From policies to lived experience and back: the struggle for reintegrating returnees of human trafficking in Goiás State (Central West Brazil)

Abstract

This article is based on a fieldwork research conducted mainly in the Brazilian state of Goiás, with a focus on the returnees of human trafficking (HT). The text is funnel-shaped: from the international and national policies, to the relevance of Goiás state as a hotspot area for investigating both the phenomenon and the measures to counter it, to the voices of some key governmental and non-governmental operators directly assisting and caring about the needs of the ex-victims, up to the everyday more intimate life of an emblematic case of a social actor. The aim is to let emerge the complexities of the standpoints around the issue of reintegration of the returnees of HT. The return is conceived not only as a mere geographical displacement, as a simple homecoming or as a matter of good protection policies and programmes. It is also approached as a deep, long and tortuous resettlement of the subjectivities undertaking it. Indeed, through the story of Sabrina, I intend to point out the value of good policies, state measures, humanitarian aid services, but also the distance between these last ones and the actual conditions of the psychosocial suffering of the return migrants, their families and communities.