising
activity supported by USAID. Bodies of women held in chains form the word, “STOP.” Above the
figures reads “We are not for sale!”
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In working in antitrafficking,
there are several
stages one goes through. One
is the first time you really get
to know a victim of trafficking.
You see the humanity in
their eyes and wonder how
something so horrible could
happen to another human
being. After you get to know
more women who have been
trafficked, you realize that
first victim is not so special,
the horror of her story is not
so unique because the forced
exploitation is happening
every day on an organized,
large scale.
There have been a number
of cases where I have been
amazed by the women’s
stories—a plump 15-yearold
trafficked through nine
different EU countries and
not one of the authorities
she encountered helped her.
A curly-haired, 20-year-old
woman with puckered scars
covering her hands, knees,
and ankles sent back to the
country where police knew her
trafficker was waiting for her.
As complicated as some
cases are, most of the time,
shelter social workers are able
to find a durable solution to
the reintegration needs of the
victims. However, there are
always a couple of cases where
no matter how hard you try,
there just doesn’t seem to be a
solution.
“Z” (name withheld for
her protection) was one such
case that broke my heart. Over
the course of a year, I had
befriended “Z,” a strong-willed
23-year-old who was trying to
recover from being trafficked
to the Netherlands. She wanted
something better for her life but
her parents and especially her
brothers didn’t want her to come
home because of the shame
she had brought on her family.
She didn’t have a high school
diploma or the skills to find a
job that could support her. After
living in the shelter for more than
a year and seeing the constant
struggle of other women trying
to re-make a life for themselves,
she became hopeless. One day
she came to me, gave me a hug,
said good-bye and that was the
last we ever heard from her. I still
wonder what could have been
done differently to give her
another chance.
Having first worked in
a shelter as a Peace Corps
volunteer before joining
USAID, I know that what we do
in anti-trafficking does impact
peoples lives. But I also know
that in some cases, you have to
take that extra step and work
really hard to make a change.
When I started working at
USAID, I came across the case
of “M”—someone who needed
the policy makers to take that
extra step so she could have
a real chance at reintegration
[see accompanying story]. In a
perfect world, USAID programs
would have saved both women,
but I’m deeply grateful we were
able to do something for “M.” I
hope the successes and lessons
learned from granting refugee
protection to “M” can be used to
pave the way for other difficult
reintegration cases that USAID
programs are working to assist.
Kelly Cronen is USAID’s
anti-trafficking advisor in
Albania.★
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