In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of refugees and migrants traveling on the “Balkan route” — the path stretching from the Middle East to the European Union through Turkey and South East Europe — in search of a better life in the European Union. The journey, via the choppy and often deadly waters of the Aegean Sea, is fraught with risk and many people find themselves exposed to exploitation, including human trafficking.

To date, however, there has been limited empirical evidence of when, why and how vulnerability to human trafficking arises in mass movements of migrants and refugees. Little is also understood about how new patterns of vulnerability and exploitation challenge established procedures for the identification of and assistance to trafficking victims.

Hundreds of trafficked migrants and refugees — from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere — who have moved to and through Serbia over the past two years have provided a unique insight into their experiences in a new report by NEXUS Institute and Fafo in partnership with Serbian non-governmental groups Atina and Centre for Youth Integration.

Our research highlights the exploitation and trafficking of migrants and refugees who have moved to and through Serbia over the past two years. Reported human trafficking cases included male and female victims, adult and child victims and individuals trafficked for different forms of exploitation. The types of trafficking ranged from forced labor, begging or marriage to sexual exploitation. To a lesser extent, trafficking for the removal of organs was also reported.

“Several migrants and refugees have been forced to provide sexual services as a means of continuing their journey toward the EU,” said Rebecca Surtees, NEXUS Senior Researcher and the report’s co-author. “In some cases, they were forced to sell sexual services to survive. In other instances, smugglers forced migrants or refugees into prostitution in order for them to earn money to fund the onward travel.”

“Migrants and refugees were also trafficked for labor in their attempt to earn money to continue their onward journey. They often had their passports seized and held by ‘employers’, were not paid and subjected to threats and physical violence. This included men, women and children.”

Among refugees and migrants who are staying temporarily in Serbia there is a great fluidity in the identities of “migrant”, “refugee” and “trafficking victim”. Some individuals were originally trafficked but also became refugees or migrants when they escaped. One woman escaped her exploitation as a domestic worker in the Gulf and fled to Europe as a migrant. Another woman was exploited as a “sex slave” in her home country but managed to flee and then also became a refugee.

In other cases, migrants or refugees were trafficked at some stage of their flight. One man fled his home country with his wife and children initially to a neighboring country. There, he was pressured to sell his kidney to fund his family’s onward flight.

“People have also been vulnerable to exploitation in settings where they have been stranded or unable to move on because they lack resources to pay smugglers or others to help them to continue their journey,” said Anette Brunovskis, Fafo Senior Researcher and co-author of the study.

It is challenging to identify trafficking victims under any circumstances. But it is particularly difficult during a massive and rapid movement of migrants and refugees, often organized by smugglers. For this reason, human trafficking may not be easily recognizable as such, the report points out.

“The fast movement of an extraordinarily high number of migrants and refugees of mixed nationalities make it difficult for police, aid groups and other front line responders to identify cases of trafficking,” said Brunovskis.

“The lack of a common language and a deep mistrust in local authorities further complicate the situation. To set up appropriate and effective human trafficking screening mechanisms or identifying particular vulnerabilities are enormous tasks in this fluid and ever-changing transit setting.”

Typical indicators and signals of trafficking risk, which front line responders have been trained to identify, might not be relevant when it comes to trafficked migrants and refugees. There is an urgent need to develop more responsive tools to identify and assist trafficked migrants and refugees. But it is also important to consider other forms of vulnerability and exploitation that migrants and refugees face, which may be caused by or lead to human trafficking.

“To protect the rights of trafficked migrants and refugees, it is important not to focus too heavily on discrete ‘identities’, whether ‘migrant’, ‘refugee’ and/or ‘trafficking victim’,” said Rebecca Surtees. “Paying attention to this complexity and the overlapping identities will not only allow for a more holistic assistance response for individuals, but also a more inclusive social protection response generally in this country and beyond.”

Read the full report here. You can follow the work of NEXUS Institute at www.NEXUSInstitute.net and @NEXUSInstitute. You may follow the work of Fafo Institute at www.Fafo.no and @FafoInfo.

Based on extensive interviews with almost 100 trafficking victims and over 100 anti-trafficking professionals and service providers in Indonesia, Going Home — Challenges in the Reintegration of Trafficking Victims in Indonesia details the uncertain and precarious path toward recovery and reintegration faced by many victims of human trafficking in Indonesia. Going Home is the first in a series of longitudinal studies by the NEXUS Institute about human trafficking and victim reintegration in Indonesia.

“This research is the first longitudinal study on human trafficking conducted in Indonesia and one of only a few in the world. It offers a unique lens into the complex process of reintegration for victims after being trafficked, drawing on the firsthand accounts of a diverse group of trafficking victims,” said Stephen Warnath, President, CEO and Founder of NEXUS Institute. “These men and women shared their experiences with us and, in doing so, reveal stories of hope, determination, perseverance, courage, and resilience. Our report documents their experiences and introduces what support is available for reintegration of victims of human trafficking in Indonesia, and the constraints and obstacles victims face in accessing that support. The stories that emerge from our interviews are not unique. Listening to their voices and the lessons to be learned from them can benefit many countries around the world.”

