What Happened Next?
The difference Caritas Bakhita House made to the lives of their former guests
Executive Summary
Caritas Bakhita House (CBH) has provided a safe house and ongoing support service for women escaping human trafficking since 2015. We witness many positive changes in our guests in the time they stay with us and through this impact report, we decided to find out what happened next for women who are rebuilding their lives after slavery. The research interviewed 16 former guests about their recovery and gathered responses from all guests, where possible, from 2015-2022. Interviewees were encouraged to identify and expand on the subjects that mattered most to them. The report indicates the value of our holistic, therapeutic and trauma-informed approach and its enduring impact on women’s lives. We hope it provides learning and inspiration for friends, supporters and colleagues united in the mission to eliminate the scourge of modern slavery.
Overall, many former guests continue their journey to recovery and live independently with a sense of control over their lives, despite personal and societal barriers. The overall situation of those interviewed can be described as follows:
Most former guests have used the education and skills, gained while in CBH in their professional lives. Additionally, they may have access to financial resources from paid work, benefits, and partners. Their physical health is, in general, good and it seemed that urgent health problems had been addressed whilst in CBH through the NHS.
Some former guests can combat effects of ongoing trauma through strategies learned during their time at CBH, including how to access NHS support. However, while most former guests interviewed have children, families and friendships, isolation remains a prevalent issue.
Short-term support is an integral aspect of CBH work. Forty one per cent of all guests (71 out of 173) received intensive support to meet urgent needs, to be secure, and to move on to a safer place within a few days or weeks. Many in this group return to their home country, highlighting the importance of short-term accommodation. Women return because they were not trafficked by people from their own country, so they are not at risk. They wish to be reunited with family and find work locally where language is not an issue, although they are granted lower salaries.
Those interviewed are still in safe accommodation even though there may have been many moves, reflecting the CBH practice of finding safe housing for all guests before they leave. This policy may lead to more long-term accommodation, and the results demonstrate the tangible benefits that it brings. No woman is moved on from CBH unless it is safe to do so. Former guests tend to move into asylum accommodation which can lead to more permanent housing if they are granted leave to remain.
CBH has enabled access to legal counsel for non-UK nationals to allow them to stay in the country. All guests who remained in the UK had also been supported to obtain the legal right to stay, even if temporarily.
All guests are supported to engage with the Police when they decide to report the crimes perpetrated against them. The accompaniment for CBH is vital for women as the criminal justice process can be lengthy and distressing. Reporting helps Police to collect intelligence and, in some cases, evidence for prosecuting human traffickers in court. CBH has contributed to securing prison sentences for multiple people who traffic and exploit women.
Former guests demonstrate their resilience in navigating structural and societal difficulties, including the length of time and costs of securing more permanent migration status in the UK, finding accommodation in the context of a national shortage, surviving on a low income, accessing scarce childcare, and surmounting the obstacles to education.
Despite successes in overcoming structural barriers, former guests still emphasised feelings of low self-esteem, isolation, difficulties with trust in relationships, and relations with their families. They talked at length about loneliness and their lack of social and intimate connections.
Caritas Bakhita House has primarily found success in their flexibility in length of stay, employing an ‘open-door’ policy after leaving, and support through intentional community building efforts. Additionally, good relationships with local police, dedicated volunteers, and multiple forms of therapy provide sustained favourable outcomes for former guests. Because of this safe environment, they felt they had been enabled to make their own choices which proved to be vital for their recovery.
“They give directions, but you can choose what you want to do and where you want to be… that is the most important thing for me.”
Introduction
What is Caritas Bakhita House?
Caritas Bakhita House (CBH) is a safehouse for women victims of modern-day slavery. It opened on 30 June 2015 and accommodates a maximum of twelve guests at any one time. Guests stay for the length of time needed to recover and live independently. It is funded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster and receives grants leveraged by the diocese from Corporates, Trusts and Foundations, and high net worth individual donors, as well as collections in local parishes and schools. The project was a result of the priority given by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church to the problem of modern-day slavery.
As a Caritas Westminster service, it receives functional support from its IT, Fundraising and Human Resource departments, and the Service Manager reports to the Caritas Westminster Director. CBH differs from other safehouses funded under the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC) in that it is independent of government funding. Criteria for accessing support is to be a victim (or suspected victim) of modern slavery and unable to access other sources of funding. Guests who fit these criteria come mainly from overseas. It is not part of the government funded programme of support known as the NRM.
“The fact that I am alive is thanks to them…..they showed me love and support …..something incredible to me from my background ….I was so stressed….they helped me on every step of my journey.”
Caritas Bakhita House’s Approach to Guest Recovery
Two managers - House and Service
– have invested their considerable skills and experience in developing a model of practice that responds to the needs of individual guests. They work with a team consisting of Support Workers (SW), night staff, and volunteers. The purpose is to help guests start their journey of recovery from modern slavery . At the heart of the CBH approach is a desire to rebuild, or return to, a sense of self that will enable the guest to move on with their lives. This purpose is informed by the empowering and practical priorities of Catholic Social Teaching.
An organisational source of support and point of contact is found for guests who return to their own country. Requests for outreach support usually stop after about eighteen months, but the timeframe is flexible. Ex-guests who were interviewed confirmed that they feel the ‘doors are still open’ because they can visit, and they receive invitations to parties, zoom calls, and informal phone calls, especially on birthdays.
Support may be of a short-term emergency nature, or through a longer-term programme of three months to a year or more. When guests leave, they are provided with six months of outreach support (for example, on urgent issues such as loss of allowances, housing, pregnancy, and personal insecurity) as well as ongoing offer of support.
The programme covers the core MSVCC areas of legal assistance, a safe place to stay, basic essentials, transport to appointments, and health care. Beyond these MSVCC areas, it also extends support to and from the police, different lengths of stay depending on guest need, ongoing support after leaving, therapy, building community, fostering relationships outside the house, employability training, and a strong relational approach by Volunteers and Support Team.
Charities in London often coordinate and pool resources and as part of its approach, CBH leverages support and makes connections for guests. This is not only with agencies such as the Salvation Army, but also with statutory bodies such as the Metropolitan Police Service and local authorities. A range of professionals are also involved. They include Legal Aid solicitors, the local GP surgery, the local Mental Health Crisis Team, the local midwife for vulnerable women, hospital consultants, sexual health clinic staff, and academics, especially from St Mary’s University, Twickenham. These relationships are nurtured through friendly and regular contact as well as more formal networking events. The Service Manager attends networking events and conferences and participates in coordinating committees. This helps maintain the profile of CBH in attracting partners.
“They are the people who made an impact on me.”
Purpose and Methodology
Research Purpose
It is necessary to understand what happened next for guests after they left CBH and, if or how, the CBH inhouse and outreach programmes contributed to their recovery journey.
There is limited knowledge about what happens to victims as they exit the NRM. The available literature focusses upon the lack of support rather than the effects of different aspects of in house and outreach support - such as that offered by CBH. The outreach component of the MSVCC is relatively new, so few studies have been carried out. Therefore, it is hoped that Caritas Westminster can contribute to ending the wider modern slavery sector by undertaking this research.
In 2018, the St Mary’s University Bakhita Centre for Research on Slavery, Exploitation, and Abuse undertook an evaluation of the CBH in-house programme. It revealed that CBH was effective and that guests felt positive about the support received. After eight years of operation, this present study provides an opportunity to follow up by looking at the difference made for ex-guests three or more years after leaving.
Research Objectives
1. Understanding the current situation of the former guests regarding key areas of their lives: their income, accommodation, access to education, transport, physical and mental health, social and family relationships (including children), outreach support, access to statutory support, involvement in prosecutions, compensation, re-trafficking, sex work, and immigration status in UK.
2. Understanding the contribution to the recovery journey that could be reasonably linked to the CBH approach and programme, includes the outreach support received after leaving. This includes both direct support and indirect support by linked partners.
3. Understanding some of the external shocks experienced by former guests since leaving, how they negotiated the difficulties encountered, and what support they received. These might be rooted in, for example, uncertain immigration status, the asylum system, tenancy management, benefits, accommodation, money, job loss, retrafficking, violence, family, and health conditions.
