Introduction

This chapter revolves around modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) aftercare systems, drawing on the voices of frontline practitioners and survivors, in the UK and beyond. Our aim is to highlight where key aspects of aftercare systems become challenges and compromises for survivors. To frame the tortuous experience of survivors navigating the ambivalent terrains of the system, we hold onto the concept of ‘subjection’ (Butler, 1997). As the ‘process of becoming subordinated by power’ and ‘becoming a subject’ (Butler, 1997: 2), subjection is a useful tool to capture the continuous negotiations survivors have to engage in with aftercare systems.

The chapter is divided into six sections. As a start, we expand the theoretical grounding of the chapter, introducing the notions of vulnerability and trauma. We also present our critique of MSHT as a discourse, deepening the criminological versus victimological divide, and its implications in aftercare. The context of the research studies underpinning this chapter is also outlined. The following four sections focus on aspects of post-MSHT life, casting light onto specific challenges/compromises for survivors. First, we discuss the process of self-identification and how this conflicts with the way MSHT victims/survivors are described in anti-MSHT systems. Following this, we explore acceptance to join the system, and identify some negative implications of survivor engagement with the system. In the last two sections, we highlight paradoxical traits of mental healthcare, education and employment services, to ultimately show how they disempower, more than support, recovery and reintegration. In the concluding section, we try to connect the difficulties in subject-remaking, encountered by survivors navigating a fallacious care system, with the elaboration of their sense of practical justice. This means that survivors would not subjugate to a fallacious system, but would instead contribute to the design of a fair one. Based on our conclusions, the chapter will offer some recommendations for a more survivor-centred system of care.

Subjection and the ambivalent anti-trafficking discourse

This chapter is rooted in the concept of ‘subjection’ (Butler, 1997) to capture the experience of survivors’ subject-remaking navigating the ambivalent terrains of MSHT aftercare.