A number of government initiatives exist to assist returning trafficking victims. Indonesia’s Anti-Trafficking Law (Law 21/2007), for example, provides a right to healthcare, psychological support and counseling, temporary shelter and legal aid.

“Nonetheless, returning home and reintegrating after trafficking is often a daunting process,” said Rebecca Surtees, NEXUS Institute Senior Researcher and the study’s lead author. “Many returning trafficking victims do not receive the assistance and support that they need to recover — despite existing legislation and support programs. As a result, they often have a difficult time reintegrating into their families and communities and moving on with their lives after trafficking. They often face on-going vulnerability.”

Travelers at Jakarta’s main bus station. Reintegration is much more than only returning to one’s family. Photo: Peter Biro for NEXUS Institute.

Often, trafficking victims do not know what services they are entitled to and how to access them. Those who do receive assistance from the government or civil society do not always receive help that is tailored to their individual needs or adequately supports their efforts to reintegrate, according to the study.

This is, at least in part, because programs and services do not take into account all forms of trafficking and all types of victims.

“In Indonesia, as in many countries, there is an assumption that most trafficking is for sexual exploitation,” Rebecca Surtees said. “Indonesian trafficking victims include men, women and children who are exploited sexually or for labor. Reintegration services and support need to be tailored to each individual victim’s unique and specific experience and assistance needs.”

A domestic worker employed in an Indonesian household. Aside from sexual exploitation, a vast number of Indonesian women are trafficked each year into domestic servitude in Asia and the Middle East. Photo: Peter Biro for NEXUS Institute.

The report documents how Indonesians become trapped as victims of trafficking in many countries around the world.

“Indonesians are trafficked within the country or exploited abroad, in neighboring Asian countries as well as further afield, including the Middle East, Africa and Latin America,” said Thaufiek Zulbahary, NEXUS Researcher and co-author of the report.

This map shows the various forms of exploitation and destination countries for respondents in the NEXUS report.

Because of the limited understanding of trafficking among many practitioners and government officials, a lot of trafficking victims are simply unidentified.

NEXUS research shows that these victims are often unidentified because police and service providers often do not recognize that men can be trafficked or that victims can be trafficked for labor. Victims themselves often do not understand that their experiences of exploitation while migrant workers are, in fact, the crimes of human trafficking and forced labor.

“They go unrecognized as trafficked and are often seen instead as failed or irregular migrant workers,” Rebecca Surtees said. “Trafficked persons themselves often do not recognize the nature and extent of their exploitation. As a consequence, they go unassisted and struggle to recover from trafficking and reintegrate into their families and communities.”

Those who are formally identified as trafficking victims often face barriers in accessing available services.

“There is often a lack of information about available reintegration assistance and trafficking victims do not know where to go or who to ask for support,” said Suarni Daeng Caya, NEXUS Researcher and co-author of the report. “Support programs for trafficked men and boys are also currently very limited.”

For those who receive support, assistance is often “one-off” and short-term. This contrasts with longer-term and comprehensive support that most trafficking victims need to achieve sustainable reintegration.

Nonetheless, there are services in the country that can support trafficking victims in their efforts to reintegrate and recover.

“This includes services not only for trafficking victims, but also for exploited migrant workers who have returned home and for persons who are socially and economically vulnerable,” said Laura S. Johnson, NEXUS Researcher and report co-author. “Some programs and services — like access to education — are available to all Indonesian citizens.”

Among the report’s recommendations is that trafficking victims need to be supported in making greater use of services and programs that already exist to assist a wide range of beneficiaries, rather than to limit support solely to programs dedicated to assist those who have survived being trafficked. Trafficking victims are often eligible for this larger array of programs, but currently they are rarely able to access and obtain these programs’ services and support.

Others key recommendations are that reintegration services — which need to be long-term, comprehensive and provided by qualified professionals — should be made available to all types of trafficking victims (men, women, girls and boys) as well as victims of all forms of human trafficking. Service providers should work with individual victims to assess their needs and to design a plan for their reintegration; they should work with victims over time to implement and monitor their reintegration process.

While these stories, and the report that they are based upon, focus on Indonesia, these findings are relevant for many countries around the world.

“The experiences recounted by Indonesian trafficking victims mirror the experiences of trafficking victims shared with NEXUS researchers in many other places,” Stephen Warnath notes. “In most countries there is much more that can be done to provide critically needed support for the men, women and children who have escaped or been rescued from human trafficking. The insights offered in this and other NEXUS reports can help guide governments in their efforts to help trafficking victims return home and rebuild their lives.”

Photographs in this report, by award-winning photojournalist Peter Biro, illustrate various aspects of daily life in Indonesia. Unless stated otherwise, individuals in these photographs are not trafficking victims. All rights are reserved by the NEXUS Institute.

The NEXUS study, Going Home, was made possible through the support of the United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP). The research was implemented in partnership with the Indonesian Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection and the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs. Read the full report here. You can follow more of NEXUS Institute’s work atwww.NEXUSInstitute.net and @NEXUSInstitute.