30 April 2018 – The just-released special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review: Life after Trafficking includes NEXUS Institute’s most recent study on the reintegration of trafficked Indonesian men. The NEXUS article examines the experiences of and challenges faced by 49 Indonesian men reintegrating into their families and communities. While many tensions within the family were economic – linked to returning without money and migration debt – they were also the result of long separations that fractured relationships, frustration and blame over failed migration and unfulfilled expectations. In some cases, tensions were compounded by recrimination and blame that men faced in the community.

The study finds that while family was an important source of support for many men after trafficking, the family environment also involved vulnerabilities and tensions that inhibited or undermined recovery and reintegration. Moreover, expectations around men as husbands, fathers and sons also meant that experiences of reintegration differed, in some ways, from the experiences of trafficked women. Understanding the nature of and reasons for the problems that men faced after trafficking is vital in considering how trafficked men can be supported in their lived after trafficking, thereby decreasing vulnerability or the risk of re-trafficking. This is particularly pressing where support provided by the family may be the only assistance available to these men and, moreover, when persons from the wider environment may undermine their reintegration.

This special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review was edited by Borislav Gerasimov, with Guest Editors Denise Brennan and Sine Plambech. It includes contributions from India, Thailand, Azerbaijan, the United States, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Denmark, United Kingdom and Switzerland.