Trafficking Survivors Return Home: Case Study of Poland

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By Elżbieta M. Goździak, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)
Georgetown University
TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS RETURN HOME:
CASE STUDY OF POLAND
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Trafficking!Survivors!Return!Home:!Case!Study!of!Poland!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding for this research was provided by the Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social
Science Research-Exploratory (IBSS-Ex) program of the National Science Foundation
(Award #1416769). Warm thanks to our NSF Project Officer, Dr. Brian D. Humes for
his assistance throughout the life of the grant.
This report benefited greatly from the contributions of many individuals. Dr. Stana
Buchowska and Mr. Maciej Kotliński provided invaluable assistance in interviewing
service providers and survivors of trafficking living in Poland. I am also grateful to
the representatives of the Polish Ministry of Interior, the La Strada Foundation, and
the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for discussing with me the
challenges and successes in providing protection to and integrating survivors of
trafficking into local communities. They all shared their knowledge and insights and
I am grateful for their generosity of time and wisdom.
My graduate research assistants, Charles Jamieson and Nicole Johnson, provided
indispensable assistance in conducting literature reviews, analyzing existing anti-
trafficking laws and data, and masterfully copy-editing and formatting this report.
Elżbieta M. Goździak is Research Professor at the
Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)
at Georgetown University. Formerly, she served as
Editor of International Migration and held a senior
position with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
She taught at the Howard University in the Social Work
with Displaced Populations Program, and managed a
program area on admissions and resettlement of
refugees in industrialized countries for the Refugee
Policy Group. Prior to immigrating to the United States,
she was an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.
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INTRODUCTION
Trafficking of people for forced labor and sexual exploitation is believed to be one of
the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity and one that is of increasing
concern to the international community. Trafficking is commonly understood in terms
of the activity, the means, and the purpose, where: (1) The activity refers to some kind
of movement either within or across borders; (2) The means relates to some form of
coercion or deception, and (3) the purpose is the ultimate exploitation of a person for
profit or benefit of another (Martin & Callaway, 2011: 225).
While understanding and recognition of trafficking in persons has improved in recent
years, there is little systematic and in-depth analysis of the full life cycle of cross-
border human trafficking—from pre-trafficking and recruitment through exploitation
to return home or integration into a new community. An area in which very little is
known are the experiences of trafficking survivors after return to their home
countries. Who returns to their home countries? What is the process for return? After
return, are survivors still subject to the same situations that caused them to be
trafficked in the first place? What are their health and mental health, education,
employment, and other needs after return? Do they receive services that will enable
them to reintegrate and, if so, for what period and with what efficacy? What types of
stigmas persist over time, particularly for those who were sexually exploited and
abused? What are the risk factors for being re-trafficked? To what extent is
information available about the incidence and prevalence of re-trafficking? This
information is of particular import given the fact that many countries provide
survivors with respite assistance, but lack long-term immigration relief.
This report is part of a larger research project, supported by the National Science
Foundation (NSF), aimed at collecting empirical data in Poland, Moldova, Thailand,
and Nepal to provide answers to the above questions. This report was informed by an
extensive literature review as well as field research in Warsaw and Cracow in the
summer of 2015. In-depth interviews with representatives of the Ministry of Interior,
National Consulting and Intervention Center for Victims of Trafficking (Krajowe
Centrum Interwencyjno-Konsultacyjne dla Ofiar Handlu Ludźmi--KCIK), La Strada
Foundation, Halina Nieć Legal Aid Center, and the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) were conducted. Additionally, we interviewed 19 survivors of
human trafficking for sexual exploitation and other forms of labor; ten of the survivors
are Poles who returned to Poland from other parts of Europe and nine are foreign-
born victims who are receiving assistance in Poland before departing for their
countries of origin.

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We begin the report with a brief discussion of contemporary Polish migration
patterns, followed by presentation of information about human trafficking from,
within, and to Poland—including legal frameworks and available statistical
information—to contextualize field research findings, and end with policy and
programmatic recommendations.

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MIGRATION IN POLAND
Poland has been an emigration country for more than a century. The fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989 and the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, coupled with
unrestricted entry to the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland, caused one of the biggest
emigration flows in Poland’s postwar history. On November 19, 2006, the New York
Times reported that 800,000 Poles left the country since Poland joined the EU. The
number of Polish residents who stayed abroad for at least two months tripled between
early 2004 and early 2007 from approximately 180,000 to 540,000 (Kaczmarczyk and
Okólski 2008). In May 2011, Germany opened its doors fully to jobseekers from Poland
paving the way for a flood of cut-price carpenters, plumbers and other budget labor of
the kind that swept Britain in 2004 (Hall et al 2011). Norway and Belgium have also
become destinations for post-accession Polish migrants (Mostowska 2013 and 2014). With
this exodus Poland became one of the largest exporters of labor within the enlarged
European Union. According to the Polish Census Bureau, 2,3 million Poles have resided
abroad for at least three months at the end of 2014; this represents a 5.65 increase in
comparison with 2013. The majority of Polish migrant lived in the European Union
countries, including United Kingdom (685,000), Germany (614,000), Ireland (113,000), the
Netherlands (109,000), and Italy (96,000) (GUS 2015).
While the scale of Polish migration has remained on the rise, Polish permanent
emigration has been steadily decreasing giving ways to new migration patterns. The
fairly stable migration flows that marked the post-WWII period have dissolved into more
complex, transitory patterns in terms of temporary settlement and shifting migration
status (Engbersen, Van der Leun and de Boom 2007). Polish migration no longer takes
the form of unidirectional movement from country of origin to destination country that
ends with permanent settlement. Post-enlargement migratory movements from Poland
have become much more differentiated and have led to a more diverse and floating
populations (Danilewicz 2010, Urbańska 2009). Paraphrasing Bauman’s (2000, 2005)
work on ‘liquid modernity,’ Polish international migration has become ‘liquid.’ Polish
migrants, who for decades regarded the United States as the ‘promised land,’ shifted their
focus to Western Europe, much more geographically accessible. Polish migration took a
form of ‘pendulum’ or ‘circular’ migration and in some cases transnational commuting.
These movements have been governed by the ebb and flow of economic demands and
the state of labor markets at home and abroad (Favell 2008; Mostowska 2013).