Methodology
Commissioned by former Caritas Westminster Director John Coleby to produce this report, Sara Cottingham is an honorary visiting research fellow at the Bakhita Centre on Research in Slavery, Exploitation and Abuse at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.
Since 2017, she has also been a volunteer at CBH and is currently a locum support worker there. Her firsthand insight into the experiences of the guests living there, along with the support of the staff who helped facilitate her interviews with former guests in a sensitive and appropriate manner, has culminated in a report, rich in its quantitative and qualitative breadth.
Interviews with former guests and an analysis of guests’ information kept on the Salesforce database were the main ways in which relevant data was collected. The interview target pool was the 73 guests who had stayed in CBH between July 2015 and 2019 (i.e., not including the period of Covid lockdown when guests could not move on) for more than three months. These 73 guests were no longer receiving support other than informal contact at the time of the study.
The initial plan had been to interview 30% to 35% of the target pool of 73 guests. In order to select a purposive sample, attempts were made to contact everyone in the target pool. However, difficulties contacting former guests meant that the sample was formed only of the guests who responded. Guests had various reasons not to respond or to refuse to participate. These included limited English, no phone credit, unwillingness to take part in unknown activity such as research, security fears, and in one case, the desire to leave behind painful memories. In many cases, the original contact phone number had changed and there was no email address recorded. Despite the non-purposive way that the sample was formed, there was reasonably representative of the total pool in terms of nationality, age, location, and migration status.
The interviewees consisted of 16 of the 73 (22%) former guests who had stayed in CBH during the period July 2015 to December 2019 for longer than three months. All were living in London except for one in Sheffield and one in Southampton. One guest was in the 66 plus age range and the others were between 30 and 45 –reflecting the age profile of CBH guests.
However, the sample was less representative in that all interviewees spoke basic to advanced English. The sample is thus assumed to be skewed in favour of former guests who had always had the possibility of greater recovery. A practitioner’s view is that those speaking English are likely to have had better education before being trafficked which will lead to more success in learning English afterwards, resulting in more agency and opportunities in the UK.
How were they interviewed?
Those who agreed were interviewed by phone for one, to one and a half hours, with one answering questions by text. Interview questions covered the areas of health, legal issues, relationships, education, work, finances, etc., but interviewees were encouraged to talk as much as they wished about what was important for them. This was done to reflect survivor priorities. Their own words are used wherever possible throughout the report. Information from these sixteen interviews was supplemented and triangulated with data from the CBH database and records of outreach support as well as oral communication with long serving staff.
Increasing the sample size
Due to the small sample size, it was decided to analyse outcomes for all former guests up to 2023, a total of 173, in order to obtain a more comprehensive and reliable understanding of certain aspects of the recovery journey. Additional areas were safe accommodation, any contribution to police prosecutions of traffickers, and physical safety from traffickers. It included results for the 41% of guests who could be considered ‘emergency’ guests who stayed less than three months but received intensive support.
Ethics
The ethical processes mirrored St. Mary’s University Ethics Committee requirements for vulnerable research subjects. This is a result of the close connection between the researcher and St. Mary’s Bakhita Centre for research on slavery, exploitation, and abuse. The principles adopted were:
Providing information about purpose of the research and its use so that guests could give informed consent to participate in interviews. The research was explained in all verbal and written communications (e.g., texts, emails, phone calls).
Sensitivity to vulnerabilities of guests arising from their current circumstances or external shocks. Interviewers stressed that help was still available from CBH support team.
All interviewees to be over 18 years old. There was no upper age limit.
Protecting the personal security of ex and current guests.
Interviewing techniques that avoided re-traumatizing and a plan of action if researcher believes that this had occurred. Following Caritas General Data Protection Rules.
Confidentiality of report within CBH project and Caritas Westminster.
Anonymisation of former guests’ inputs and words. Advanced criminal background check for the researcher interviewing former guests. Avoiding unrealistic expectations or false hopes raised by contact with CBH via this research by interviewer maintaining clear boundaries as a researcher not a Support Worker.
Where Are the Former Guests Now?
This chapter covers nine areas of former guests’ lives that they identified as a priority. They were keen to talk in detail about their migration status, jobs and money, accommodation issues, education, physical and mental health, their families, social life, and friends. The interviewer also probed on issues around selfesteem and confidence in themselves and their future.
An overview of the current situation for former guests in respect of these nine areas is given. This is followed by a description of the CBH approach in this area and how, or if, this has made a difference in the former guests’ situations. Each section ends with case studies of how former guests navigate the difficulties they have encountered which sometimes includes working with CBH and sometimes does not. This is significant because the CBH approach prioritises building individual agency, resilience, and the confidence to solve problems. This agency includes the confidence and knowledge to reach out for help.
“Whatever happened in the past is not going to shape me in the future.”
Overview
The histogram below shows the overall current situation for those interviewed. It gives a mixed picture. The basic essentials of life were in place, and they were not under threat of removal from the UK because of their legal statuses. The sample represented a group of people who were at least surviving in a new country. More advanced educational opportunities than ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and reasonably paid jobs were not easily available. In addition, whilst five former guests were working and supporting themselves, the remaining eleven were depending on an asylum seeker’s allowance, Universal Credit, or support from the father of their child. Finally, it seemed challenging to build a family life despite the fact that the former guests interviewed were mainly women in their childbearing years. Only five of the sixteen former guests had partners and only eight had children living with them in the UK.
Overview of the 16 Former Guests’ Current Situation
Migration Status
All sixteen interviewees were originally from overseas but had the legal right to live in the UK. Two were awaiting an asylum decision that would confirm this right. The asylum waiting times can cause former guests to struggle to continue to put energy into rebuilding their lives and affects their mental health.
CBH would not encourage a guest leave the house who had no legal right to stay in the UK because of the danger that they would become homeless or be re-trafficked. As the guests are from overseas and generally are not British citizens, this is a priority area for both inhouse and outreach support. This support consists of finding a legal aid solicitor for guests. CBH has a network of Legal Aid solicitors and invests time into making sure the relationships work well.
The CBH has a role as a ‘middle person’ helping navigate the complexities and shortcomings of the Home Office asylum system. CBH will phone outsourced Home Office agencies for hours every day.
Support Workers (SWs) also spend time counselling guests who suffer the psychological trauma of such setbacks as cancelled interviews and delays. They prepare them for the process.
“They were the middle people acting on my behalf with the Home Office...I asked for a solicitor when I went to LGBT group…they couldn’t find one…He (the CBH solicitor) was the one that wrote the statement the Home Office needed from me…when I answered at the HO interview they did not write down accurately due to my accent…The solicitor wrote a letter correcting the answers…”
Migration Status and CBH: Case Study
Lily was trafficked to the UK as a teenager. She was raped by her stepbrother’s friends and had all her papers taken away from her. She attended school for three years, but at age eighteen, she found herself with no rights. She spent the next few years making appeals and finding out all the information she could about her family, and in particular, her father’s marriage to her mother in a rural area of her original country. She was poorly served by solicitors who filled out her National Referral Mechanism (NRM9) applications, and the application was rejected. At CBH, the support worker, Thomas, spent a great deal of time on making detailed notes and learning about her case from the Southampton office of another charity (who had tried to help her). He also contacted the MP and challenged the Home Office decision with a new solicitor. After six months she obtained her Home Office file. Lily also got her positive Conclusive grounds decision for being recognised as a victim of modern slavery. On the day she received her indefinite leave to remain, she came to CBH with a huge chocolate cake! She is now married and has a job working for a software company where she is a team leader.
Jobs and Money
Current Situation of Former Guests
All former guests interviewed had a basic income from work, benefits (such as Universal Credit), or Asylum Seekers allowance. However, only two of the guests interviewed had a professional job earning above the minimum wage. The first worked for a software company and the second worked in an anti-slavery charity.
