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 Nearly 80 percent of women and 40 percent of men who have been
trafficked in Britain reported high levels of depression, anxiety
and symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they wrote in
a study in the American Journal of Public Health.
"Even after escaping trafficking, the large majority of people in
our sample reported that they were still afraid of their
traffickers," Siân Oram, lead author of the study from the Institute
of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College
London, said in a statement.
"It is crucial ... that the immediate safety of survivors is taken
into consideration when planning the type of support required."
The researchers interviewed 150 people trafficked to Britain from 30
countries, including Nigeria, Albania and Poland, for what the
experts said was the first study of the impact of trafficking on
mental health in a high-income country.
Women were trafficked to Britain mainly for sexual exploitation or
domestic servitude while the majority of men were trafficked for
labor exploitation in farming, construction and car washing, the
study said.
It said 66 percent of trafficked women reported being sexually
exploited, including more than half the women trafficked for
domestic servitude.
Healthcare, including physical, mental and sexual care, must be a
fundamental part of support for the survivors of trafficking, the
researchers said.
"(Human trafficking) damages the physical and psychological health
of men and women exploited in many different labor sectors," said
Cathy Zimmerman, co-investigator from the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine.
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"The NHS (National Health Service) has a key role to play in helping
trafficked people to recover from their ordeal, and in the UK
response to human trafficking."
Last year Britain passed the Modern Slavery Act to crack down on
traffickers and bring in measures to protect people feared to be at
risk of being enslaved.
The Home Office (interior ministry) estimates that up to 13,000
people are victims of slavery in Britain, forced to work in
factories and farms, sold for sex in brothels or kept in servitude
behind closed doors.
(Reporting by Magdalena Mis, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit
Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters,
that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, corruption and
climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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