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Poles are now not only free to leave Poland, but also are free to leave and to come back.
They use their spatial mobility to adapt to the new context of post-communist space and
EU enlargement. Rather than relying on transnational networking for improving their
condition in the country of settlement, many Poles tend to settle within mobility, staying
mobile as long as they can in order to improve or maintain a particular quality of life,
enhance their professional qualifications, and pursue educational goals. Their experience
of migration becomes their lifestyle, their leaving home and going away, paradoxically,
a strategy of staying at home, and, thus, an alternative to what international migration is
usually considered to be: emigration or immigration. This does not mean that some Polish
migrants do not “extend their stay abroad” and decide to settle outside Poland (McGhee
2013; Ryan et al 2009; Ryan and Sales 2013).
Mobility as a strategy can be empowering and can result in ‘success.’ It can become a tool
for social innovation and agency as well as an important dimension of social capital
provided that migrants retain control over their migration projects. Mobility, however,
may also reflect increased dependencies, proliferation of precarious jobs, and labor
exploitation that end in ‘failure.’
There are conflicting reports on the outcomes of recent Polish migration. Social workers
circulate alarming stories about homeless and jobless Poles in London (Goryńska-Bittner
2010). Researchers study Polish ‘rough sleepers’ in different European capitals (Garapich,
2013; Mostowska 2012, 2013). News media report that instead of finding the opportunities
that they heard of back home, thousands of Poles have ended up on the streets of London.
Newspapers publish articles about Polish migrants addicted to alcohol and drugs
(Ramesh 2010). Polish organizations are reporting high levels of suicide, depression, and
poverty among migrant workers (Shields 2008; Lakasing and Mirza 2009). Heavy alcohol
intake is considered a likely contributing factor (Ranzetta 2007). Alarmed by the
increasingly common sight of Poles sleeping rough in Britain and fearful that they will
turn to drugs, prostitution and crime, Polish charities send delegations to London to
persuade their compatriots to return home. In Poland, migration is often presented as a
necessary evil regardless of the outcomes of migration projects. For example, educators
and researchers point to adverse effects of migration on children left behind by parents
working abroad (Walczak 2009; Urbańska 2010). On the other hand, researchers and
popular accounts alike investigate successes of Polish high-skilled migrants (see Klagge
and Klein-Hitpass 2007; Duvell 2004).

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In the interviews conducted during this study, some staff at anti-trafficking programs
worried that the increased mobility of Polish citizens—especially those with no fluency
in the language of the country they want to live in, temporarily or permanently, might
result in heightened levels of exploitation and trafficking. However, there is no way to
ascertain whether these hypotheses translate into tangible data as there is no baseline
data on the scale of trafficking of Polish nationals over time. Additionally, this assertion
contradicts the data provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior that indicate that the vast
majority of trafficked victims assisted by anti-trafficking programs were living in their
country of origin at the time of being recruited to work abroad. Some of the Polish
survivors of trafficking were also trafficked within Poland. These observations are based
on relatively small samples and caution ought to be exercised when making
generalizations.

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HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN POLAND
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORKS
Poland is party to the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention and has ratified the UN
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. It is also bound by European
Union legislation and directives on human trafficking.
Nonetheless, until 2010, Poland did not have a definition of human trafficking, despite
the fact that its Criminal Code specified a minimum penalty of three years of
imprisonment for “whoever performs trafficking in persons.” Instead, the Polish
Criminal Code criminalized the forcing of an adult or minor into prostitution and
abduction of a person with intent to force them into prostitution abroad. The Act of May
20, 2010 concerning changes to the Criminal Code added a definition of trafficking in
human beings which was introduced in Article 115, paragraph 22, of the Criminal Code,
and a new Article 189a was added concerning the legal classification of trafficking. These
amendments took effect on September 8, 2010.
Article 115, section 22 defines trafficking as:
(…) recruitment, transport, transfer, giving away, harboring or receipt of a
person by means of: 1) violence or unlawful threat; 2) abduction; 3) deceit;
4) by misleading someone or by means of abusing someone’s mistaken
view or a person’s incapability of an adequate understanding of his or her
actions; 5) misuse of a position of dependence, abuse of a distressful
situation or of a state of helplessness; or 6) giving or receiving financial or
personal benefits or the promise thereof to a person that takes care of or
supervises another person for the purpose of his or her consent, especially
in prostitution, pornography or other forms of sexual abuse, in labor
services of a forced nature, in begging, in slavery or other forms of
exploitation that violate the dignity of the human being or for the purpose
of acquiring cells, tissues, or organs contrary to law. If the action of the
perpetrator pertains to a minor, it shall be seen as trafficking in human
beings, even if the measures and means set forth in points 1-6 have not been
used.

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In order for trafficking to take place, one of the following elements must have been used:
recruitment, transport, transfer, giving away, harboring, and receipt of a person. The
definition of trafficking used in Poland is broader than sexual exploitation. In practice,
however, for quite a while policy and programmatic focus has been on trafficking for
sexual exploitation. More recently, cases of financial exploitation of male labor migrants
are slowly shifting the country’s attention to trafficking for other forms labor exploitation.
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report issued by the U.S. Department of State every year
has placed Poland in Tier 1 for several years. The TIP report indicates the Government of
Poland fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking (TIP 2016).
SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN POLAND
Below we present information provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior regarding
human trafficking in Poland. The latest data the Ministry was able to provide covers the
period of 2012-2013. The data is based on an anonymous survey of survivors of human
trafficking who received benefits from Krajowe Centrum Interwencyjno-Konsultacyjne
(KCIK) or National Consulting and Intervention Center for Victims of Trafficking. The
survey included 237 victims of human trafficking, both Polish nationals and foreign-born
survivors. Seventy-five percent of the survey participants received an official status of
trafficked victim from the Polish Police or Border Patrol, while the remaining 25 percent
were deemed to be victims of human trafficking by the La Strada Foundation. The latter
cohort did not want to collaborate with law enforcement and therefore was not included
in the official cohort of victims.
While the sample is relatively small, the Ministry indicated that it is very illustrative of
the latest trends in terms of characteristics of the victims and the nature of the recruitment
process.
GENDER
The majority of the beneficiaries were women. It is, however, noteworthy, that the
number of male beneficiaries is increasing steadily. During the 2009 – 2011 period, male
beneficiaries comprised 21 percent; the percentage increased to 26.1 percent in 2012, and
reached 27.8 percent in 2013. The majority of the male beneficiaries are foreign-born men.
In 2013, of the 173 individuals surveyed only seven were Polish men.

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AGE
Ninety percent of the beneficiaries were adults. All children under the age of 18 included
in the survey were mostly foreign-born. In 2012, KCIK assisted 15 minors: 10 from
Romania, three from Poland, one from Bulgaria, and one from Vietnam. In 2013, KCIK
provided assistance to 13 minors: eight from Romania, two from Bulgaria, and one from
the Czech Republic, Russia, and Vietnam. According to the 2016 TIP report, Poland ought
to improve training and efforts to identify trafficked victims more proactively,
particularly among unaccompanied children, irregular migrants, and children exploited
in prostitution. It is difficult to ascertain why the authors of the TIP report think there
might be many more minors trafficked to Poland. There is no baseline data or empirical
research to warrant such estimates.
CITIZENSHIP
TABLE 1: COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP OF TRAFFICKED VICTIMS
Country of citizenship (N = 237)
2012
2013
Total
Poland
41
49
90
Romania
36
32
68
Bulgaria
8
18
26
Vietnam
12
12
24
Ukraine
10
3
13
Philippines
0
4
4
Kenya
2
1
3
Byelorussia
1
1
2
Moldova
0
2
2
Uganda
1
1
2
Morocco
0
1
1
Czech Republic
0
1
1
Russia
0
1
1