Obstacles for survivors in the UK job market can arise from the lack of reasonably paid work either for themselves or their partners. The existence of obstacles seems particularly clear for the two survivors with university degrees who had not yet found professional jobs, and for the two former guests with excellent English (and good ESOL qualifications) who had minimum wage jobs as housekeepers. It was also clear from this small sample that a higher standard of living was possible outside London because of the greater availability of accommodation.
Current Monetary and Employment Outcomes
Source of Income Level of income Comments
Partner and father of child who works unsocial hours as a chef
Unknown but sufficient to rent a one bed flat in private sector in London Also worked for some paid hours as a Community Health Champion for the NHS.
Universal Credit including housing and benefits for two children
Unknown
Suffered from severe mental health problems.
Universal Credit
Unknown
Job Centre has not put pressure on this former guest because of her mental health problems
State Pension
Partner and father of her child who owns a small carpentry business. Self employed
£203 weekly is full pension but exact amount
unknown
Lives in supported accommodation for the elderly
Unknown but can rent one bed flat in private sector in London. Former guests contribute by upcycling furniture for sale.
Bursary for full time study
Unknown
Works for a software company from home and is manager of a small maintenance team.
Unknown but can rent one bed flat in private sector in London with partner.
Ex-guest won a competitive bursary from a foundation. Government rules changed so that she has to apply item by item and is not given an allowance. This combined with cessation of £40week MSVCC allowance with positive Conclusive grounds decision has caused considerable hardship.
Partner and father of her child who has a degree from his original country and works in UK as a security guard.
Unknown but can rent one bed flat in private sector in London.
Ex-guest has good UK degree and hopes for a well-paid job when her child is entitled to some free childcare.
Works as live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family
Works three part time jobs as a housekeeper
Unknown
Works as a carer for old people
Unknown but can afford to rent a one bed flat outside London
Unknown but can afford to rent a three-bed house outside London
Terms and conditions are good. She saves £15 per week for herself, sends small sums home and has saved £5000 in two years with the hope of building her family a house.
Researcher in antislavery charity
Asylum seeker
waiting for a decision with one child
Unknown
Studying to be a beautician
£80.70
Has the advantage of being a native English speaker
Accommodation, utilities etc, are free and no council tax is paid
Asylum seeker
waiting for a decision with one child
£80.70
Carer on night shifts in a young person’s residential institution
Working as a cleaner and in hospitality in her own country
Unknown
Accommodation, utilities etc, are free and no council tax is paid
Good degree and still job hunting after one year.
Unknown
Studying IT part time
Preparing for the Workforce
Aiding guests’ employability is part of CBH’s approach when guests are ready. Most guests take up volunteering in a local charity shop to ease them into work. CBH has strong partners in employability organisations such as Hera, Strength and Stem floristry, Oxfam, and the Sophie Hayes Foundation, and these pay off in the longer term. For example, work placements may turn into paid jobs. Guests also get support to fill in job applications both generally and for modern slavery specific schemes such as the Co-op Bright Futures Scheme for victims. In addition, some aspects of life in CBH helps employability, as this exguest explains:
“Angela
learned me a lot how to cook” She had not cooked before and thought she could not do it. “Cooking
for so many people is not easy.” “Now I am paid to cook…they tell me what to cook….it is hard to cook for very rich people…..very stressful…..they have very high standards ……if you don’t cook good stuff you feel disappointed on yourself.”
Financial support is put in place before a guest leaves CBH. For example, CBH will connect guests with MSVCC charities who give a weekly NRM allowance or claiming compensation as a victim of crime. However, one of the most common calls on CBH outreach is for help when allowances are inexplicably stopped. SWs then contact the relevant agencies on the former guest’s behalf. One of the reasons guests find loss of income difficult is because they cannot afford phone credit without their allowance and thus cannot stay in touch with people or make appointments. CBH cannot do anything however when an former guest receives a Conclusive Grounds decision, and the NRM allowance ceases.
Criminal Compensation and CBH: Case Study
Through sectoral networking, CBH used its contacts to get free legal support from the well-known law firm, Hogan Lovell. Firstly, Hogan Lovell was approached to seek compensation for modern slavery. Then the firm thought it would be more effective to apply for Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) for victims of crime rather than modern slavery compensation . Tandy did not give up despite the changes and the long waiting time. Finally, she was awarded £23,000. At first she just kept it in her account and did not spend anything because this seemingly huge amount of money gave, and still gives, her a feeling of warmth. She finally used some of it for her father’s heart treatment in her original country and then found it extremely useful for a deposit and a first month’s rent on a one bedroom London flat for herself and her partner. CBH help in accessing legal assistance has resulted in three cases of criminal compensation. This is the third case of criminal compensation awarded to a CBH guest.
Accommodations
All guests have left CBH with somewhere to live whether a shared room in a hotel or a council flat. The interviewees had many complaints about the standards of asylum seekers accommodation run by private companies – about which CBH can do nothing. In addition, the comfort and cleanliness of CBH does not prepare guests mentally for their next place to live. However, CBH acts swiftly in emergencies such as when a former guest was threatened with a knife by her roommate. She returned to stay in CBH, and a new place was found. Another was stoned by someone in her shared accommodation but was able to return to CBH and be rehoused.
Examples of CBH’s Direct Efforts for Necessary Accommodations
Lily called on CBH outreach support after eighteen months because she had been granted leave to remain. In consequence of this decision, she had been evicted from her asylum seekers’ accommodation. Through sector connections CBH found her a place, first in an emergency night shelter and then with another charity for victims of slavery who had their own house. It was a particularly urgent case because Lily often thought of suicide and had attempted to take her life within six months of leaving CBH. The new charity’s support worker convinced the local authority to accommodate her as a person with priority need.
She has her own room in multiple occupancy houses but has moved on at least once due to fear of sexual assault. CBH staff invested time in finding a new home for a guest, Katrina, with a severe heart condition and a baby. She had made endless efforts herself to persuade her housing association to move her. She was on the third floor, and it was dangerous for her to climb stairs with a push chair. She did not go out for five months. This situation arose three years after leaving CBH and staff were glad to be able to help. She now lives on the ground floor and goes out every day with her son.
CBH’s Approach to Finding Accommodations
One of the major challenges for CBH is finding accommodation within Greater London. Interviewees reported satisfaction with their location if they could: see friends keep their job there was a local college in which to enrol there were people from their own country
This is something over which CBH has little control, although can appeal to the Home Office and occasionally act in extreme circumstances. For such example, CBH lobbied for a non-English speaking ex-guest, who had been sent to asylum seekers’ accommodation in Blackpool, to return to London. CBH made a strong complaint on her behalf because she was confused and terrified by the new situation. The long taxi ride made her fear she was being kidnapped. She was then given a room in a London student hostel which was more satisfactory because she felt safe and could use it as a base to find work as a cook in a restaurant run by people from her original country.
One interviewee indicated that they had abandoned her asylum accommodation in a city outside London because there were very few Vietnamese people living there. She needed contact with her own culture. She is now living with a friend in London and the outcome is unknown.
Former guests have also been diagnosed with mental health problems due to isolation. CBH can do little about changing the location except put former guests in touch with local support workers and adult social services.
Education
Current Situation of Former Guests
Most of the sixteen guests interviewed had a basic level of education to help them get employment, deal with authorities such as the Home Office and the Job Centre and to function in the UK. As stated in the methodology above all sixteen spoke good to advanced English.
There are a number of ways that CBH seeks to enhance guests’ education and skills. These include English language skills, math skills, IT skills, enrolment in college, and awareness of how the education system operates, including applications to university.
English
CBH has two rules – eating dinner together at 7pm and learning English. It is based on the belief that without English, a woman cannot build a life in the UK that will bring her satisfaction. Staff supports guests to attend one to one English sessions with volunteers. Some guests have two or three English teaching volunteers in a week so that they can learn faster. The most difficult skills to learn are reading and writing because the environment in the house is English speaking – between guests and with staff. Staff also enroll guests in local English classes run by charities. The quality of these classes may vary but they are good for the guests’ confidence. If the guest is likely to stay for the length of an academic term then staff will accompany them to enroll in the local Further Education College. They are assessed and put into the correct ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) level. ESOL is free for asylum seekers, but in general they are not permitted to take recognised UK qualifications – such as GCSE, A level or vocational courses - that will help them get a job in the future.
