Domestic Servitude2005
Sudan SD
Brad Phillips of Persecution Project Foundation says that since the 1980s, the Muslim National Islamic Front government has sanctioned the taking of Christians and animists from the south part of the nation to be sold to Muslims as slaves in the north. The two sides have been engaged in a civil war for several years. In this human trafficking case, the victim was a Sudanese Dinka boy was sold into slavery at age 7 in 1987. His Arab master officially gave him an Arab name, but always referred to him only as “abid”, meaning “black slave.” He served his master for ten years, and was often beaten, tortured and abused. His master considered all blacks, and especially Christians, as lower than animals. The victim was raised Christian and desired to worship God, but his master told him every day that he had no business worshipping, since he was of no more value than a donkey. One Sunday, the victim heard singing coming from a Christian church and was drawn to join in. While he was in worship, some of the camels that he had been charged with escaped. His master flew into a rage and swore to kill him in the same way that Jesus was killed. He beat the victim severely from head to toe, then laid him on a plank and nailed him there, driving spikes through his hands, knees, and feet. He then poured acid on his legs and left him for dead. The victim lay on the plank for seven days, but the master’s son showed him kindness by secretly bringing him food and water and eventually took him to a medical facility. The victim eventually returned to his master, but he saw little value in the now-crippled boy.
Forced Labor2005
Togo TG
A local recruiter called a "navi" (meaning "aunt" or "big sister" in the Kotokoli language) came to see the victim, she was receptive. Her father had died and her mother and stepfather had left her and her sister on their own. The victim knew a Muslim girl must have a dowry in or to marry and knew that many girls went to Nigeria to make money. The recruiter offered just what she wanted--a chance to travel to Nigeria with her to make money to save up for her dowry. The recruiter even offered to pay for the trip. She told no one, but one day got into the recruiter's truck with 50 other Kotokoli girls on their way to Nigeria. The trip took three days. Finally they arrived in Shaki, in the north of Oyo State. They were told to line up so that their future employers could select their workers. A Nigerian woman selected the victim and she was taken to live and work with other girls. A piece of cloth on a mud floor was her only bed. The girls did housework and cooked dishes which they sold on the street. After a time the employer began prostituting them at night as well as working them all day. She was only 11 years old when she was first forced into prostitution. Sometimes they had to go to work so immediately that there was no time for them even to eat. After 2 years the victim discovered she was pregnant. She told the man she thought might be the father, and he paid for her to abort the child by taking herbs. After the abortion, she escaped from that house and looked for work elsewhere. She escaped the prostitution but still had no decent place to sleep and worked all day with no pay. Then her first employer found out where she was and began to threaten her. She'd been at the second place for 8 months when she escaped from there, too. She found another woman who spoke her language, and the woman arranged for a man to drive her back to Togo. The trip took five days. She had virtually no money, so the driver paid for her food along the way. AT the Benin-Togo border she was forced to walk across in order to avoid the authorities, and she was attacked and beaten by thieves hoping she might have something worth taking. She didn't. When she arrived home, the driver told her family they owed him the equivalent of $60. The family told him they would try to save it up and pay him. They are still working on it.
Forced Criminality2005
Peru PE
Through word-of-mouth, the girls heard about Generacíon. They went to the organization's house for street kids and spent time there until the house was closed on May 17th 2005.
Sex Trafficking2005
United Kingdom GB
A Chinese man was found in the same flat as the woman and arrested on suspicion of being involved with trafficking women for prostitution.
Domestic Servitude2005
United States US
In 1999, Maude and Saintfort Paulin arranged for the 14-year old victim to come to Miami from Haiti to work in their home. From 1999 to June 2005, Maude Paulin, along with her mother Evelyn Theodore, forced the victim to work as a domestic servant in their home, cleaning, cooking, and doing yard work. The victim worked up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week. She was forced to work through psychological and physical force, and with threats of jail and deportation back to Haiti if she refused to work. She was not paid.
Sex Trafficking2005
United States US
The leaders of the prostitution ring, Martin Carbajal-Servin and Estella Aguilar-Ortiz, a husband and wife were living inside the United States illegally. They recruited a young woman from Mexico using the promise of a legitimate job in Myrtle Beach. They then forced her into prostitution and threatened to kill her if she did not comply.
