Trafficking is when people are moved around to different countries or to a different part of their own country, and used for other people’s gain. People can be trafficked for lots of different things – for sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, forced labour (being made to work for free), forced marriage, or anything else where they have no rights, no choice, and someone else is benefiting from what they are doing instead of them.

Trafficking can happen to anyone, and if it happens to you, you need to remember that it is not your fault and that you are not in the wrong for anything you have been made to do – it was out of your control. No matter how big and dangerous it feels like things have got, there is a way out. There are ways that victims who have been trafficked can report it and allow them to recover to be able to live again freely, and safe spaces for this recovery like shelters and hostels, and access to confidential support services to give people who have gone through this help to recover and rebuild their lives.

If you have been trafficked here, there is help for you. You should be seen as a victim of crime and given support and help to be safe. You can get support to claim asylum if it is not safe to go home or given help to go home if you want to return.