IT skills
IT skills are taught by a volunteer and are enthusiastically received. There is a desktop computer for general use in the house. Most guests able to use a laptop are able to receive one from either outside agencies who specialise in internet inclusion or through support workers from other organisations. Where necessary, CBH issues smart phones to guests so that they can receive important emails, texts and calls e.g., from solicitors and doctors as well as for security and outreach once they have left.
University
Five years ago Birkbeck College had a programme for widening access to undergraduate degrees and two former guests interviewed were given this information and supported to apply. They both went on to get good degrees.
Other subjects
Guests also have the opportunity for one to one Maths teaching with a volunteer, and guests have followed up by enrolling in college Maths. They also do work on budgeting.
Learning English: Case Study
The main activity for which Caroline came out of her room at CBH was for mandatory one to one English sessions. When one of the Support Workers found she was assigned asylum seekers’ accommodation outside London, he advised her to enroll in the local college. Caroline enrolled at the City College, helping her immensely. She negotiated with the college administration to be included in the pool for a bursary, overcoming the obstacle of age criteria. She won the bursary and attended college. This helped her connect to people – especially mothers of young children of different nationalities who she found easy to be friends with and who could help each other with childcare. She also got a place for her son in the much sought-after college creche. She passed ESOL level 2 - a level more advanced than GCSE for language. She is now too busy with work to study further (e.g., for GCSE). She said she did not plan to study any more at the moment but that one day her dream would be to go to university. Currently she has housekeeper jobs with three different families for the minimum hourly wage, which may be due to her excellent English. She said that she really appreciated the one to one nature of English in CBH as she would not have been able to afford that herself. Her desire to learn English and her study skills seem to have been initiated in CBH. She did not have a strong educational background that she could use as a foundation for further study. She was from a low-income family and had previously attended basic primary and secondary schooling with an emphasis on rote learning.
Education: Case Study
In terms of educational and problem-solving outcomes, Betty can be seen as a success story. She made a good recovery from domestic servitude whilst in CBH, receiving encouragement to pursue a career and to feel confident in her abilities. She received one to one coaching and was enrolled in Sophie Hayes and Oxfam employability programmes. Betty won a competitive scholarship to put herself through full time midwifery training. This was despite being an asylum seeker for whom vocational training is usually blocked. She is living a very frugal existence from the bursary and the asylum seekers allowance. It is not without difficulties. She said:
“I just want to be like anyone else….I don’t know if it is in my head…or if people really judge me….people’ll think I am exploiting the system……they think that all asylum seekers are like that, and yet other students all get bursaries.”
She is the third asylum seeking guest to take this path and to study successfully despite low income. When she has the ‘right to remain,’ she will be able to get a job as a midwife.
Physical Health
Current Situation of Former Guests
Most of the guests interviewed were under forty and in reasonably good physical health . They were conscious of the need for themselves and their children to eat healthily, exercise and go outside into the fresh air. It was also positive that former guests were registered with a new GP and were able to re-register when they made second or third moves. They were not afraid to be involved with the NHS, whatever their migration status. They also continued the practice of having HC2 certificates that entitle the holder to free prescriptions, dentists, glasses etc. when on a low income.
CBH support to access NHS health services had in general resolved underlying health problems during their stay in the house. CBH prioritises getting treatment for guests who arrive with a range of conditions after years of neglect and violent treatment. Examples of problems for which guests were referred to the nearby GP, the Sexual Health Clinic, dentists, and opticians were:
• An arm that needed resetting
• Continued treatment for a broken back
• Decayed teeth or none
• HIV
• Late and forced abortions, leading to infection (prior to coming to CBH)
• Undiagnosed diabetes
• Trauma induced menopause
• Poor eyesight
Perhaps the most important aspect of the CBH role in health care is showing guests how to make appointments online, to practise taking calls from GPs, and to understand how the specialists in hospitals articulate with GP services. Guests are also told that they can request an NHS interpreter. English lessons in the house cover medical vocabulary and conversations. One ex-guest was so committed to good health that she worked as an NHS Community Health Champion. She enjoyed being able to give women and men from minority communities the confidence to seek medical help of all kinds.
Former guests were conscious of the importance of a healthy diet and exercise. Within the house, Angela, the house manager, ensures meals cooked by guests are nutritionally balanced and freshly cooked. This has contributed to the health of former guests. For example, one guest of around fifty years old had only been permitted to eat cucumbers by her trafficker. They were keeping her weight down to make money from her as a sex worker. She was able to see that she could eat dinner with everyone else and not put on a lot of weight.
Negotiating difficulties encountered The interviewer did not find that former guests faced obstacles in accessing NHS services.
Mental Health
Current Situation of Former Guests
The sixteen former guests interviewed were all recovering from PTSD. The effects of PTSD cannot be underestimated, and as one ex-guest said of the godmother who had trafficked her:
“I
felt it was like to spit in my soul.” Another said: “I still feel fear and cannot relax!”
However, those interviewed were at a stage of self-actualisation where they had a clear idea of who they were, and what their life was about. They functioned well at home, pursuing their interests, forming their spirituality with friends and family, including children. Only three were unable to work or study because of the continuing severity of their mental health problems. Two of these thirteen former guests said that they were still on NHS prescribed medication for mental health issues. The three former guests who suffered from mental health problems were able to access NHS mental health services such as therapy and medication as well crisis mental health teams.
CBH aims to support guests suffering from PTSD. This may be combined with other mental problems, but very typical mental health issues are depression, anxiety, flashbacks, and insomnia. The CBH approach has three main strands:
Firstly, guests are supported to access NHS services such as prescription drugs, talking therapy, midwifery for vulnerable women (that factors in mental health) and Mental Health Crisis Teams who visit CBH when guests think about or attempt suicide.
Former guests interviewed were thus aware of NHS help on offer via their new GP or were still using them. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the CBH approach is that asking for help with mental illness is presented as a strength not a weakness.
Secondly a core part of the CBH approach is supporting guests in rebuilding and rediscovering their own identity in order to help to improve their mental wellbeing and recovery. Some elements of this approach are:
creating a routine (cooking, cleaning, getting up, English and maths lessons)
socialising (through eating together, small celebrations for birthdays and national holidays, playing Uno, watching movies together, doing yoga together, going on sightseeing trips and walks, encouragement to make friends at activities outside the house or through their own communities)
creating new body memories (massage, reflexology, gym passes, balanced diet and regular meals)
spirituality (weekly prayer session, helping guests get to their own Temple/Mosque/Church, supporting Ramadan and providing halal food)
Respecting guests’ own culture (prayer, hair styling, food preparation)
Creative activities (art, sewing, handicrafts, singing)
The above are the elements that are believed to help guests recover their identity and self-esteem.
Thirdly, CBH followed the 2018 independent review recommendation to start offering music and drama therapy in house, employing specialist therapists. The evaluation had shown that Talking Therapies may not be sufficient and in some cases could trigger flashbacks. For example, the aesthetic distance between the present and the past means that the trauma can be revisited in a gentler way. This does not tend to trigger painful flashbacks but still gives space for processing. CBH has shared this approach with other practitioners.
Negotiating Difficulties Encountered
The words of survivors show the range of successful strategies they have adopted to aid their mental health.
Treatment: ”A diagnosis is helpful….I know why my feelings happen”.
This was the feeling of an ex-guest receiving treatment for a severe problem from an NHS trauma therapist and as a patient of a psychiatric team at a leading UK hospital, the Maudesley.
Spirituality and faith: “Things have not been fair…..they don’t make me believe in a good God.” She has stopped church going but still prays alone.
“I don’t have too many problems ,,,, but I am worried in my head … depend on my God.”
“The time for tears is past.” ………Counselling helped her “decide what to do” about her situation.
Moving on Most of the former guests interviewed took the view that they needed to move on with their lives, not think or talk about past trauma and not to define themselves as having mental health problems. Typically, the ex-guest with a serious illness said that she was always smiling when the doctors came into her hospital room. They suggested a counsellor, but she said she felt strong. However, she did get ten weeks counselling specifically for handling heart disease issues.
