RSA : 4 — Synthesis and Key Insights
“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another.”
— Alfred Adler
A good synthesis should aim to create empathy. It grounds abstract and disjointed research into a relatable form, this lies at the basis of human-centred design.
We chose to represent our data in three different proto personas. We did this as a substitute for full personas or jobs to be done stories as we do not have any first hand data from survivors or active prostitutes with experience in Ireland. For each proto persona, we created an accompanying user journey map to illustrate the entry to exit process for the different contextual experiences of most common victim archetypes of the Irish sex trade.
To be clear, this is in no way fully comprehensive of all means to entry into the industry, the different forms of abuse or the different ways in which somebody can escape and rebuild their life.
Siobhan McMahon
We chose Siobhan as our first persona as she represents a large percentage of the Irish prostitute community. Although this population has been surpassed by migrants since the early 2000’s, it is still a very vulnerable group that need close consideration.
Siobhan is a young teen who innocently falls in love with the wrong guy as her family are funnelling their focus on a disorderly divorce. The trafficker jumps at this opportunity to recruit the young girl by using love, intimacy & ‘favours’. He gives her drugs to help make the whole experience more bearable and it also acts as the beginning of an insidious control mechanism.
When Siobhan breaks free from her trafficker she ends up roaming the streets fending for herself while battling drug addiction. Although she is not physically detained, she is emotionally detached and finds it hard to trust. We need to find a solution to build a relationship with this vulnerable community. That way they will accept our help and services designed to bring them off the streets and aid them in discovering their true potential.
Lina Molokova
The next persona, represents the biggest community of prostitutes in Ireland. Lina is an optimistic and hard working girl from Eastern Europe who was fully deceived by her trafficker. She agrees to come to Ireland as she is promised a job babysitting for a wealthy family. On arrival, she soon finds out the dark truth about her new life. They take her ID and force her to work in their brothel to pay off her ‘debts’. In the interim, she accrues more debt from rent, cigarettes, drugs ect. Debt is the main control mechanism in Lina’s case.
When Lina manages to escape and reach out to police, she encounters some difficulties. Her European status means she is not allowed to be formally identified as a victim of human trafficking. Her only means of accessing services rely on her full cooperation with the police investigation, and declaring herself as a victim of crime. This still doesn’t provide her with sufficient care tailor made to people with her experiences. Due to Linas years of abuse, she is suffering from extreme PTSD. Every time she needs to repeat her story it erodes away at her and prevents her healing.
Years later when they finally bring her trafficker to court she is forced to sit in the same room as him and listen to his ‘defence’ and the reasoning behind his actions. Years of suffering end with a non conviction.
Adah Abbas
The final persona illustrates the group of women who have been trafficked from outside of Europe, in this example, West-Africa. These ladies have a deep cultural belief system that is used as a method of control. They are told the condition to a ‘new life’, is a promise of full obedience to their new boss. This contract is sealed by a Voodoo ceremony which involves eating organs & drinking blood. Then they are given fake documents and a plane ticket to Dublin.
Once they arrive the exploitation begins. Similarly to Linas story, Adah is working to pay off a never ending debt. However Adah is afraid to go to the police as she believes the Voodoo spell will give her family great illness. After many outreach attempts from Ruhama she finally breaks free. Because Adah has no documents she is formally identified as a victim of human trafficking. The Gardaí give her the opportunity to collaborate but she declines and chooses to seek asylum for fear of retribution.
She is given a bed in a direct provision centre. The only issue is that Adah is extremely vulnerable and therefore, she is preyed upon by multiple men who live with her and is approached by habitual sex buyers who wait at the Direct Provision bus stop. After only a few weeks of living at the DP centre she becomes exhausted and her trafficker comes by to take her back to work.
Key Insights
“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.”
-Carly Fiorina
Insight summary
Better Detection Methods
We found that there was a lack of data/statistics surrounding the prostitution/human trafficking industry. After researching further we concluded the reason for this is:
- The lack of trust between Victims & Guards means many don’t want to make statement.
- The variety of control methods that are not visually easy to spot
Threshold for identification is too high
When a woman shows indicators of being a victim of human trafficking there is a formal identification process the guards undergo to confirm their concerns. The only problem is the threshold for identifying victims is formally is very specific and marginalises a lot of victims.
Direct provision is unsuitable
We learnt that many women who are placed in Direct provision receive no specific care to aid their trauma recovery, therefore they are re-victimised by men taking advantage of their vulnerable state. This happens through rape, frequent sex buyers targeting Direct Provision bus stops and by traffickers simply to collect them.
Better access to trauma centred therapy
Women who are victims of sex trafficking can experience the same levels of PTSD as a front line army veteran. There is a lack of adequate care specifically geared towards helping women recover from sexual trauma.
Statement re-victimisation
If a victim escapes and finds the courage to come forward and speak to police she must tell them her story in detail. There is no formal data collection tool used so the information cannot be passed on to other NGO’s, doctors, therapists etc. This leads to the women repeating her story multiple times which can slow down there recovery process.
Care outside for women outside Dublin is limited
During our interviews we learnt there is limited care for victims of sex trafficking in most counties outside of Dublin. The process takes longer as communication from a distance is VERY difficult when trauma and/or language barriers are involved.
Court design & Re-victimisation
Ireland is on a tier two watchlist. We learnt one of the main reasons for that is because we have no convictions since 2013. In order for the court to convict a trafficker they MUST have a victim present in the court room willing to make a statement. This is highly traumatic for women as court cases can take years to process so alot of victims have began the healing process and do not want to be questioned/interrogated in the same room as their trafficker. Most women pull out of the statement leading to a dropped case.
