ward avenue honolulu, United States

Higa understands the frightful reality better than most, because she herself was trafficked from China under the false pretense that she was going to a women's business school. When she arrived at a hotel to meet an instructor that would accompany her to the U.S., she was brutally beaten, raped and robbed of her belongings and personal documents. "Think about a girl who's been raped so many times she can't even recognize it as rape anymore, it's just part of her life," she said. Higa, like so many other modern-day slaves, was brought to Hawai'i and forced to work in a brothel on Ward Avenue. If she did not make enough money for the pimps and mama-sans, she was not allowed to eat, drink or sleep.

← All documented casesReport a problem