Another ex-guest described the same feeling: “whatever happened in the past is not going to shape me in the future.” She feels she has good mental health. It helps that she is really busy 24/7 looking after her son. The past is still there but she tries not to think about it. She has no time for herself – even to have a cup of coffee without a crying baby.
Another declared: “because difficult things happened to me, it makes you more strong.”
Another turned to motivational YouTube videos from Nigeria rather than therapy.
“I don’t want to put my life out there……although the therapy in London was helpful….e.g., telling me to do things that make me happy like listening to music and YouTube.”
Partners and Children Although none of those interviewed had confided the details of their traumatic experiences to their partners and husbands, they had formed new relationships and were very committed to bringing up their children to be happy and successful.
Betty and Mental Health Strategies: Case Study
Betty reported that she makes sure she has something to do to avoid getting depressed and anxious. At the moment, she keeps herself busy with full time study. She is sometimes triggered by her past experiences of rape and abuse by her foster family. One of her strategies when feeling low is to draw. She said that Sister Daniella, a long-term art volunteer, at CBH had helped her with advice on how to draw to feel better even if only a simple shape such as an elephant or an apple. She still does this and recently did some pictures for a friend using acrylic, water colours and pencils. She reported feeling so bad that her agemates are ahead of her in establishing themselves in life. She is in her early twenties and would have expected to already be in a professional job and in a stable relationship. In CBH she had not found therapy helpful because she did not want to start again, to remember and to cry. She stopped taking depression medication within a year of leaving CBH. However, much later, when she had felt alien in school, she was strong enough to reach out to the University Mental Health Team for help. Now she sees a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT) at her college to help her with her short attention span for study. She also works on her disassociation i.e., when she blanks out and ‘can’t hear’ in her midwifery class. She has had three one-hour sessions so far. Betty seemed able to reach out for help as she felt it was needed and these seem to have worked for her. She had at least found the support she needed to succeed in a demanding course of study.
Art Therapy: Case Study
Ex guest Usha explained how she had successfully adapted meditation and yoga techniques learned at CBH to cope with low moods without medication. She reported that when she gets very down, she sits in the dark and meditates and cries and feels really bad. “I want to stay down in the dark place.” Afterwards, she feels better in that she “handle the difficult things in my life.” She developed this approach herself and added silence. She also does some art to help her feel calm and happy, and three other guests reiterated this as a technique and were grateful to Sister Daniella the volunteer.
The same was true for a guest who had returned to her own country but also still thought of Sister Daniella and drew for herself and her friends. This is one of her line drawings.
Family
Current Situation of Former Guests
‘Family in all its different forms is part of recovering guest identity. Katrina (a mother of one) was asked her dream: “To make a happy family and happy and healthy son.” Katrina was one of the eight guests with children in this country, and of those eight, five had partners. All the guests with children living with them seemed happy in their roles as mothers. This role gave them a purpose in life and some hope for the future.
Seven former guests were completely out of contact with their natal families at home and six had troubled relationships with their natal families. Some were in touch with a sibling but not with their parents. The root problem was the stigma of modern slavery, challenging family authority by escaping from trafficking arranged by their family, or of bearing a child out of marriage. Examples were as follows:
• One ex guest had a husband who visited her family on her behalf to tell them they were married and had a child.
• One was doing well and making her own family as a single Mum with a child. She had never spoken to her family since she was kidnapped and raped as a sex worker.
• One had defied her family by not agreeing to an arranged marriage, and then after trafficking in UK, had formed a new relationship and had a child.
• Three guests said they avoided their own community activities such as church because they were afraid of being traced by their families.
Supporting Family Life at Caritas Bhakita House
There are several practical ways in which CBH supports family reconnections and building new families. These are: enabling phone contact, enabling the sending of money home, supporting pregnant guests, and advising on how to access benefits, free childcare, and other services for their children. When arriving at CBH, staff help guests to use a phone so that they can tell their families they are safe.
Pregnant guests register with a midwife for vulnerable women at the local hospital. Over the years, CBH has found several ways of making sure that women have a birth partner – either a staff member, another guest, or a Doula from a charity. There is space in Drama and Music therapy to explore their feelings about becoming the mother of a child of rape, but the atmosphere in CBH towards infants is positive and supportive. New mothers can seek advice on any aspect of caring for their newborn and if there are developmental problems the appropriate NHS services are sought.
Staff ensure that guests apply for child benefit and know that they can apply for fifteen hours of free childcare when the child reaches the age of two. Former guests with young children were all putting their children into approved nurseries or were planning to. They use the time for study or for paid work.
However, one of the important aspects of CBH support is to recognise that family has a dark side for many guests.
However, one of the important aspects of
CBH
support is to recognise that family has a dark side for many guests.
The first is the loss of, or separation from, children and the pain that becoming fond of the children in the house may cause. The staff do not encourage guests to babysit or otherwise form close bonds with an infant in the house. In order to find lost children CBH makes a request to the police and international agencies such as the Red Cross Family Tracing Service. One successful example was when the latter found an exguest’s two sons very soon after she had relocated to Sheffield.
The second is that their own family may have trafficked them, so staff try and ensure former guests feel confident in surviving without their support and that they do not need to go back to them and be exploited. This is particularly true if their family is involved in organised crime in their own country as well as in the UK. Prevention of re-trafficking is a CBH priority.
Thirdly, former guests may be a source of shame to their families, and different types of therapy are offered to address this trauma.
Overcoming Difficulties
One ex-guest interviewed represents those survivors who are the sole provider for their needy or destitute families back home. The case study below is of an ex-guest finding the best ways to support her Nepali family in an earthquake zone and the difficulties she overcame in getting a job and sending money back home in a safe way.
Usha was drawn into domestic servitude by the pressing need to pay her father’s medical bills.
However, she was not paid at all. She was kept inside the family house in London and only allowed to drink tap water. When she asked for food, she was told to eat old bread. The family always ate out in restaurants, so no food was available in the house. She came to CBH in a weakened state with glandular problems. Usha tried to recover through participating actively in activities such as exercise, art, and learning English. She liked cooking and was enrolled in the charity Migrateful which trains refugee cooks as chefs who can earn their living. She received CBH support to claim asylum and secure a right to remain decision. She left to live in a hostel run by an order to which CBH has links. This order of religious sisters in turn helped her get a job as a housekeeper with a family they knew. Now she has a two-year limited leave to remain until 2024. As a housekeeper responsible for cooking, cleaning, childcare and looking after the dog, her room is part of her salary, and she is given time off. Now, she can work and send money to her family, which is her main priority. She has saved £5000 and wants to build them a house. However, she sends only small amounts each month, as it is a risk for her family to hold large sums securely. Nobody works in her family. She loves them but the pressure to save them from ill health or starvation is immense.
Usha Reflects
“I have to do a lot of work, and everything is in my hands.“ It is difficult to send them money or even to talk to them on the phone. …“I keep on hoping for some success. I want to save money and change their life.”
She tells their story: “In 2015 there was a huge earthquake, and we were broken.” We lived in a tent, and they still are very cold in Winter. There are three of them – mother and two sisters. No hospital. No blood tests…. “People with money can do everything but not us.”
“This is quite emotional.” They are not in an organised camp…..“I am keeping hope and I believe in God. I want to keep together and bring them to UK.”
Social Life
Current Situation of Former Guests
As a result of their trauma and the isolation imposed by traffickers (e.g., being enslaved in a family with no interaction and trapped inside the house 24/7), many guests find it hard to chat and connect with others. Sometimes they also avoid those from their own country when it is their compatriots who have enslaved them. Trusting others is difficult. Interviewees reported that this feeling of isolation has continued into their new lives. The environment for overseas nationals on low incomes and living in cramped accommodation only exacerbates these feelings. This is how former guests described their socialising: It is mixed picture however and the vignettes below illustrate social contacts but also the isolation that they still experience.
