New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Antonio (Tony) DiBenedetto, the owner of Rocco's Bakery, his wife, Anna and their two sons, Ferdinando and Giovanni are being sued for allegedly trafficking a family from Ecuador to work in their bakery. The family says Tony DiBenedetto beckoned them to the U.S. with the promise of labor, then kept them under a form of modern slavery, forcing them to work long hours below minimum wage and demanding sexual favors from the women in exchange for rent money.
Location
United States · New Haven, Connecticut · 2008 (location generalized to protect survivors)
Response & intervention
Mercedes, one of the trafficked women, went to a meeting at City Hall on June 4th to support immigrant-friendly ID cards. Her picture and an article were put on the front page of the New Haven register, and Tony DiBenedetto saw it and fired her on the spot. Merecedes turned to her church for help. Manship and Nadia Minor (two leaders of the church) helped Mercedes find legal help. The family decided to file suit, even while the rest of the family continued to work at the bakery. They called ICE for help. ICE helped the family escape. In the middle of the night on June 21, in unmarked government cars provided by ICE, the women and their children fled for safety. Social workers from the International Institute in Bridgeport have helped them relocate.
They were relocated.
Social workers from the International Institute in Bridgeport and ICE
Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don't have a verifiable source on file yet — use “Report a problem” below to add one.