I was trafficked, passed on and on again, for 13 years
– Jane, a trafficking survivor
Jane, a survivor of sex trafficking, managed to break free from her abusers and is being helped by Dundee and Angus-based Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre.
She said: “I was trafficked for 13 years from the age of 13 up until the age of 26 by criminal gangs operating in the south of England. Prior to this, I suffered organised abuse perpetrated by associates of my immediate family as well as sexual and domestic abuse at home as a child.
“When I was 27,
I fled the last man who trafficked me directly for a gang, which caused me to become homeless and in need of safe housing. I could not get a refuge space as I was single, without a child. Refuges had to prioritise women with children due a chronic lack of space.
“I moved from location to location within temporary accommodation often full of men with no other women, infested with rats, cockroaches, bedbugs and mice.
“I again became a target of my trafficker, who subjected me to domestic abuse and physical assaults, after I was placed in accommodation near him. I became pregnant from my trafficker which prompted me to flee again, this time further away. I came to Scotland for the immediate safety of myself and my child, so that we could start a new life.
“I found the practical support in Scotland to be very good and it enabled me to obtain some sense of autonomy and freedom. My advocate has been amazing. She listens with empathy.
“I am now on the path of starting a co-operative with another survivor for a safeguarding consultancy around commercial sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation.”