• Her Portuguese partner has mainly English friends, so they are not part of a Portuguese or her own Georgian community. She herself does not have close friends but is still in touch with an exguest who also has a child. Because of Covid, she last visited her in 2020 and now is text messaging only. They plan to meet up with their children.
• One Albanian guest fears her own compatriots and therefore does not like the borough where she lives because there are too many Albanians. She said that although she does not want Albanian friends, she has friends “from all over the world”. Despite this, she feels lonely every day and to distract herself she watches movies on her laptop.
• Sometimes work and meeting colleagues also does not work out: One ex-guest works in the care sector. She made some friends but said she found it hard to keep them because they were mainly foreigners. They have their own country and culture and their own problems. She said sadly: “At the end of the day I find they don’t value the friendship and don’t care.”
Navigating Challenges
Although former guests can be said to be surviving in the UK, life can still be lonely. Former guests then navigate social difficulties in diverse ways.
• Church communities can be important: One guest reported that she has been helped by friends and her pastor. By a miracle, she met up with a long-lost cousin through church. It has helped her to get to know more people.
• Another is anxious and is scared to get close to people now but in future hopes to be married and to have more children. She goes to church regularly and gets a lift there and back.
• Children are helpful in building connections. The mothers of young children went out and about every day, chatting, sharing childcare, going to groups, and arranging park meet ups.
• A recent development is a What’s App group for former guests. This was started by a guest and the messages exchanged are light and friendly. No serious information is exchanged and there are no photos of people for security reasons. Guests like to be checked up on by others. This seems promising as it is difficult for most guests to make very close friends in the house. They are in a vulnerable place so are advised not to share their stories to avoid triggering further trauma. As a result, few close and enduring friendships have been made amongst former guests. However, a few years into their recovery journey, it might be reassuring to have some fellow survivors as friends.
Effects of Isolation: Case Study
To a 23-year-old midwifery student who stayed in CBH:
“How is your social life?” “Non-existent.”
She had some friends but stopped calling them. She doesn’t know why. She is still in touch with fellow ex-guest K and calls and visits her. She also kept in touch with E but has now drifted away. She talks to people at Uni but doesn’t follow up as friends. She is able to ask for help but finds it difficult to build up a sustainable support network. “I just want to be like anyone else….I don’t know if it is in my head…or if people really judge me….people’ll think I am exploiting the system……they think that all asylum seekers are like that, and yet other students get bursaries.” She is a Muslim but does not go to the mosque. She tried a Nigerian church but felt their “open eyes” upon her. She was afraid of them finding out her story and judging her adversely. Now she does not go to any group and has also stopped going to the gym. She is lonely, but her strategy is to keep busy 24/7. She does not want to share her story. She turns to Netflix for company. She has no close friends and no boyfriend. She thinks this because she thinks people will see her as a ‘loser.’ She said she will wait.
Self Esteem and Independence
Most of the former guests interviewed felt independent of CBH and this indicates that CBH’s intention to promote independence has been successful.
Self Esteem Recovery Program
This is perhaps the most vital area of the recovery journey. CBH designed its recovery programme to help improve guest’s self-esteem. A central element of this was the relationship between the support team and guests based on the principle of respect. The approach of the support team is to empower guests and support them to make decisions – starting with small choices such as what to cook for dinner. As victims of modern slavery, they were treated with disdain, and as not worthy. Being enslaved meant having no options, no ability to determine things. Recovery has been described as
“Recovery is a personal journey, different for everyone, that it can and does occur without professional intervention, and … it emphasizes the role of the subject as a self-determining agent of change”
CBH guests are supported to be these ‘self-determining agents of change,’ breaking out of a cycle that typically consists of childhood abuse, continuing exploitation, being trafficked, being ‘rescued,’ dependence on professionals for the basics of life and a future decided by the UK Home Office. It is in the context of this cycle of exploitation that CBH staff and volunteers take an approach to recovery based on the Christian principles. The challenge for staff is how to foster resilience, confidence and problem-solving skills but still give 100 percent support and love.
Results for all guests
This chapter is based on the increased sample size - the whole pool of 173 CBH guests. This was only possible because the data base was so detailed that it was possible to look at several important results for CBH. The four key areas are: how shortterm guests were supported, the incidence of re-trafficking, the effectiveness of relationship with the police, and what type of move on accommodation found for guests. These four sections are divided into an overview of the results in the area, the CBH approach to achieving this result and, where helpful, an illustrative case study to explain this approach to the reader.
Provision of Intensive Support
41% of guests received intensive support to meet urgent needs, to be secure, and to move on to a safer place within a few days or weeks
Caritas Bakhita House Approach: The Process
Trusted partners such as the police, local authorities and UK charities working with enslaved people, refer victims to Caritas Bakhita House on an emergency basis. This requires quicker-than-usual assessment and decision making.
Support workers offer food, drink, clothes, and a clean bed before beginning the risk assessment process. House rules are explained and security is emphasised. NHS treatment is sought if needed and some guests may contact friends and family or police.
Support workers lead with establishing a relationship of trust between staff and guests in order to allow guests to open up. Staff prioritize empathy while interacting with guests.
Guests discuss next steps with CBH staff. They can chose to either stay in CBH to begin a programme of recovery or return home. No matter what, guests are given the choice and support workers do their best to support their decisions.
38 Days in Caritas Bakhita House: Case Study
Amelia was a 26-year-old who was four weeks pregnant from rape by a customer. She came from a rural area to take up a factory job but was imprisoned and forced into prostitution for nine months. The two traffickers paid her £20 a day to buy food and cigarettes. Their earnings were hundreds of pounds. Desperate, she managed to phone her sister and tell her address in Woolwich Arsenal. Her family went to the police in her own country who informed the Metropolitan police in London. They extracted her and one other victim from the property and arrested the traffickers. After a joint investigation and evidence from Amelia, both traffickers were charged. Police had been able to meet Amelia in the informal and safe environment of the house to record her statement. They used an interpreter but for all other services CBH either paid for or asked a volunteer to interpret.
Amelia arrived at CBH without a change of clothes so some essentials were supplied, and she was settled into a clean and cheerful room with fresh sheets. Then CBH support team discussed a support plan with Amelia and found that she wanted to go home to see her three-year-old son Daniel. He was living with his father and in CBH she spoke to him every day. He cried and wanted her back home. Amelia used most of her allowance from CBH (£35 weekly) to buy toys to take back with her. CBH contacted an American NGO, the International Justice Mission (IJM), so that they could help her return safely. They made a pre-visit to her family on their farm and established that as Amelia had said, her traffickers knew her from the nearest big town but did not know her family’s whereabouts in the countryside. IJM met Amelia at the airport and drove her home. They continued to monitor and reported that her child was born later in 2020. Her £66 air ticket was paid for by CBH Emergency Funds as the police were not able to find resources.
However, they picked her up and took her to the airport. CBH had accompanied Amelia to her embassy to pick up her travel document. She needed this because the traffickers had taken away all her ID.
Before she left Amelia was referred to various NHS services for medical attention that would benefit her and her unborn child. When she left SWs informed the services involved: Sexual health clinic (The Haven), GP, Optician, Midwife for Vulnerable women. CBH applied for an HC2 certificate so that Amelia could get free prescriptions and optician services. She left with a pair of £30 glasses and was pleased. As a pregnant woman, Amelia had a scan, vitamins, and treatment for piles. She was encouraged to give up smoking but could not. She also had treatment for a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), Trichomoniasis.
Mental Health: Amelia reported that she had a schizophrenia diagnosis and episodes of psychosis in the past. SWs were concerned that she had help for her mental health particularly as she revealed she had attempted to end her own life with 60 Ibuprofen not long previously. She said she was now fine, but SWs monitored her closely and tried to provide activities to keep her busy. She had declined counselling at The Haven but had a Drama Therapy session within CBH that she seemed to enjoy. She missed her family, especially her son, mother, and the family dogs. She spoke a little English but socialised with other guests. She returned home safely and had her child the same year. As per the usual procedure, CBH made monthly follow up texts and calls for six months.
