This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork with Romanian victims of human trafficking in Italy. The paper examines how ambivalence as a concept can open up to new understandings of my informants’ experiences of relatedness, objectification/subjectification and bodily practices, analyzing their romantic relations, relations to traffickers and recruiters, family members and ‘fellow victims’ – also dealing with informants who move between categories such as ‘victim of trafficking’ and ‘trafficker’. Issues of distancing, trust and the durability of and the strategic use of categories will be discussed. In which ways are these elements negotiated and lived in a destination/transit country (Italy) and in a country of origin (Romania)?