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Citizens of Poland constituted the largest—38 percent-- group of beneficiaries assisted by
KCIK, followed by citizens of Romania (29%), Bulgaria (11%), Vietnam (10%), and
Ukraine (5.5%). It is noteworthy that the number of Ukrainian victims has decreased
considerably. Between 2009 and 2011, Ukrainians were the second largest group of
beneficiaries after Poles.
MARITAL STATUS
Seventy percent of the beneficiaries who declared marital status were single. 1 The
remaining 30 percent were either married or lived with partners.
PLACE OF RESIDENCE
The majority of the beneficiaries (204 survivors) lived in the country of origin at the time
of being recruited to work abroad. The vast majority (94%) of Polish survivors lived in
Poland at the time they were recruited. This data contradicts the assertion discussed
above that increased mobility of Poles after the accession to the European Union puts
them at risk for trafficking. In 2013, only 11 of the 75 foreign-born victims were outside
their countries of origin at the time of recruitment; nine in Poland, one in Germany, and
another one in Ukraine.
EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Three-quarters of the beneficiaries were unemployed at the time of recruitment. An
additional 14 percent were students. One person was retired. A mere seven percent had
a job at the time of being approached by a recruiter.
Analyzing these data, KCIK concluded that unemployed persons are at the highest risk
for being trafficked, especially if unemployment is accompanied by a family crisis such
as illness or domestic violence. More than 78 percent of the victims decided to migrate in
order to improve the economic situation of their families. Additionally, 12 percent of the
beneficiaries decided to go abroad as a result of a family crisis and/or to escape domestic
violence. Seven percent of the surveyed victims left under pressure from family members.
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1!Of the 237 survivors 44 did not share information about their marital status with the programs
staff.!

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Social workers indicated that in the latter case, the family was actively involved in the
trafficking process.
Some 13 percent of the surveyed beneficiaries decided to migrate in the hopes of securing
both a better economic and emotional situation. Half of this group left their family home
in search of new adventures, to meet new people, but without precise plans what to do
once they get to the destination country. The second half had matrimonial plans and left
home to marry a particular person, usually the trafficker.
THE RECRUITERS
The vast majority of recruiters2 were Polish citizens.
TABLE 2: COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP OF RECRUITERS
Country of citizenship of
recruiters (N = 194)
2012
2013
Total
Poland
44
53
97
Bulgaria
18
21
39
Romania
9
12
21
Italy
0
13
13
Vietnam
1
12
13
Ukraine
7
5
12
Germany
1
4
5
Turkey
0
3
3
Czech Republic
0
1
1
Nigeria
0
1
1
Russia
1
0
1
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2!The data provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior differentiates between the different people involved
in the trafficking process as in many cases the recruiters are distinct from the people who transported the
victims to their employers. In some cases, the latter were colluding with the traffickers, but in some cases
they were unaware of the trafficking.

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The table below presents information on country of citizenship of the recruiters.
Comparing this information with the data on citizenship of victims, it appears that in
most cases the traffickers come from the same country as their victims.
While in many cases the recruiters were co-ethnics, in the majority of cases they were
strangers. Analogously to previous years, 64 percent of the surveyed survivors were
recruited by strangers, followed by 22 percent of survivors who were recruited by an
acquaintance (znajomy). In the remaining 14 percent victims were recruited by family
members or partners.
METHODS OF RECRUITMENT
In three-quarters of the cases, the traffickers recruited victims by contacting them directly.
In 24 percent of the surveyed cases, traffickers used indirect methods, including Internet
advertisements (15%) or employment agencies (9%). There were no cases of kidnapping
or other forcible recruitment. No dating agencies were involved in cases when traffickers
approached their victims with a romantic proposal. It seems that perpetrators try to hide
their criminal intents from potential victims for as long as they can in order to not spur
suspicion.
In the majority of cases (91%), the traffickers offered their victims financially lucrative
employment. Every tenth survivor was lured with a promise of marriage. One percent of
the surveyed individuals were promised financial assistance (sponsorship) and an
additional one percent were tempted with offers to see the world. None of the surveyed
individuals indicated that the recruitment offers included assistance with irregular
migration.
DESTINATION COUNTRIES
In most cases the recruitment offers included the same country where the surveyed
survivors of human trafficking were victimized. It is noteworthy that 49 percent of the
Polish survey participants were recruited to work in Poland. In 2013, 22 Polish women
were offered employment in Poland, while 23 Polish citizens (men and women) were
offered work abroad, mainly in Germany, but also in the Netherlands, France, Italy, and
the United Kingdom.

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TRANSPORT
It seems that the transport stage is much more diverse than the recruitment stage. This is
due to the fact that in some cases the victims were recruited hundreds of thousands of
kilometers from the place of exploitation, and in other cases, recruitment and
victimization took place in the same locality and transport was limited to travel by taxi
and did not have to be organized by a criminal group. Sometimes victims had to use
several different modes of transportation to reach their destination. Private cars were
used most often (62%), followed by public bus (over 33%), airplane (20%), private bus
(15.5%) and taxi (10%). Trains and ships were used very rarely, in four and 0.6 percent of
cases, respectively.
Three-quarters of the survivors crossed international borders, but only in two percent of
the examined cases the border was crossed clandestinely.
EXPLOITATION
The vast majority of the KCIK beneficiaries were exploited within Poland (83%),
followed by Germany (12.5%), the Netherlands (2.2%), and the United Kingdom (1.3%).
In 2013, 71 foreign-born and 26 Polish citizens were exploited in Poland. More than half
of the surveyed beneficiaries were trafficked for sexual exploitation, including 44 percent
who were forced into prostitution. Additional 25 percent were trafficked for labor
exploitation and 22 percent for begging. Six percent of the beneficiaries were enslaved3,
4.3 percent were forced to commit criminal offenses, and 2.2 percent were victims of
forced marriages.
Available data suggest that the type of exploitation of Poland-born and foreign-born
victims remains the same as in previous years (2009-2011). Sexual exploitation and
begging far exceed other forms of exploitation. Polish citizens are trafficked
predominantly for sexual exploitation, while foreign-born individuals are trafficked for
forced labor and begging
CONTROLING VICTIMS
In order to control their victims, traffickers used a wide range of methods, including
direct threat (75.4%), physical force (52%), and restriction of freedom of movement
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3!The information provided by the Ministry of Interior does not define slavery.!