Re-Trafficking
The prevalence of re-trafficking is a major concern amongst those working in modern slavery largely because there is limited follow up of survivors when they leave NRM safehouses. It was the subject of a major report from the office of the anti-slavery commissioner in 2021 and shows the importance of the work of CBH in preventing retrafficking.
“Regardless of gender, age, nationality or exploitation type, it appears that the circumstances an individual faces after their initial trafficking experience directly influence their vulnerability to re-trafficking.”
CBH data showed that most guests have remained safe from being retrafficked. A key result for CBH is that former guests are not believed to be re-trafficked or traced by traffickers. The data from follow up calls makes this assumption reasonable. Out of the 73 former guests who stayed in CBH for more than three months, CBH is still in contact with 57 former guests or 78%. This contact is sufficient to be reasonably clear that they have not been re-trafficked.
How does CBH get this result?
Keeping the safehouse location secret
By taking guests trafficked in another part of the country
By making sure they move on to accommodation that is not in the proximity of their traffickers
By advising guests on how to keep their location safe on social media
By making sure they are not left vulnerable through sudden shocks such as eviction or cutting off asylum seekers funds. These measures are part of outreach work and exit processes.
By building a relationship of trust within which guests who may never have had reason to trust anyone, can get back in touch with CBH in a crisis.
Relationship with Police Prosecutions
In summary, guests have shared vital intelligence with the police. The 2018 Independent Review of Caritas Bakhita House reported that 50 out of the 83 guests from 2015-2017 were interviewed by police. Even if this information is not used for court cases it can help the police in larger operations such as those against organised crime. It can help uncover other victims and prevent further crimes. Following through to successful prosecution has been less common, but the CBH 2022 Annual Report states:
“We have helped secure prison sentences totalling 147 years and 10 months for those who traffic and exploit women”.
Former guests in CBH are supported to give evidence in police interviews both when in the safehouse and after leaving. Cases may in fact last for some years. Additionally, it may be dangerous to give evidence to police due to threats to family, friends, or themselves. Despite the dangers, some guests do continue to engage with criminal investigation and prosecution. This is very likely because of the trusting, empowering relationship established in CBH.
How is this result achieved?
Helping guests feel they can trust the police and provide them with information, even potentially participating in a prosecution, by enabling guests to meet police in an informal atmosphere at CBH or nearby.
Fostering professional relationships between anti-slavery police officers, Victim Navigators (embedded within the police force to serve victims) and guests by allowing CBH residents to feel able to speak without fearing that the police are in league with traffickers. Accompaniment at trial and support throughout the legal process.
Handling Obstacles Faced
While the CBH tried to ensure positive relationships with the police, guest experience seems to show that some problems in the criminal justice system include resource issues that cause delays and increasingly high requirements for evidence.
In addition, former guests who do not speak English as a first language may become enmeshed in the complexity - and simultaneous nature - of legal proceedings with the Home Office about their status, the NRM decision making process, and legal proceedings against their traffickers.
Involvement in Criminal Investigation and Prosecution: Case Study
Susan was vulnerable on account of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in her childhood. This led her to drug addiction and into sex work to support her habit. She came to the UK expecting to be a paid sex worker but was then enslaved and raped. She escaped and was determined to bring her trafficker to court. She said that one of the problems she encountered were that no one coordinates with one other. For example, ID documents she needed for her case against the trafficker had been requested by the Home Office for use in her ‘right to remain’ case and not returned. She somewhat wryly commented:
“I’ve exhausted the tissue box and now I’ve offered it to the Home Office – I think they need some.”
“First your trafficker takes you to the lowest point and then the Home Office and criminal justice system takes you to an even deeper lowest point.”
Her trafficker has been in prison for one year and three months as he never gets bail. There are fifty charges against him although not all aking. She was waiting for 1,625 days since the point at which she was trafficked. CBH staff were available for every court date and to talk her through problems as they arose. Susan feels that as she is an English speaker she is in a stronger position to fight on compared to many other victims. She refused to give up and her trafficker was sentence to thirty one years in prison.
Safe A
What kind of accomm
As detailed above, the 16 guests interviewed had secured accommodation, and the data for all 173 guests shows a similar outcome at the point of leaving CBH. This is an important result for CBH because guests were previously in brothels, unhealthy and dangerous housing, or rough sleeping. If they left to the same kind of accommodation, they were much more likely to be re-trafficked.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Based on interviews as well as the data kept by CBH it is evident that many former guests continue their journey to recovery and are living independently with a sense of agency over their lives. The results are perhaps unexpectedly positive considering the difficulties they faced. Their overall situation can be described as follows:
Former guests have access to financial resources from paid work, benefits, and partners. Most have used their education and skills acquired, or courses embarked upon, while in CBH. Their physical health is, in general, good and it seemed that urgent health problems had been addressed whilst in CBH through the NHS. Mental health support in CBH has enabled some former guests to use strategies learned to deal with ongoing trauma and this includes how to access NHS support when mental health issues remain.
However, while most former guests interviewed have children, families and friendships, isolation remains an issue.
Those interviewed are still in safe accommodation even though they may have been involved in many moves. This reflects the CBH practice of finding housing for all guests before they leave. Forty one percent of all guests received intensive support to meet urgent needs, be secure, and move on to a safer place within a few days or weeks. Many of this group return to their own country. This short-term support is a significant part of CBH work.
All guests who remained in the UK had also been supported to obtain the legal right to stay even if temporarily.
In addition, all guests are supported to engage with police wherever realistic. This helps police to collect intelligence and, in some cases, evidence for prosecuting human traffickers in court.
CBH’s approach appears to have been beneficial in aiding guests’ recovery and reintegration. In particular, the sixteen former guests interviewed demonstrated a striking resilience in negotiating structural and societal difficulties encountered. They all gave credit to CBH for helping them on their journey of recovery. The report has shown which areas are important for former guests in their own opinion and this has meant that self-esteem, isolation, friends, and family have been described in detail in the report. Former guests talked at length about their loneliness, their lack of social and intimate connections along with their struggles around self-esteem and maintaining their mental health. This is a major reason for the success of the CBH approach because it demonstrates that the Support Team listen to survivors’ voices, balanced with their sectoral knowledge and experience.
Negotiating External Obstacles
Aspects of UK society that worked well for those interviewed were access to good quality ESOL courses, mental and physical health services from NHS and supportive treatment by police in their trafficking cases e.g., through Victim Navigators and specialist police officers.
However, in the light of the current UK policy environment on migration, combined with the shortage of funds for statutory agencies and the third sector, it was unsurprising to find that the list of obstacles encountered former guests was long. The list below has been extracted from former guests’ experience.
complex forms
delays in state processes
inability to talk to staff of government agencies in a crisis (e.g., funds cut off)
long delays in phoning professional agencies
high turnover of support workers from other anti-slavery charities
lack of coordination between agencies (e.g., housing, benefits), obstacles in getting jobs commensurate with English level or formal qualifications.
prejudice against non-UK nationals e.g., feel undermined by being seen as ‘parasites.’
lack of state childcare provision for educational establishments
sudden eviction from asylum seekers accommodation when granted leave to remain.
cost of education beyond English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision
asylum seekers are not permitted to seek work leading to poverty and the acute national housing shortage.
The danger is particularly severe where former guests have no financial means, no trusted family, no social safety nets in their own country and where they are in direct danger from criminal traffickers.
Difference to Lives
The following conclusions provide a summary of the CBH approach and contribution to former guests’ journey of recovery. They are in the same order as the report sections where more details can be found.
Migration status was secured for former guests through legal aid sourced and monitored by CBH staff.
Former guests have at least a minimum income on which they can survive, and this was put in place before guests exit the house; as well as through direct outreach support.
All the former guests interviewed were in safe accommodation, some of which was directly secured by CBH as they left the house and some through outreach support. There is interview evidence that it is easier for guests to find accommodation and that it is of higher quality outside London.
CBH has successfully supported guests to further their education in order to get employment, access information, deal with authorities and to thrive in the UK.
Physical health: CBH support to understand and to access NHS health services. Most had resolved their underlying health problems during their stay. Former guests (25) were physically healthy, conscious of the importance of a healthy diet and exercise and registered with a GP.
