How do the victims of human trafficking, seen as guilty of sexual soliciting or having irregular immigration status, become right-holders and ensure that the abuses they have suffered are acknowledged? The purpose of this paper is to understand this process by resituating the “career” of the trafficking victims within the context of their relationship with the institutions that are supposed to protect and/or control them: police forces in charge of identifying them; support groups and NGOs providing social assistance to prostitutes; and courts where the most serious procuring cases are tried. By resituating the different steps composing a victimhood trajectory in its relationship with the above institutions, the paper also contributes to a sociological analysis of the legal-bureaucratic work of categorizing individuals deprived of the resources necessary to defend their rights.