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(51.3%). In most cases, more than one way of oppression was utilized. Indirect threat was
used in 36 percent of cases, seizure of documents in 27 percent, and coercion and/or
kidnapping in 21 percent. In about 14 percent of cases, traffickers prevented their victims
from accessing medical care, and in additional 14 percent deprived them of access to food.
Although debt bondage is thought to be the most prevailing characteristic of human
trafficking only eighth victims reported debt bondage as a method of exploitation and
control by the traffickers.
RESCUE
The majority (96%) of the surveyed KCIK beneficiaries were no longer in the trafficking
situation at the time when they signed up for assistance. More than half of the survivors
escaped from the traffickers on their own. In 40 percent of the cases, victims were rescued
by law enforcement. A small percentage—nine percent—of the surveyed survivors were
released from the exploitative situation by the traffickers.
AFTER RESCUE
The majority of the beneficiaries were referred to KCIK assistance programs by Polish
law enforcement, mainly the police (45%) and Border Guards (23%). Nearly 13 percent of
the victims went to the Centre on its own initiative. In the remaining cases, family
members, consulate personnel, or NGO staff referred the victims to available assistance
programs.
For foreign-born victims of trafficking access to immigration relief is usually one of the
most pressing needs. This is true anywhere in the world. The majority (95%) of the 145
foreign-born survivors assisted by KCIK resided in Poland legally; 65 percent of the
survivors had EU citizenship, and additional 30 percent held either a residency permit or
a work visa. None of the foreign-born victims entered Poland on a tourist visa.
Persons who were in need of immigration relief after being rescued, were granted
temporary residence permits for victims of human trafficking under the Aliens Act.
Fourteen individuals were granted residency permits under this provision. Additionally,
four foreign-born victims applied for international protection that would allow them to
remain in Poland. In one case, residency permit could not be issued because of lack of
identification documents. However, at the time of our research the victim continued to
be assisted by KCIK and measures to regulate their situation continued to be sought. It is

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worth mentioning that survivors with temporary work or residency permits are often
able extend them. Unfortunately, the regulations are not very clear how many times and
for how long such permits can be extended.
In addition to legal aid, KCIK also provides other types of assistance, including job
placement, psycho-social services. Of the 237 survivors, 231 individuals took advantage
of the available support; the remaining six survivors declined offered assistance.
Half of the respondents participated in a special program aimed at protecting foreign-
born victims of human trafficking willing to collaborate with law enforcement and the
courts in prosecuting their traffickers. In recent years, the majority of foreign-born victims
have participated in the program (80-84%). According to the law of March 12, 2004
pertaining to social assistance, victims of human trafficking are entitled to social benefits.
In 2013, 20 victims (12 foreign-born and eight Poles) received social benefits. In 2012, only
two victims benefited from such assistance. Table 3 below presents the type of assistance
victims—both foreign-born and Polish citizens—received from KCIK and its affiliates.
TABLE 3: TYPE OF ASSISTANCE
Type of assistance (N=237)
2012
2013
Total
Temporary housing
62
18
80
Long-term housing
26
44
70
Emergency medical assistance
28
43
71
Long-term medical assistance
14
10
24
Psychological support
37
87
124
Therapy
12
19
31
Education
2
4
6
Vocational training
0
1
1
Employment
8
6
14

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Family mediation
4
5
9
Financial assistance
23
4
27
Clothing, food
85
76
161
Transportation
53
65
118
Legal consultation
43
54
97
Specialized legal aid
5
13
18
Interpretation
28
58
86
Assistance with return to home
country
9
24
33
Assistance with legal documents
7
13
20
No assistance
6
0
6
COOPERATION WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT
Hundred and two of the surveyed survivors indicated that they decided to actively
participate in the criminal proceedings against their traffickers. Nineteen individuals
indicated that they refused to testify in the court of law. Given that only 50 percent of the
surveyed survivors provided answers to questions regarding cooperation with law
enforcement, it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding willingness to collaborate with
law enforcement or possible reasons for declining to provide testimonies. According to
the 2016 TIP Report, some foreign-born victims did not participate in the protection
program because it did not provide for the right to work.
IN SUMMARY
While the data elicited through the periodic surveys conducted by the Ministry of Interior
provides a rather detailed portrait of survivors of human trafficking in Poland, it does
not shed any light on the scale of the trafficking phenomenon in the country. The

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government lacks a central mechanism to cross-reference and consolidate trafficking-
related statistics, hindering officials’ ability to assess the scope of trafficking in Poland.
Both the survey data and administrative data collected by different assistance programs
include information on survivors receiving support in any given calendar year. However,
according to interviews conducted in the course of this research, many survivors are
being assisted by the same programs for several years. The collected data does not
differentiate between new program beneficiaries and those that entered a particular
program in previous years. The Polish law is also not clear on the length of time victims
are eligible for services. Lack of this kind of data makes any sort of analysis on the efficacy
of assistance provided to returned victims very difficult.

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PREVENTION, PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE
TO TRAFFICKED VICTIMS
In most countries anti-trafficking initiatives are organized around the 4 Ps: prevention,
protection, prosecution, and partnerships. This framework does not include a specific
focus on re-integration of survivors of human trafficking into the larger society, be it in
their country of origin or in the destination country. Poland is no exception.
According to the 2016 TIP Report, the Polish government demonstrated progress in
prevention of human trafficking. In 2015, the government allocated 135,000 zloty
($34,500) for the implementation of the 2013-2015 national action plan for combating
trafficking. The government drafted and began the implementation of the 2016-2018
action plan. It is difficult to say what will happen to this plan as the new government in
Poland has replaced many of the staff members of the inter-ministerial anti-trafficking
team who used to work quite productively with a working-level group of experts. These
teams met regularly to coordinate efforts and develop national anti-trafficking policies.
The government sponsored information campaigns, several of which targeted
schoolchildren, migrant workers in Poland, and Poles seeking work abroad. The labor
inspectorate continued to inspect job recruitment agencies for fraud, which resulted in
the removal of several agencies from its official register. The government also provided
anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel.
The 2016 TIP Report includes criticism of the Polish government for not providing
specialized care for child victims of trafficking or establishing a standard protocol to
determine whether unaccompanied minors may be victims of trafficking. The report was
much more impressed with what the government is doing in terms of protecting adult
victims of trafficking.
In 2015, the Polish government allocated 1.1 million zloty ($280,800) to two NGOs that
run the National Intervention-Consultation Center for Victims of Trafficking (KCIK); this
marked an increase from 1 million zloty ($255,300) in 2014. Stakeholders interviewed in
the course of this study indicated that the same amount of 1.1 million has been allocated
in 2016.

