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by Sophie Hayes*

I was pleased to be asked to write a foreword to Megan’s deeply moving story. Then I thought about it a bit more and began to get anxious: it felt like a big responsibility to introduce something so personal and so incredibly important to Megan. I needn’t have worried though. As soon as I read the manuscript of her amazing book Bought and Sold, I realised that Megan can speak for herself and that what I was really being asked to do was give my support to another survivor of sex trafficking. And as supporting survivors of human trafficking is a cause that’s very close to my heart, I would like to add my voice to Megan’s and reiterate a couple of the points she raises in her book.

One of the aspects of Megan’s story that particularly struck me – apart from her bravery and the brutality of the treatment she endured for so long – was her explanation of the psychological fear that prevented her from trying to escape, even when she apparently had opportunities to do so.

Being paralysed by fear and by the belief that, in some way, you deserve the terrible things that are being done to you are common themes among people who’ve been trafficked for sex. I know it’s an aspect that some people find impossible to understand. Perhaps I wouldn’t have understood it either, before it happened to me.

The truth is that, although all human traffickers are ruthless criminals, most of them aren’t stupid, and it isn’t purely by chance that they choose victims who are likely to be compliant – and very frightened – in response to physical violence and psychological bullying. If reading Megan’s story makes a few more people understand that, she will have done a great service to other victims and survivors of trafficking.

It wasn’t very long ago that no one talked openly about child or domestic abuse. Then a few extraordinarily brave people told their stories and, gradually, we started to gain a better understanding of the true extent of these crimes and of the devastating effects they have on their victims. Now, we need to do the same thing in relation to human trafficking. By raising awareness of an appalling crime that can affect anyone, male or female, of any age, nationality, intellectual ability or social background, Megan’s book may actually save lives.

At the Sophie Hayes Foundation, we’ve recently set up a Survivors’ Network to enable young women like Megan to meet other women who’ve had similar experiences and who share their sense of isolation, guilt and loneliness. For some of our ‘survivors’, it’s the first time they’ve been able to talk openly about their experiences to people they can trust. I’ve been touched and very impressed to witness the support they give each other; it’s a privilege to watch them evolve and grow into the people they were always meant to be. One of the women in the Survivors’ Network writes amazing poems, another is a talented artist, some have already been to college and others are about to start.

You don’t ever ‘get over’ the experience of being trafficked: you never forget the physical assaults or the fear or the terrible, all-enveloping feeling of being alone. But, like Megan, you can refuse to be crushed by it or to allow your life to be defined by the horrific things that have happened to you.

When you have read Megan’s story, you may still believe that you would never allow yourself to be coerced, intimidated and frightened into becoming a victim of human trafficking. But I hope that you will have some understanding of the reasons why many millions of people do become victims of it.

* Sophie Hayes is the author of Trafficked, the Sunday Times number one bestselling memoir of 2012. After the publication of her book, Sophie set up the Sophie Hayes Foundation (www.sophiehayesfoundation.org), a charity that works tirelessly to raise awareness of human trafficking and provide support for its victims. In October 2014 she was awarded the Courage in Justice Award from the Crown Prosecution Association for the demonstration of bravery, inspiration and resilience in the face of adversity.