Mental Health: Former guests interviewed were surviving their trauma and were continuing to use NHS service or therapeutic strategies initiated when resident in CBH.
CBH interventions related to renewed family reconnections and care for children had positive outcomes for former guests.
Social life: The CBH approach of encouraging community participation and outside interests helps guests to avoid isolation. Self-esteem: One of the results for former guests was increased selfesteem strengthened by the CBH approach.
In addition, evidence from CBH records for all guests 2015-2023 demonstrated the following findings.
CBH provides intensive support to guests who stay for only a short time. Forty one percent of guests (71 out of 173) received intensive support to meet urgent needs, be secure, and move on to a safer place within a few days or weeks. This emergency support is a significant part of CBH work.
As a result of security measures and keeping in touch, the evidence indicates that former guests have not been ked or been traced by their original traffickers.
CBH has prioritised supporting guests to engage with police to aid intelligence gathering as well as supporting the prosecution of human traffickers.
All former guests move from insecure or dangerous living places before coming to CBH to safe and secure accommodation in their lives afterwards.
The strengths of the CBH approach that former guests remember most clearly today reflect the above:
Restorative approaches in therapy and a range of activities to rebuild confidence and a renewed pleasure in living.
Kindness and care from staff after their trust in humanity has been undermined.
Kindness from, and trust in, a diverse range of volunteers
Respect for guests that restores dignity and hope.
Guests are encouraged to take their own decisions to build selfesteem.
Creation of a routine to restore mental health.
Healthy living – diet, fresh air, and exercise.
Learning new skills for quality of life and employment
Learning English and help with entering college.
Outreach strategy where the “door is always open.”
Legal help and accommodation on leaving.
Support to access physical and mental health NHS services.
This report also revealed a number of operational strengths, that have enabled the success of the CBH approach. These include:
Support workers can manage an expanded workload in outreach and with emergency guests.
No cut off point for outreach
Security in relationships with staff due to low staff turnover (relative within sector)
Networking to build relationships for fund raising as well as support partners for guests.
Sourcing, supporting, and monitoring of legal aid solicitors - who are currently decreasing in number.
Contacts and relationships with police in London (Central Specialist Crime, Modern Slavery & Child Exploitation, Vulnerability
Assessment & Partnership Team, Metropolitan Police Service) and various parts of the country such as Manchester, Birmingham, Thames Valley, Essex, and Derbyshire.
Flexible roles for volunteers that suit their interests and skills.
Recommendations for Caritas Bakhita House
1) Continuation of the distinctive aspects of the CBH approach that contribute positively to guest’s recovery.
Police support to guests in a way that makes guests feel secure from retribution by traffickers and to trust the police. The aim is to prevent further trafficking through prosecutions. Guests have valuable intelligence to offer police and, when it is safe, are willing to give evidence in court against their traffickers.
A variable length of stay in CBH depending on individual factors such as the degree of injury they have suffered, the need for their testimony in court, the availability of move on accommodation and support.
Ongoing support is a unique attribute of CBH that recognises that survivors can face difficulties during recovery and reintegration. MSVCC accommodation and financial support ends when a survivor receives a Conclusive Grounds decision, which is not the case in CBH.
Community cooking and eating together for an evening meal and for Friday breakfasts. This is to help guests end the social isolation imposed by traffickers, and to develop their own voice. The latter is also encouraged by six weekly guest feedback meetings.
A therapeutic aspect consisting of in-house Music and Drama therapy by professional therapists with experience of supporting survivors, activities outside the house (e.g., volunteering, contacts with speakers of guests’ own language) and a range of creative, educational, and physical activities.
The core contribution of volunteers is not only in delivering creative, educational, and physical activities but also in offering diversity of social experience. When survivors have been isolated by their traffickers for long periods of time (sometimes decades) this is part of recovery. The contribution of volunteers in building up trust in other people cannot be underestimated. They meet with guests on a one to one or small group basis for activities such as Art classes, handicrafts, massage and reflexology, yoga, English, Maths, IT teaching, sightseeing outings, local orientation walks as well as functional tasks such as translation with support staff or external professionals and accompanying survivors to legal and medical appointments. Many of the volunteers are religious sisters who give of their time and talent to the women at CBH and are a constant caring presence for guests.
The house is staffed by trained and vetted Support Workers. Their relation to guests is a balance of providing urgent practical help and giving guests the space to make their own decisions – even if they seem ‘self-destructive’ e.g., refusing therapy. This is essential for empowering guests and helping them towards independence. The staff cook and clean together with guests and eat with them every evening. They also get to know them through fun activities such as pampering sessions, movie nights and card games.
2) The effective CBH approach to be shared in good practice forums in the modern slavery sector with statutory bodies, academics, anti-slavery campaigners and charities.
Increase staff capacity for more sharing of CBH good practice within the sector e.g., 2022 Bakhita Centre Conference on therapeutic approaches.
Consider reshaping the range of excellent documentation about CBH into accessible formats for training or sharing purposes.
3) The report shows the societal difficulties that former guests face and some of these obstacles can only be overcome through legal and policy changes. Thus, it is recommended that CBH continues to work with its partner organisations and key anti-slavery networks in public lobbying. Positions and public messages could be part of, and aligned with, the policy and advocacy programme of Caritas Westminster. Some examples suggested by report are:
Support public lobbying against UK legislation that makes initial identification of, and support for victims more difficult. Using real evidence from former guests, support public lobbying that makes lives of survivors more difficult e.g., Lift the Ban campaign on asylum seekers right to work.
Based on importance of ex guest experience, public lobbying for Home Office to change its practices. For example, to let NRM safehouses know where guests are going when they leave. This is currently kept secret and puts distressing pressure on former guests regarding how to get back in touch with CBH for outreach support.
4) Guests are well prepared to leave CBH, but the support team could consider using the report findings in the nine areas to focus this preparation on the following. Staff capacity would need to be increased for any additional activities.
More group discussions to help guests prepare for leaving the house e.g., contact with fellow former guests, accommodation situation, how to claim benefits, how to contact the Home Office
Guest briefings on the different types of support workers and professionals with whom they are in contact. In general, these professionals have no way of liaising with each other in case conferences. The report shows that this can be confusing for former guests.
Standard guest briefing on asylum process in UK which can be shared with solicitors as a common starting point.
Further development of current Leaving Package e.g., to include material in guests’ own language and English on their new location, timeline of their legal cases, a laptop and a safe box for valuables and documents.
Personal and next of kin contact details (e-mail and phone numbers) recorded in one place whenever a guest leaves and no matter the length of stay.
Emotional: increased focus on how guests can form intimate relationships and friendships, how to share or not share their story could work when they leave CBH e.g., a priority subject for in house therapy.
Appendix A
Guest Breakdown by Ethnicity 2015 to February 2022
Guest’s Ethnicity
No ethnicity recorded on CBH database
Due to Support Worker oversight or because they do not ‘estimate’ ethnicity
Majority Albanian and Romanian
Guest’s Ethnicity
British:
British:
Black/Black British:
Majority nationality: Nigerian
British:
Caritas recognises that it is important to monitor the ethnicity of guests to check that scarce resources are allocated according to its criteria. The largest groups of guests are from Albania and Romania (White Other) Nigeria (Black African) and Vietnam (Asian Other), reflecting victim trends in the UK. However, since July 2015 guests have also come from forty-six different countries including Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. The conclusion is that the CBH referral process is working satisfactorily in applying criteria regardless of ethnicity.
Age Range of all Guests 2015 to 2023
Everyone can start a new life, but the table above shows that the majority if CBH guests are at a stage of life where they expect to work full time and have a family. This can be factored into assessing the impact of CBH on individual lives, as well as the social and economic impacts for society.
For more information on Caritas Bakhita House please visit our website www.caritaswestminster.org.uk/bakhita-house/ or email us at bakhitahouse@rcdow.org.uk.
If you wish to find out more about making a donation to Caritas Bakhita House please contact Helen Bright via email on helenbright@rcdow.org.uk.
To make a gift online please visit https://rcdow.org.uk/donations/bakhita-house/