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20!
As indicated above, KCIK offered victims medical and psychological care, legal
counseling, shelter referrals, and welfare support. KCIK also ran two shelters for adult
female victims and was responsible for finding safe shelter for male victims. Local
governments also funded and operated crisis intervention centers; 18 were designated
specifically for trafficking victims in 2015, compared with 23 in 2014. Virtually all of these
services constitute emergency assistance. No resources have been allocated for longer-
term reintegration programs.
The government’s witness protection program provided foreign victims with a
temporary residence permit, medical and psychological care, and shelter for those who
cooperated with prosecution. The government enrolled 38 trafficking victims in this
program in 2015, compared with 62 in 2014. Foreign victims were entitled to a three-
month reflection period, during which they could stay legally in Poland to decide
whether to assist in the criminal process; 33 victims availed themselves of this reflection
period in 2015.
In 2015, 27 foreign victims who joined the witness protection program agreed to
participate in the prosecution of their traffickers, compared with 52 in 2014. Although
victims could file civil suits against traffickers and judges could order compensation for
victims in criminal cases, observers reported very few trafficking victims have ever
received compensation from their traffickers. Six trafficking victims were convicted for
illegally crossing the Polish border in 2014, but in 2015, the Supreme Court returned the
case to the lower court for reconsideration.
In the next section of this report we present findings from field research in Poland,
including interviews with Polish and foreign-born survivors of human trafficking and
program directors and staff members of several NGOs working with returned victims

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21!
INSIDERS’ POINT OF VIEW:
INTERVIEWS WITH SURVIVORS OF TRAFFICKING
Nineteen interviews with survivors of human trafficking have been conducted in 2015 by
the Georgetown research team. Ten of these interviews were with Poles who have
returned to Poland and nine with foreign-born individuals who were trafficked to
Poland. We included the latter group to ascertain the availability of services for victims
trafficked to Poland who want to return to their country of origin and to understand their
decision-making processes related to return.
The agencies assisting these women and men referred to them as ‘trafficked victims.’
However, given the narratives we were able to elicit, in some instances it might have been
more appropriate to call them ‘exploited workers.’ With few exceptions, the women that
were classified as victims of sexual exploitation entered the sex industry voluntarily and
the main complaints they launched related to levels of compensation and freedom in
choosing clients. These seem important distinctions to make, especially in the context of
the scale of human trafficking in Poland.
POLISH SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The ten Poles interviewed in the course of this research included five women and five
men.
WOMEN. The women, ranging in age from 22 to 40 at the time of trafficking, were
mainly trafficked for sexual exploitation (4). Most entered the sex industry voluntarily,
but in the end felt exploited and defrauded. They imagined they would receive better
monetary compensation and have a lot more freedom in choosing clients, and would be
less dependent on and controlled by the clubs’ owners.
Sister Imelda describe Alina4 as a young woman ‘sold into prostitution by her own
mother.’ In an interview Alina admitted that at first she did not mind being a sex worker.
Alina worked first in the streets of Warsaw, but later was hired by an escort agency. She
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4!All names used in this report are pseudonyms.

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22!
got pregnant by one of her clients and had a baby daughter. At that point Alina wanted
to leave the agency, but she worried that if she returned to her maternal home, her mother
would “put her back in the street.” With no savings and no other housing prospects,
Alina stayed with the agency for another five years. He daughter, Ewa, grew up in the
escort agency and the agency staff helped taking care of Ewa when Alina was working.
It is unclear how good the care Ewa received was. The nuns who were helping Alina
when she finally left the escort agency indicated that Ewa was showing signs of being
sexually abused. The nuns were not trained psychologists and made these assertions
based mainly on Ewa’s propensity to take off her clothes when it wasn’t warranted.
Celina and Barbara were trafficked to Germany and Italy, respectively. Both women left
Poland to work in the sex industry. Celina, a divorced mother of two children, ages seven
and four, was 24 when she travelled to Germany. She left her children in the care of her
former husband. Barbara grew up in orphanages. At the time of making a decision to
work as a sex worker she was 22 years old. Although both women made a choice to
engage in sex work abroad, when they arrived at their work places, the conditions they
encountered were not what they imagined.
Celina ended up working in a nightclub where she was abused physically,
psychologically, and sexually. After the German police raided the club, Celina was
referred to an anti-trafficking program and returned to Poland. Barbara provided sexual
services both in apartment buildings (“w mieszkaniówkach”) and in nightclubs. Fairly
soon after her foray into the sex industry, Barbara got addicted to drugs, especially to
amphetamines. Under the influence of the drugs, she made two suicide attempts. The
first time she jumped from a window and broke her foot; the second time she threw
herself under a moving car. The carabinieri (Italian police) referred Barbara to an anti-
trafficking organization, which in turn made arrangements with PO-MOC (HELP), a
Polish assistance program for victims of trafficking, to have Barbara returned to Poland.
Ola, a 25-year-old from Łódź, signed up for an EU training course to prepare her to be a
masseuse in Germany. When she arrived, it turned out that “the course” was an escort
agency ran by three women and two men. She believes she was given some sort of drugs
in the drinks she was served. After a week, Ola took advantage of the traffickers’
momentary inattention and escaped.
Izabela, a 27-year-old woman from a small village, was promised a job on a farm in Great
Britain but ended up in forced labor in a plant sorting recyclables. She believes her
employer had no idea that she was forced to work for him. Unfortunately, Izabella does
not speak any English and was not able to explain to him what was happening. After five

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23!
months, she escaped with a fellow Pole and together they reported at a police station.
Izabella was referred first to the Salvation Army, then to Migrant Point, and finally to
BCHA, a program that works with the homeless and victims of trafficking.5 Upon return
to Poland, the La Strada Foundation assisted Izabella.
MEN. All of the men, ranging in age from 18 to 45 at the time of trafficking, were
trafficked for labor exploitation. Only one of the men was trafficked for both labor and
sexual exploitation. All of the interviewed men were trafficked to Great Britain. Florian
and Stefan are victims of a new form of exploitation. None of them spoke good English
therefore the brokers who facilitated their employment in Liverpool and Dover,
respectively, offered to help the men open bank accounts. Being privy to the banking
information, including passwords and PIN numbers, the brokers kept on withdrawing
the money from Florian’s and Stefan’s accounts as soon as their employers deposited
their salaries. Service providers in Poland told us about several similar stories.
The jobs that Mariusz and Jerzy were promised never materialized. Jerzy was taken to
many offices where he was asked to sign papers he did not understand since he doesn’t
speak English. His social worker speculated that the traffickers enrolled Jerzy in some
sort of assistance programs to collect his financial benefits. Alex was forced to work in a
recycling plant although he was recruited to work in a manufacture producing wooded
fences. Florian worked for a building company and liked his job, however, the salary
which his employer deposited in his bank account kept mysteriously disappearing.
Florian didn’t speak any English and could not as his bank manager what happened with
his paycheck. He also did not know of any programs helping migrant workers. The only
people Florian could communicate with was the Polish family who brought him to
Liverpool.
The length of time the men were in the trafficking situation ranged from one week to two
years.
FOREIGN-BORN SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The nine foreign-born trafficked individuals included eight women and one man. The
women hailed from Ukraine (3), Romania (1), Philippines (2), Vietnam (1), and Uganda
(1). The only man in this cohort was born in Vietnam.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5!More information about BCHA, a subcontractor of the Salvation Army, can be found here
http://www.bcha.org.uk/our-services/support-to-stay-safe/human-trafficking/

