will not be paid and/or that their travel documents have been retained not temporarily, but permanently. In some cases the full extent of betrayal and the real motivations of the trafficker are never fully accepted or realized by the victim. HBF clinicians assist victims to come to terms with the full realization of the betrayal of their trust by traffickers. However, in some cases, usually those in which a number of traffickers have been involved in a particular network, it can be extremely difficult for people to fully confront or understand their history and be able to “unpack” the webs of deception into which they have been led. This process takes time in therapy (sometimes years), and the clinician has to establish a relationship of trust that the victim knows they can rely upon. In the meantime, the challenges of fully comprehending their betrayal by traffickers who operate within networks, can compromise victims’ well-being and safety. For example, if the person who initially deceived the victim is a link in the chain of a trafficking network, but is not the person who directly inflicted the abuse and exploitation upon them, the victim may not realize their involvement in the trafficking, or may struggle to recognize and acknowledge it, even after the truth becomes clear. A West African woman trafficked for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation Temi was hospitalized after an accident. She suffered a coma and spent a year in hospital learning to walk on crutches. A man known as Dr. Smyth visited the women’s accident ward regularly. He took an interest in her and offered to help her by sending her to the UK for a better life and education. Once there, he passed her on to a trafficking network. She was subjected to a Juju ritual and forced to work as a prostitute. In therapy sessions we explored her difficulty in accepting that Dr. Smyth, who had shown so much sympathy and apparent kindness to her, was, in fact, her trafficker. Having lost the rest of her family she had put her faith in him. “Sometimes I try to think who was he, what was he doing in the hospital, how come he was close to me? Did he know what he was bringing me to? He was so nice to me. There are many things I don’t even know.” A person who does not fully comprehend acts of initial deception by an apparent friend, lover, or a person whom they trusted, may continue to remain in contact with that person or take advice from them after leaving the control of traf- 72 fickers. This can place them at further risk of serious harm. In addition, if they have not fully understood the sequence of events that led to their exploitation, and therefore how a particular network operated in order to traffic them, their account may be considered implausible or inaccurate and this could prevent them from obtaining the protection and assistance that they need. An account of experiences that sounds “unrealistic” or incredible at first hearing may reflect the fact that the victim has not fully understood all the facts of their own trafficking situation. An African woman trafficked as a child for domestic servitude Christine was trafficked at age 13 from West Africa by a woman she was told was her estranged mother. Once she arrived in the UK she was forced into domestic servitude for her “mother” and her other children. She was subjected to cruel and humiliating treatment with the family, but she believed that like them, she was a British citizen. When she reached the age of 17 she ran away and tried to rebuild her life and obtain an education. However, she later learned that the trafficker was not her mother and that she was not British. Her whole sense of identity was shattered. She had to apply for asylum in the very country she had thought of as her home. Relatives and friends of the victim may be unwittingly complicit in cases of trafficking. However, there are also cases in which family members are knowingly complicit or actively involved. A victim who has been intentionally trafficked by people with whom they have a close or familial relationship may find it impossible to believe that they could be responsible for serious harm inflicted upon them, even when faced with all the facts of their trafficking situation.