ABSTRACT
Escape or exit from trafficking is a critical moment in the lives of trafficked persons. 2 It means freedom from a deeply exploitative and traumatic situation. It is, in many ways, a new beginning or a return to normal life. But ‘being home’ is far from an easy or smooth transition. It is, often, a complex, taxing, and complicated process that involves significant challenges. The process of reintegration encompasses not only individual trafficking victims but also their family members and the family environment to which they return. Trafficked persons must recover and come to terms not only with their own exploitation, commonly involving multiple layers of violence and hardship, but also with the reactions and responses of their family members. The families of trafficked persons, who have also been directly and negatively affected by the victim’s trafficking, must also navigate and manage the victim’s return and reintegration.