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24!
WOMEN. The women ranged in age from 15 to 41 years of age at the time of trafficking.
All were trafficked for forced labor. Some experienced sexual exploitation or harassment
in addition to labor exploitation.
Larisa, a Roma woman from Ukraine, lived in Poland legally for 17 years prior to being
exploited by a fellow Roma. Larisa lived in a Roma encampment with her family and
begged in the streets to support herself and her children. One day a Roma man spotted
Larisa in the city center and started extorting money from her. Larisa wanted to strike a
deal and offered him half of her earnings, but he demanded more and in order to control
her started to physically and sexually abuse her and her children. She was under the
man’s control for two, perhaps three years, she told us.
The other two Ukrainian women, Olga and Natasza answered an employment agency
add to work as a housekeeper and a short-order cook, respectively. Both ended up
working in restaurants for a fraction of what they were promised. In fact, both were not
paid at all for the first few weeks or months.
Florica is a Roma from Romania. She and her family travelled to Poland several times,
always to beg in the streets or in railroad stations. During one of her trips to Poland
Florica developed a romantic relationship with a Polish young man. Florica’s father, who
promised her in marriage to her cousin, did not like the budding romance with a gadje (a
non-Roma). The family lured her away from her boyfriend’s house saying that her
mother was gravely ill. The family took her to a different town, tied her up, beat her, and
eventually took her to Romania. When she returned to Poland, the cousin whom she was
to marry raped her and beat her up. Florica called her Polish boyfriend, Janusz, who came
and rescued her from her cousin’s house.
Sylvia, a woman from Uganda, was 30 years old when a distant uncle sold her to two
men who brought her to Europe. Sylvia had no idea what her destination was supposed
to be; she shared with us that the men gave her something to drink that made her very
sleepy and disoriented. While being transported from an airport by car, Sylvia somehow
escaped and after hours of walking on foot reached a police station in one of the towns
in South-East Poland.
Marla, age 37 at the time of trafficking, and Carmen, age 41, are from the Philippines.
Both came to Europe to make money to support their families. Marla has five children
whom she had hard time feeding on what she was making in the Philippines. Both ended
up in forced labor situations.

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25!
Xuan was the youngest of the interviewed women. She just turned 15 years of age when
she was trafficked to work in a sewing plant in Moscow. After a few months another
group of traffickers tried to take her from Russia to Germany. She was found hiding in a
spare wheel of a tractor-trailer on the Polish-Byelorussian border and referred to the La
Strada Foundation.
MEN. Duong, a Vietnamese man, was 26 when he was trafficked to Moscow and forced
to work in a sewing plant. He paid the broker who arranged his employment an
equivalent of $2,000. He was not allowed to leave the sewing plant and never received
any wages for his work.
THE TRAFICKERS
The traffickers who exploited the survivors of human trafficking interviewed in the
course of this study—both Polish and foreign-born--were not members of large organized
criminal networks as is typically imagined. Rather, they included opportunists who saw
vulnerable people that could be easily taken advantage of or legitimate recruiting firms
the survivors contacted to secure employment contracts abroad. In few instances the
traffickers included family members (mother and a stepfather), but in other instances the
traffickers were strangers. Florica and Larissa, the two Roma women, lived or travelled
to Poland multiple times and ended up being exploited by members of their own
communities. Sylvia, from Uganda, was trafficked by her foster father and his son who
exploited her sexually and forced her to be their domestic servant before they sold her
and two strange men to another trafficker.
In some instances, employers were not involved in trafficking victims across international
borders but collaborated or colluded with the traffickers or simply pretended they did
not know what was going on. The owner of the restaurant where Olga worked belongs
to the latter category. The recruiter who placed Olga in the restaurant did not pay her for
the first few weeks saying that workers are not paid during probationary periods. Later
on he paid approximately 50 percent of what the contract stipulated. In the end, he did
not register Olga with the appropriate authorities—despite assuring her that he took care
of all the paperwork--and she was working in Poland illegally. He threatened that he
would report Olga to the border patrol. Fearing deportation, Olga worked long hours—
12 to 14 hours seven days a week--which led to physical exhaustion and repeated fainting
spells. The employer knew what was going on but chose to ignore the situation.

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26!
Izabela thought that her British employer in the recycling plant had nothing to do with
her traffickers. “He simply didn’t know,” Izabela said. “I don’t speak English so I couldn’t
tell him,” she added. In the interview Izabela focused mainly on her recruiter, Piotr, and
the network of kin he had in England. Once she arrived in the U.K., Piotr’s brother, Antek,
picked her up at the bus station and took her to his father’s home where Izabela was to
live. When Antek was not around, his wife “controlled” Izabela.
ASSISTANCE RECEIVED BY POLISH VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING
Alina received a wide range of assistance from one of the NGOs that is part of KCIK,
including emergency shelter, food, healthcare services as well as legal aid. Additionally,
Alina was placed as a volunteer in a hospice where she received vocational training in
elder care. She completed the training successfully, but had to quit her job in the hospice
after injuries she sustained in a bus accident. Alina found another job as kitchen help in
a daycare center for children. Unfortunately, Alina got laid off because of her frequent
absenteeism resulting from a drinking problem. The nuns who ran the assistance
program encouraged Alina to get help with her alcoholism, but Alina refused and
continues to drink.
Currently, Alina and her daughter, Ewa, live in a one-bedroom apartment with Alina’s
partner. The sisters who took care of Alina suspect that the partner is abusive towards
both Alina and Ewa. They suppose that he has been molesting Ewa, but they are reluctant
to report the alleged abuse since they have not caught him red-handed.
Alina does not keep in touch with her family. The sisters indicated that Alina’s mother
found her and tried to force her to go back to being a sex worker. Alina refused. She wants
to find a job, but has not been looking actively. She should be well prepared to find
employment since she received both vocational training and coaching on how to conduct
a job interview and how to present herself to potential employers. On several occasions,
the sisters provided Alina with concrete job leads, but at the time of this research Alina
was still unemployed.
Without exception, all the interviewed women received medical assistance, including
psychological counseling.
Izabela and Florian received assistance in the United Kingdom before returning to
Poland. When Izabela escaped the trafficking situation, she reported at the local police
station in London and was referred first to the Salvation Army and then to the Migrant
Help, and finally to BCHA, a sub-contractor of the Salvation Army. Altogether, Izabela

