Trafficked

In the world today, there are over 27 million people enslaved. The issue of human trafficking is a global issue, and it rears its ugly head in some surprising places.     I was shocked to learn that human trafficking is not a problem restricted to poverty-stricken areas in the developing world—it happens right here.   According to CAST (Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking), an estimated 10,000 women are being held in underground brothels in Los Angeles today. As a young woman living in Los Angeles, I find it horrifying that this is happening so close to where I live, and that so few people seem to know about it. Below is the story of a woman whom I met who experienced slavery first-hand.  Her story is unforgettable.

Konthi was 19, and had just finished high school in her home country of Sri Lanka. She was looking for a job through an agency in Singapore, and they found her one as a housekeeper.   Konthi’s mother was too sick to work, and her father was not making enough money as a carpenter to support the family. Her sister had been married off, and left her parents with no steady income.  Now it was up to Konthi to find work.

In 1996, she began working as a housekeeper for four adults at a house in Singapore. In 1998, she was asked to travel on vacation to Los Angeles with the couple for whom she had been working.  She was taken to the couple’s daughter’s home here, and told how to keep the house clean by a fellow housekeeper in the daughter’s home. Shortly after they arrived in Los Angeles, the couple from Singapore left to Canada and never returned, leaving Konthi at their daughter’s home.  Over the course of the following two years, during which time she was never paid,  Konthi she was forced to care for the children and pets, keep the home clean, wash the cars, endure the unpredictable temper of her boss, sew clothing, and, at times, clean the marble floors of the house with nothing but a toothbrush.  She was never allowed out of the house. Konthi asked daily for her pay, so she could send the money back to her family in Sri Lanka, but her boss gave her nothing.   When she was finally allowed to send her family a letter, she received a reply which stated that her father had passed away while she had been gone, leaving her mother alone. Konthi begged to be allowed to go home,  but her boss refused.

On May 15, 2000, Konthi’s luck changed. There was a knock on the door of her bosses’ home.   Just as they always did when company came, the family told Konthi to go upstairs and lock herself in the closet so no one would get suspicious.   Later, her boss came upstairs and told her that the IRS had come by, the she had not allowed them in.. When the IRS returned to the house several times, the boss put Konthi in one of her own nice dresses and told the IRS that Konthi was a visiting  niece. When the IRS asked for Konthi’s passport and learned that she didn’t have one, Konthi was immediately taken away by an immigration agent. That was Konthi’s lucky day.   She was introduced to a woman named Jenny who worked at the CAST offices, who took her to a safe house and had her tell her story in court.

Just when Konthi thought that she was safe from her boss, she noticed that when she was in court, the interpreter wasn’t telling the judge everything she was saying.  Konthi complained and told CAST that she felt like she wasn’t being represented properly.  She was right.  She later found out that the interpreter had been approached in the courthouse parking lot by Konthi’s boss, who told her what to say in court so that the boss would not get in trouble for mistreating Konthi.

Eventually, Konthi was able to tell the truth to the legal system, and she was given a TVISA, which allowed her to stay in the United States temporarily.   During this period, she was not allowed to travel out of the country, but she took the risk and went back to see her family in Sri Lanka. She was able to stay there and take care of her dying mother. 

In April 2002, Konthi moved into her own apartment and took nursing assistant courses.   She started working in a nursing home and is taking classes at a local college to get her RN degree. She sends money back to her sister in Sri Lanka and has paid for all of her nieces’ and nephews’ education. Konthi is a member of the CAST caucus and loves her role as advocate, telling her story to increase public awareness of the issue of human trafficking.

There are millions of more stories similar to Konthi’s. In my opinion, the government should make prosecuting human traffickers a higher priority. It is not only women that are trafficked—men are trafficked as well, and in some cases even young children. A recent report cited human trafficking as the third largest criminal industry in the world. More than 1.2 million young people are trafficked every year, and if we don’t stand up and demand something be done, the number will likely continue to rise. Last year the United Nations launched a petition that would encourage people to take a pledge towards preventing the trafficking of people. While acts like this are positive, it is up to law makers and government officials to create legislation to prevent trafficking. At the end of our conversation, I asked Konthi what she thought the solution was.  She said, “Education through prevention.” If there were one thing that Konthi could tell women in foreign countries, it would be that they have rights as human beings and do not have to be slaves.