King's College London

The Re-integration and Risks of Re-trafficking for Survivors in the Philippines project saw Dr Ella Parry-Davies (Department of English) and The Voice of Domestic Workers collaborate on a project focused on examining the outcomes for migrant domestic workers returning to the Philippines after experiences of trafficking.

Inspired by participatory and co-creative research approaches, the initiative placed experts-by-experience from outside academia in investigative roles. Co-researchers, themselves Filipina domestic workers trafficked to the UK, conducted 23 online interviews with survivors of trafficking in the Philippines. In April 2023, Ella and the co-researchers participated in a workshop where they collectively analysed the interview transcripts. The co-researchers received training in research and ethics. They were also supported by therapeutic supervision at key points throughout the project to consider the ways that conducting this research had affected them personally.

The workshop findings informed the creation of a policy brief, which was unveiled in June 2023 at a media launch held at King’s College London. In addition to raising public awareness of human trafficking, the brief will contribute to the currently deficient ‘country of origin information’ for the Philippines used in trafficking and immigration cases. For Filipinx trafficked domestic workers currently at risk of being removed from the UK, its conclusions are thus potentially life-changing. The project also brought benefits to co-researchers by providing them with professional training and helping them develop a deeper understanding of their capacity to drive systemic change, particularly when it comes to the issue of human trafficking.