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27!
stayed with various programs for a little over two months. She received shelter, food and
pocket money. BCHA organized and paid for her trip back to Poland.
The local police in Liverpool referred Florian to the Salvation Army and later on to City
Hearts, a shelter for victims of human trafficking. They offered about 45 days of
assistance, including English classes, employment services, health care and psychological
counseling.
Upon return, Izabela was assisted by the La Strada Foundation, which helped her find a
job and provided money for local transportation. While she stays in touch with her
mother who cares for Izabela’s two children, she cannot count on much help from her
Mom or any other family members as they too struggle to make ends meet.
Florian also received help from the La Strada Foundation as well as Stowarzyszenie
Otwarte Drzwi (Open Door Society). Florian lives in a temporary shelter and is working
towards independent living. He has answered several job advertisements and is hoping
that he will be gainfully employed soon.
Although the interviewed victims come from different parts of Poland, most ended up
living in Warsaw or in Katowice when they returned to the country. They feel stigmatized
by the trafficking experiences and do not want to renew contacts with their families. In
some cases, they are afraid to go back because their family members colluded with the
traffickers. Additionally, the main assistance programs are located in but a few large cities
and that is where the survivors want to be in case they need additional help.
ASSITANCE RECEIVED BY FOREIGN-BORN VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING
Several of the foreign-born survivors trafficked to Poland or rescued in Poland en route
elsewhere want to remain in the country. They are happy with the assistance they receive
and are making long-term plans to work and live in Poland. The ability to stay and receive
assistance is tied to getting an official status of victim of human trafficking.
The Polish government (border patrol or police) deemed Natasza, Olga, Carmen, and
Marla to be victims of human trafficking. With this status they were able to receive three-
year residency permits. It seems that if they continue to be gainfully employed they might
be able to extend the permit for another couple of years. It is, however, unclear whether
they will be able to stay in Poland indefinitely. With the victim status, the women were
able to avail themselves of a wide range of assistance, including temporary shelter or
subsidized housing, legal aid, social services, counseling, and emergency health care.

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28!
Sylvia on the other hand has been waiting to legalize her stay in Poland for over three
years. At first, she participated in a program assisting victims of human trafficking where
she obtained room and board as well as legal aid. However, after approximately nine
months she left the program and with an aid of a female acquaintance received a one-
year residency permit. When the permit expired, Sylvia found herself in a detention
center for foreign nationals in Kętrzyń. When she was released from detention, Sylvia
sought assistance from the La Strada Foundation. Upon discovering that she was
pregnant, she secured placement in a center for single mothers. However, when her son
was born, Sylvia moved to a private apartment and managed to place her baby in a
daycare center.
With the help of a pro bono attorney from the Halina Nieć Legal Aid in Cracow, Sylvia
also applied for a refugee status. It is unclear from her narrative on what basis she is
seeking refugee status. Her social worker indicated that the application “might be
considered on humanitarian grounds.” Every six months or so the government informs
Sylvia that the refugee status determination process has been prolonged and a final
decision has not been reached. If Sylvia receives refuge status and the so-called ‘tolerated
residence permit,’ she will be able to apply for a temporary residence permit and
eventually for permanent residency. Since her application for refugee status is pending,
Sylvia receives financial assistance for herself and her son. She supplements this income
by cleaning private homes. She seems to be well integrated into the local community,
especially the religious congregation where she worships.
Xuan, who was a minor at the time of trafficking, was placed in foster care and enrolled
in school. Similarly to Natasza, Olga, Carmen, and Marla, Xuan obtained a three-year
residency permit. Since her mother’s death Xuan has no contact with any relatives or
friends in Vietnam. In fact, she is afraid to return to Vietnam, because she owns money
her mother borrowed to smuggle Xuan to Europe. Xuan also receives mental health
counseling as the circumstances she found herself in have impacted her well-being.
Because of her collaboration with the police, Larisa’s Roma community rejected her. She
stays in touch with her immediate family, but only by phone. Occasionally, the family
sends her care packages with food, clothing, and beauty products. Currently, Larisa, her
husband, and their children live in subsidized housing, but they also spent some time in
temporary shelters. Larisa is content with the assistance she is receiving and hopes that
the family stays healthy and happy.
Florica, another Roma woman, who hails from Romania, has a right to live in Poland
since she has a European Union passport. Florica also severed contacts with her Roma

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29!
family and community. She lives with her Polish partner and their two children. She is
very grateful to the La Strada Foundation for assisting her with securing birth certificates
and Polish citizenship for her children. Florica would like to be reunited with her 10-year
old daughter from a previous marriage who lives with Florica’s parents. Florica is
illiterate and would love to learn to read and write in Polish in order to get a good job.
She wants to send her children to school so they would have a better future.
Duong, the only man among the foreign-born survivors of trafficking, has a residency
permit to live in Warsaw and does not plan to return to Vietnam. He has family in Poland
and is currently living with one of his cousins. He indicated that if he ever wanted to go
elsewhere—perhaps to Germany—he would first want to sign a contract with a potential
employer and have the contract looked over by an attorney.
PROSPECTS FOR SUCCESSFUL REINTEGRATION
While survivors of human trafficking--both Polish citizens who returned to Poland and
foreign-born victims who reside in Poland before returning to their countries of origin—
receive considerable assistance, most of the support takes a form of emergency assistance.
There is virtually no assistance aimed at long-term re/integration into the larger society
and attainment of sustainable economic and social self-sufficiency.
This was not always the case. Shortly after Poland’s accession to the European Union, the
La Strada Foundation took advantage of the availability of financial resources offered by
the European Social Fund and designed a three-year program called Intervention-
Reintegration-Initiative-Self-Reliance (or IRIS). The main objective of the project was to
create effective mechanisms of social and professional reintegration of victims of
trafficking, with emphasis on job placement and livelihoods. The program was quite
comprehensive and included advice helpline, crisis intervention services, psychological
counseling, shelter, social services, vocational training, and job placement.
The most innovative feature of the program was collaboration with five public social
service and employment projects whose activities nicely complemented services offered
by the La Strada Foundation :
The Center for the Advancement of Women;
Municipal Employment Office of the Capital City Warsaw;
Social Welfare Center of the Śródmieście Neighborood in Warsaw;
Department of Social Assistance and Integration in the Ministry of Social Policy;
Employment Department of the Ministry of Economy and Labor.

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30!
In addition, the program partnered with two foreign projects:
ü HEADWAY--Improving Social Intervention Systems for Victims of Trafficking, a
transnational program operating in Estonia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and
Portugal; and
ü LIFT, another program transcending international borders and operating in Italy,
Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The idea that spear-headed the reintegration program was a desire to help trafficked
women who returned to Poland to find a suitable job and to remain employed. The La
Strada staff realized that many returned survivors were able to find a job, but had
considerable difficulties with maintaining steady employment. As a result of their
traumatic experiences, even the smallest problems in the workplace or at home resulted
in an almost immediate decision to quit working. With this program, the La Strada staff
aimed at increasing the likelihood of long-term employment among returned victims.
The staff has always believed that long-term employment was the sine qua non of social
and economic independence of their clients.
Most of the beneficiaries of the IRIS program were young women between the ages of 19
and 25, many hailed from dysfunctional families with a history of intergenerational
unemployment and dependence on welfare. The young women also did not have much
schooling (usually basic education). Most came from rural areas. Lack of family support,
high levels of unemployment, and lack of familiarity with the working environment put
them at-risk for poor judgement regarding job offers.
TABLE 4: SERVICES RECEIVED BY IRIS PROGRAM BENEFICIARIES
Target
Men
Women
Total
%
Total number of beneficiaries
95
1
106
107
112.6
Graduated from labor participation training
60
1
37
38
63.3
Continued education (vocational training)
30
0
38
38
126.7
Computer training
30
0
7
7
23.3
Language training
20
0
6
6
30
Internship
23
0
18
18
78.3

