The Paradox of Dutch Anti-Trafficking Policy: An Ethnographic Approach to how the B8 Scheme is Placing Foreign Survivors of Human Trafficking in a Perilous Situation

There are foreign women in the Netherlands who are vulnerable because they are survivors of human trafficking. They have often been traumatised by their experiences, cannot go back to their country of origin, and require help. How-ever, current Dutch policy is putting them in an even more vulnerable situation, as policy is focused more on the security of the state than the security of the survivor. As soon as a survivor is not qualified as a victim, they are labelled as an illegal immigrant who needs to be repatriated. There are persons who have been exploited during the migration process who need help. Right now help is not based on what these survivors need, but on what the state needs. This research paper will use an ethnographic approach to look at the mechanisms and the implications thereof on particular survivors; to how they are being put in this more vulnerable, and so perilous, situation. It is paradoxical, as Dutch anti-trafficking policy is actually harming survivors of human trafficking.