From: The recovery experience of people who were sex trafficked: the thwarted journey towards goal pursuit
Services that are needed in a shelter for adults of non-Dutch nationality who were trafficked | Descriptions of services |
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Physical health care | Care that is provided when trafficked people experience physical health problems. This care can be provided by social care workers in the shelter or by a GP that is affiliated with the shelter. Trafficked people may be offered screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and tuberculosis. |
Mental health care | Care that is provided when trafficked people experience mental health problems. This care can be provided by social care workers in the shelter. Additionally, mental health care may be offered via mental health care institutions. |
Safety | This service consists of advice to trafficked persons on how to increase safety, ensuring security at the shelter itself, accompanying them to places if necessary, and assisting them in contact with the police if necessary. |
Emergency shelter | Providing shelter is the main function of a shelter, offering sleeping quarters and communal areas that are arranged in varying manners. |
Longer-term housing | This service consists of helping trafficked persons with looking for a different place to live after they have to leave the shelter and wish to remain in the country where the shelter is located. |
Legal assistance | Trafficked people should receive legal assistance. This may be offered in the form of basic advice by social care workers in the shelter. They may also be referred to a counsellor for more advanced legal assistance. Assistance may include help with acquiring residency status, representation of the service user in the trafficker’s criminal case, and other matters such as acquiring financial compensation from the government. |
Translation | Translation services should be freely available to the shelter, financed by the government. |
Daytime activities | A range of day activities may be offered at the shelter. The nature of activities may differ by shelter, but can include cultural orientation, language training, occupational skills training and arts classes. |
Help with education / employment | This may differ by shelter but can include occupational skills training, advice on possibilities for (voluntary) employment during stay at the shelter, help with finding education, help with finding longer-term employment, and referral to organizations that assist people in finding employment. |
Financial and administrative assistance | Services may include help with getting subsidies and social benefits, help with filling out papers and forms, advice on how to get by with little money, and help with debts. |
Empowerment | Key to services that aim to empower people is that they are founded on people’s strengths. The central goal of empowerment is that trafficked persons (re) gain control over their own life and their surroundings, so that full participation in society can be achieved. |
Self-maintenance and -care | Helping people take care of themselves. Services can include help with cooking, grocery shopping, and laundry. |
Child care | Services may differ by shelter but can include helping people with taking care of their children, advising on possibilities for helping children, helping to establish contact with relevant agencies, and contacting the relevant agencies when there are worries about the parent(s) to be able to care for their child. |
Social contacts | Help with establishing rewarding and fruitful social contacts (including family and friends but also others such as care providers or colleagues). Services may include advice on ways to get to know other people, advice on discussing problems with people, learning how to say no, and learning how to ask for support. |