Sex Trafficking2005
New Zealand NZ
A 60 yr old male New Zealand National and brothel-keeper (Michael Hastie), reportedly to have been involved in the escort industry for 26 years, coerced a 15 year old female New Zealand National to work as a prostitute in his home. The girl was deemed to be lured by the perpetrator after he admitted to booking and paying for the girl's bus ticket into the area. The perpetrator had sex with the victim before coercing her to work as a prostitute, from which he took a cut of the earnings. The perpetrator was charged but found not guilty to supplying cannabis to the victim.
Sex Trafficking2005
United States US
Seven defendants pled guilty to forced labor and obstruction of justice charged. The Kang's received four counts of knowingly and intentionally holding their Jane Doe's as well as four counts of aggravated sexual abuse. A Federal Air Marshal and a Dept. of Homeland Security agent were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice for attempting to force one of the victims to get on a flight to South Korea to keep her from testifying against the couple.
Sex Trafficking2005
United States US
Agni Lisa Brown (a.k.a. “Agni Lisa Graham,” “Michelle,” and “Lisa”) and her daughter Maria Antoinetta Mourizaki (a.k.a. “Tonia”) ran a brothel located in Springfield, Virginia between the years of 1997 and 2005. The brothel was open 6 days a week, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. The prostitutes were often illegal immigrants in the United States, some of whom had been trafficked into the country by human traffickers. Information on the traffickers is unknown since Brown and Mourizaki were uncooperative and did not divulge this information. The women were trafficked from multiple areas, including but not limited to Mexico and Thailand. Brown and Mourizaki hired women around the ages of 18-25, convinced them to engage in illegal prostitution, transported them over state boundaries, and housed many of them in the brothel. They had a diverse work force that included Asian, Hispanic, and American women. The exact number of women who worked in the brothel during its time of operation is unknown, but it is believed that a small number of women worked there for a long time. In the case of at least one of the trafficked victims, the woman paid a large sum to enter the United States; when she was sold to Brown, Brown assumed her debt, and so the women fell into a situation of debt bondage. Agni Lisa Brown split the money earned from the brothel into five bank accounts at Burke and Herbert Bank and 5 bank accounts at Suntrust Bank. She used that money to pay for the rent of the brothel from 2000-2005, to pay for the utilities and maintenance of the brothel from 2000-2005, and to pay for newspaper advertisements in both the “Adult Employment” and “Adult Services” sections of the Washington City Paper from January 2002-March 2005. Brown also laundered money from the brothel. During the time the brothel was open, she deposited $731,432 into bank accounts, purchased $633,504 in properties and cars, and kept $168,900 in her home.
CSEC2005
United States US
After several episodes of abuse, molestation and rape by relatives, this child was sent out to “get money” by her mother during frequent periods when there was no food or utilities in the house. “Boyfriend” kidnapped this child and transported her from Alameda County to Sacramento County where she engaged in prostitution. Subsequently commercially exploited by various unknown adult males.
Bonded Labor2005
United States US
The family that owns this restaurant also owns one in Jacksonville, AL. They own a house near the Oxford restaurant where they keep Mexicans in poor conditions in the basement, and do not allow them to become friendly with any Americans that work at the restaurant. Their wages are strictly controlled, and they work seven days a week. If any repairs are needed in the kitchen, they wait until an item breaks, then withhold earnings until it is repaired. There is no transportation to anywhere but work, and the conditions at the house are primitive at best. Personal items are discouraged by the lack of security, no doorknobs, appliances, beds, etc. The Asian workers, who have cars and freedom, live in the upstairs portion of the house
Forced Labor2005
United States US
Ron Evans recruited workers from homeless shelters in New Orleans, Tampa, and Miami, among other cities, promising them good jobs and housing. The victims then came to Evans’ labor camps in Palatka, FL and Newton Grove, NC. Evans then deducted money for rent, food, crack cocaine, and alcohol from the workers’ pay. In Palatka, the camp was surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. Ron Evans worked for the grower Frank Johns, who in 2004 served as Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (a lobbying organization within the Florida agricultural industry).
CSEC2005
United States US
Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein asked victim to become his sex slave. Victim was taken to several cities and countries and required to satisfy "every sexual whim" of both Epstein and his friends.
Bonded Labor2005
United States US
JIAN ZHONG TANG, 37, used employment agencies in New York, Chicago, and California to find and employ workers for his restaurant, the New Great Wall in Tacoma, WA. The workers never filled out any paperwork related to their employment, never provided any proof of their status in the U.S. and were paid in cash. TANG admitted he knew some of the workers were not legally in the United States. TANG was sentenced to ten months in prison and three years of supervised release for Concealing and Harboring an Illegal Alien.