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As Table 4 shows, more women wanted to avail themselves of the services provided by
the IRIS program than originally planned, but not everybody successfully graduated
from the program. The staff attributed these outcomes to the severity of the trauma the
young women experienced; the majority were trafficked for sexual exploitation. In a few
instances, however, the women left the program for promising job offers.
The program ended in 2009 and neither La Strada nor any other of the Polish NGOs
working with returned survivors managed to secure funding for more long-term
reintegration programs. The services that were on offer in 2015 when we conducted this
study continue to be time-bound, short projects aimed at providing emergency services.
With few exceptions, the survivors do not receive any assistance in the country of
destination before they return to Poland. The International Organization for Migration
(IOM) assists some in returning home mainly by acting as a travel agent and paying for
their transportation costs. Upon return to Poland, few survivors seek assistance from
IOM; the majority turn to the La Strada Foundation.
Most program managers and social workers interviewed in the course of this study were
somewhat pessimistic about the survivors’ ability for successful economic and social
reintegration into the wider Polish society. This pessimism was especially pronounced
when they spoke about female survivors trafficked for sexual exploitation.
For example, the nuns who worked with victims of sex trafficking indicated that the
women have not been well reintegrated because they stay with partners who in the
sisters’ opinion negatively influence the women. As suggested above, Alina’s partner is
abusive towards her and her daughter and Barbara’s partner is a pimp.
Another social worker remarked that the women she worked with had difficulty
maintaining mainstream employment, because they set up websites where they
advertised sexual services and treated casual work in the sex industry as supplemental
income. One of the women who graduated from a shelter and lived alone in a flat, came
to the shelter to recruit the residents to be call girls.
The shelter staff tries very hard to create a "real home" for the survivors. "We teach them
everyday chores, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning their rooms and the common spaces.
We also organize birthday parties and holiday celebrations,” said one of the shelter
workers. “We respect the culture and customs of the foreign-born residents,” explained
another social worker.

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32!
Shelter staff refer many survivors for psychological counselling and anger management
training. Aggressive behavior seems to be one of the major problems faced by women,
especially aggression towards their own children. Addiction to alcohol seemed to have
been the major stumbling block for some of the survivors to resume productive lives.
The interviewed survivors did not always agree with the assessment of the social workers
regarding their ability to re-integrate. They pointed out that they live independently, that
they have learned to be more cautious and scrutinize job offers closely, that they have no
intention to migrate, and that they understand they need to work hard to make a living.
There was, however, consensus among social workers and survivors that reintegration
process is complex and will take time, especially for those survivors who endured longer
periods of time in the hands of traffickers and have been severely traumatized by their
experiences.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
The beneficiaries of the anti-trafficking assistance programs seem to be helping both
survivors of trafficking for sexual and other labor exploitation as well as exploited
workers who may not meet the muster of the definition of human trafficking, especially
severe forms of human trafficking, or identify as trafficked victims. In many of the
analyzed cases there was neither force nor coercion, and only sometimes deception. In
some cases, the victims’ understanding of what particular type of work—especially in the
sex industry, but not exclusively—entails were not commensurate with the reality of the
particular employment situation they voluntarily signed up for. In some instances, the
survivors did not know what the prevailing wage in, fore example the construction
industry, in a foreign country was and felt wronged if they did not receive what they
thought of as adequate compensation. In most instances, however, there was a great deal
of deception.
Additionally, as noted throughout the report, with the exception of the IRIS project, most
of the assistance takes a form of emergency relief. Also, the NGOs providing assistance
rely mainly on government funding or charitable contributions from congregations and
friends.
Given this situation, we recommend the following:
Create training and information programs about safe migration. The concept of
safe migration is often used in the context of labor migrants from the global South
migrating in search of employment to the global North. However, it seems that in
the context of Poland—especially when migrants with no knowledge of the
language of destination country seek work in the European Union—there is a need
to establish training programs and information clearing houses focusing on labor
laws, workers’ rights, banking systems in destination countries to prepare Polish
labor migrants well for the realities of the labor markets abroad. This will go a long
way towards prevention of forced labor and human trafficking.
Work with people who have experienced long history of unemployment to
equip them with understanding the intricacies of the hiring process. Many of
the returned victims never worked prior to embarking on cross-border or internal
migration to follow a job offer. In many instances, the victims did not understand
how contracts work, what questions to ask, how to ensure they were offered
compensation commensurate with the prevailing or living wage. This problem

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34!
was especially severe if the victims sought employment abroad and were not able
to communicate with the employer directly.
Focus on re-integration. While emergency assistance is necessary when victims
need to be provided with shelter and safety as well as basic necessities, programs
need to look beyond the immediate needs of the victims. They need to secure
appropriate funding for longer-term programs and follow-up to ensure that the
returned victims have an on-going support to re-establish their lives.
The NGO-based assistance programs need to establish and/or strengthen their
relationship with public employment and welfare programs. With very few
exceptions, the anti-trafficking NGOs do not collaborate with municipal or local
employment and welfare bureaus. Returned victims who are Polish citizens are
eligible for all forms of public assistance and hopefully could access these benefits,
especially vocational training, job placement, and other programs aimed at
ensuring attainment of long-term economic self-sufficiency.
Strengthen the capacity of local NGOs to tap into EU resources. Most of the
Polish NGOs rely solely on funding coming from the Polish Government. This was
not always the case. When the leading NGOs had staff fluent in English, they were
able to network with foreign donors and apply, successfully, for grants from
foreign foundation, the European Commission, and other sources.
As in other countries studied in this research project, data on human trafficking,
including returned survivors of human trafficking is not available for independent
analysis.
The Counter-Trafficking Database developed by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) and funded by the US Department of State
must be made available for independent analysis. IOM received numerous
grants from the US government to develop the database starting in early 2000s.
This database must be made available—after ensuring confidentiality—to
independent researchers to carry out additional analyses. At the time of this
research, the database was still unavailable for independent assessment. Even the
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was not granted access to the
database.
Individual programs need to collect systematic data. Administrative data is
valuable both to programs and researchers to assess the scale of trafficking, the
number of returned survivors, to identify trends, and to evaluate outcomes and
impacts. While the Polish NGOs are mandated to provide the Ministry of Interior
with statistical information on the survivors they serve, the programs focus mainly
on outputs—the number of trainings held, number of beneficiaries, etc.—but do
not collect information—quantitative and qualitative—that could be used to

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35!
forecast future trends in trafficking, compare outcomes, and evaluate impacts. It
would be beneficial if NGOs collaborated with researchers to think through what
kind of data ought to be collected, how to collect it, and how to store and manage
the collected data.

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