Forced Criminality2005
United States US
Senior Pastor Richard G. Manning is the senior pastor of the Parma Baptist Church. He was arrested on a felonious rape charge. Police said he coerced a Thai immigrant into having sex by making her believe he could have her deported because she is not a U.S. citizen.
Sex Trafficking2005
United Kingdom GB
3 Eastern European men from Kosovo, Albania & Lithuania trafficked 2 girls (18 & 19 years old) from Lithuania to Sheffield (one girl was further trafficked to London – this case can also be viewed on Slavery Map). On arrival at Gatwick airport, their passports were taken and they were auctioned to a group of men in the ‘Costa’ coffee bar. They were then taken to a flat in Sheffield to begin ‘working’ under threat of torture or death. They were told that they would be kept in baths of ice or shot dead if they refused to sleep with who they were told. The traffickers also threatened that if they disobeyed, they would be sold onto traffickers in London, who would lock them up and give them no food. Both girls were never left unattended and all calls were monitored.
CSEC2005
United States US
Several traffickers (four adult males, one adult female, all U.S. citizens) participated in a prostitution ring of one victim (13 years old, female, U.S. citizen). The victim’s father sold the sexual services of the victim to his friends. The victim received money and candy in exchange for the rapes. The father raped the 13-year-old victim and another daughter who was 17 years old at the time. Authorities charged Joseph Saunders (DOB 03/28/1937) of Reynoldsburg, Ohio with three counts of compelling prostitution and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct. Saunders pled guilty to all charges. Licking County Common Pleas Judge John Spahr sentenced Saunders to 24 years imprisonment, payment of court costs and attorney fees, and registry as a sex offender. also in the case, his friends... Ohio v. Bly, Case # 2005 CR 00654 (2005). Authorities charged Garry Bly (DOB 10/13/1939) of Columbus, Ohio, with ten counts of compelling prostitution, ten counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and one count of illegal use of minor in nudity oriented material or performance. Bly pled guilty to all charges. Judge Jon Spahr sentenced Bly to 14 years imprisonment, payment of court costs and attorney fees, and registry as a sex offender. Ohio v. Coss, Case # 2005 CR 00662 (2005). Authorities charged Thomas Coss (DOB 08/27/1977) of Buckeye Lake, Ohio, to two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. Coss pled guilty to both 39 counts. The court sentenced Coss to two years imprisonment, payment of court costs and attorney fees, restitution, and registry as a sex offender. Case # 2005 CR 00652 (2005). Authorities charged the victims’ father with three counts of rape (a first-degree felony) and three counts of gross sexual imposition (a third-degree felony). The father admitted to raping his two daughters and pled guilty to all counts. The court sentenced the trafficker to 18 years imprisonment, payment of court costs and attorney fees, registry as a sex offender, and five years of post-release probation. Ohio v. Smith (2006). Authorities charged Joseph Saunder’s girlfriend, Trudy Smith, 26, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, with two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. The court found Smith mentally ill in April, 2006 and ordered her to undergo six months of treatment at a medical facility.
Domestic Servitude2005
Saudi Arabia SA
The employers were charged with negligence for not providing Nour with proper medical care, assault and mistreatment. The male employer's charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. The female employer admitted to beating Nour and was sentenced to 35 lashes. That sentence was later overturned. Nour was awarded the equivalent of $668USD in damages. Nour was also charged with falsely accusing her employers (after changing her story when being interviewed by the police without legal counsel or an advocate). Nour spent a few days in jail and was sentenced to 79 lashes. That sentence was later overturned.
Sex Trafficking2005
United States US
This international sex trafficking syndicate lured a young college student, You Mi, from her home in South Korea February 2003. She was promised a well paying hostess position at a restaurant so that she could pay off her $40,000 shopping debt back home. Instead, the traffickers took her to an illicit massage parlor in LA, where she was manipulated and used to pay off her $20,000 trafficking debt. She left the Massage parlor in July 2003 $0 richer and headed on a bus for San Francisco. She found that since she was an illegal immigrant, the only available work for her that was lucrative enough to pay off her debt was sex work. She wondered into the Sun Spa, where she was immediately handed off to the "masseuse" with the most seniority. For the next four months she endured a life that she had never imagined back in Korea. The Tenderloin is where the bulk of San Francisco's 90 illicit massage parlors are concentrated, identifiable by double metal security doors, surveillance cameras and windows that are blocked out with aluminum foil, plastic garbage bags or paint. She'd spend her waking hours at Sun Spa, having sex with more than a dozen men a day, six days a week, and scurrying into secret hideaways during police raids. Her share of the rent on her apartment was $300 per week. You Mi would also have to pay $50 a day for food, a $40 weekly tip to the cook, plus a $70 weekly tip to the Sun Spa manager. She also had to pay for her wardrobe, $100 per bikini top or bottom. Her tips from customers were typically $100. See Operation Gilded Cage post for more details about trafficker.
Forced Labor2005
United States US
While living in Juventino, Mexico, Olivia Zepeda recruited four workers to work for her three sons’ roofing business, Golden Roofing LLC. The workers signed four-year work contracts with the brothers. They took a bus to a border town in July 2006, and a smuggler took them across the border. In Austin, Texas, the victims met up with two of the brothers (Juan and Jenaro Gutierrez) who drove them to St. Louis. The smuggler was allegedly paid $4,000 per worker. After arriving in St. Louis, the victims were abused, threatened, and their activities were restricted. Their smuggling debt kept increasing every time they asked about it.
Domestic Servitude2005
Togo TG
A local "waga" or trafficker of children from her home area contacted the victim whose family she knew to be poor offering her a job in Nigeria. The victim, hoping for the best, did not inquire as to what kind of job she would receive or the conditions of work. The young girl was handed to an intermediary who accompanied the victim and other girls by bus on a winding three-day trip over back roads to Agegai, Nigeria. All along the way they picked up other victims. The victims had no money to pay for their trip, so agreed to work for six months to pay off the cost of their voyage. They had nothing to eat along the way. Meanwhile, the family at home was frantically searching for their daughter. In Agegai, Nigeria, 15 girls from Togo and Benin lived and worked in a filthy kitchen where they prepared food to sell on the streets to local workers. They had quotas to sell and were forced to prostitute themselves if they did not meet the quotas. The victim began to suffer from dysentery and suspected she was pregnant. Then the supervisor threw a knife at her and cut her wrist deeply. She escaped, but alone on the streets she fell victim to another man who held her as a virtual prisoner for three months. Desperate, the victim stole some money and fled to the road station, where she begged a driver to take her home. She arrived home six months' pregnant, penniless, sick, and owing the driver for the trip. She was not welcomed by her family. The grandparents finally tok her in.
Forced Criminality2005
Togo TG
A logal waga or recruiter lived in the victim's village in Central Togo. She was an older woman who took up to three girls to Nigeria every year to work selling on the streets. Sometimes the girls came back alone, sometimes with her. Some of the claimed to have made the equivalent of $55 a day. The victim wanted to earn money to enable her to take a vocaitonal apprenticeship, since her family was no longer able to pay for schooling for the children. The Waga agreed to pay for the victim's trip and deduct it from future wages. One night the victim took $3 from the family's money, packed a few clothes in a plastic bag and went to meet the waga. She and another girl and the waga walked to the highway and caught a car, changing vehicles and drivers many times. Eventually they ended up in Cotenou, a city in the southeast part of Benin near Nigeria. The girls were hidden for two days in a house, then smuggled into Nigeria in a car taking a back road.
Domestic Servitude2005
Togo TG
The victim was a girl who had completed primary school but was unable to go on to attend middle school because of lack of finances. A family friend presented them with the idea that she go to work in Lome. He said he knew someone who was looking for help in their boutique. The victim traveled to Lome with the friend, and the girl was introduced very briefly to her knew employer in Agbelapedo, a busy transit hub. The employer offered her the equivalent of $6 a month to care for her four children and the house and make tea to sell in the boutique, then help out there. However, she found that she was subjected to both verbal and physical abuse as well as food deprivation. She was fed only scraps, but often there was nothing left. In one instance, she was accused of stealing money and was severely beaten. It was eventually found in the son's pocket.
Sex Trafficking2005
Japan JP
See above. In 2005, this was the first arrest under a new law which Japan introduced in June to combat human trafficking. The Metropolitan Police Department stated this case was only the tip of the iceburg and planned to use recent amendments to the Penal Code, which criminalized human trafficking, to tighten its crackdown on such brokers. At the time the MPD determined that at least 77 foreign women found in 2004 to have been forced into prostitution were victims of trafficking, 48 of whom were from Thailand. Police were only able to take action on 23 brokers who introduced girls to pimps.