'We are not broken'
One of the major obstacles to combatting trafficking is that more often than not, victims are not aware they are in a slavery situation.
Survivors of modern-day slavery often struggle to self-identify as human trafficking victims until long after their escape from their abusers, due to the complex nature of the crime.
“I did not know I was in slavery situation until I escaped,” Ima Matul told reporters at the offices of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), in Los Angeles this month.
Matul managed to escape in 2000, after three years of forced and unpaid labour at a suburban home near Los Angeles.
It was only when she made contact with lawyers and social workers at CAST that she realised she was a survivor of human trafficking.
“That is when I learned I was in a slavery-like situation.”
And, with the right help and support, Matul says recovery from the ordeal is possible.
“You may hear survivors are broken, and that they remain broken for rest of their lives. We are not broken. We are individuals just like you, and we rise back up after what happened. And many of us are leaders in this movement, we are speakers, we go out there and speak out on this issue, raising awareness and also finding solutions on how to end this.”
Not alone
Katherin Solits, an immigration attorney at Ayuda, a non-profit organisation that provides legal and other services to low-income immigrants in the Washington D.C. metropolitan, confirmed this paradox recently. “Interestingly, a lot of our clients have never self-identified as a human trafficking survivors,” she explained, until they reach out to Ayuda for visa-related enquiries.
“It's not until we really start digging into what past abuses may have happened, that we may recognise that they qualify as a human trafficking survivor.”
A human trafficking guide notes: “Trafficking victims do not always see themselves as victims, often blaming themselves for their situation. This makes discovering this crime more difficult because victims rarely self-report.”
The lack of self-identification is mostly observed in labour trafficking cases, experts say.
Force, fraud and coercion
Matul's passport was confiscated almost immediately by the family who had lured her from Indonesia to the United States when she was 17.
Her trafficker, an Indonesian acquaintance with US citizenship, and her husband, took her home and almost immediately, the promises that had persuaded her to take the job, crumbled.
Behind closed doors, a life of forced slavery took shape.
She was fed with leftovers from the family's table, forced to sleep near the kitchen “in the corner, on the floor” and worked 20 hours or more a day.
She had no days off.
The abuse began with verbal threats and insults and escalated to physical abuse.
After one savage beating, she was taken to the emergency room, only after the husband of her trafficker “insisted”, Matul recounted.
“I got stitches on my forehead, but because I did not speak English and I was threatened by my trafficker not to say anything, I just let the husband do the talking. I couldn't tell the nurse or doctor that I was being abused. So I was just sent home.”
Kay Buck, the CEO and executive director of CAST, said that Matul's case underscored the importance involving medical professionals in combatting human trafficking.
“Her case in fact helped us understand the role that health practitioners play in identifying human trafficking, because unfortunately they sent her home with her trafficker.”
See no evil
For three years, Matul joined the family at a church every Sunday, surrounded by other families in the Indonesian community where her trafficking situation was taking place.
But no one recognised her for what she was; a domestic slave.
“From the outside looking in, you can't really that that I was in this type of abusive situation. My trafficker was also a member of the church choir, with her husband. Once a week we went to practice. With other people around, she didn't seem different.
Everything seemed normal. But behind closed doors, it was different.”
She said she did not blame the neighbours and understood now the difficulty in identifying victims of labour trafficking in seemingly innocuous situations.
After three years of round-the-clock abuse, she escaped after writing a letter to a neighbour pleading for help.
Progress and recovery
At CAST, Matul received counselling, legal assistance and job training.
She joined support groups and learned to speak and write in English.
She has received numerous awards for her leadership and in September 2012, she was recognised by President Barack Obama as a hero in today's abolitionist movement.
Matul says recognising the root causes for trafficking; including poverty, migration issues and volatile country scenarios, are crucial to tackling the crime.
“Knowing where the food you eat comes from, making sure it does not involve slave labour, or the clothes you wear, or the phone you use; if every individual realises that, then trafficking may end.”
She was the founder and coordinator of the Survivor Leadership programme at CAST which brings together survivors of diverse forms of human trafficking to combat the crime on a national level.
Matul has reached out to her home country to raise awareness of the there.
*Namibian Sun journalist Jana-Mari Smith is in the United States on invitation by the US Department of State's Foreign Press Centre. She has joined 19 other journalists from around the world to take part in an international reporting tour to create awareness and gain insight into combatting human trafficking through prevention, protection and prosecution.
JANA-MARI SMITH
“I did not know I was in slavery situation until I escaped,” Ima Matul told reporters at the offices of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), in Los Angeles this month.
Matul managed to escape in 2000, after three years of forced and unpaid labour at a suburban home near Los Angeles.
It was only when she made contact with lawyers and social workers at CAST that she realised she was a survivor of human trafficking.
“That is when I learned I was in a slavery-like situation.”
And, with the right help and support, Matul says recovery from the ordeal is possible.
“You may hear survivors are broken, and that they remain broken for rest of their lives. We are not broken. We are individuals just like you, and we rise back up after what happened. And many of us are leaders in this movement, we are speakers, we go out there and speak out on this issue, raising awareness and also finding solutions on how to end this.”
Not alone
Katherin Solits, an immigration attorney at Ayuda, a non-profit organisation that provides legal and other services to low-income immigrants in the Washington D.C. metropolitan, confirmed this paradox recently. “Interestingly, a lot of our clients have never self-identified as a human trafficking survivors,” she explained, until they reach out to Ayuda for visa-related enquiries.
“It's not until we really start digging into what past abuses may have happened, that we may recognise that they qualify as a human trafficking survivor.”
A human trafficking guide notes: “Trafficking victims do not always see themselves as victims, often blaming themselves for their situation. This makes discovering this crime more difficult because victims rarely self-report.”
The lack of self-identification is mostly observed in labour trafficking cases, experts say.
Force, fraud and coercion
Matul's passport was confiscated almost immediately by the family who had lured her from Indonesia to the United States when she was 17.
Her trafficker, an Indonesian acquaintance with US citizenship, and her husband, took her home and almost immediately, the promises that had persuaded her to take the job, crumbled.
Behind closed doors, a life of forced slavery took shape.
She was fed with leftovers from the family's table, forced to sleep near the kitchen “in the corner, on the floor” and worked 20 hours or more a day.
She had no days off.
The abuse began with verbal threats and insults and escalated to physical abuse.
After one savage beating, she was taken to the emergency room, only after the husband of her trafficker “insisted”, Matul recounted.
“I got stitches on my forehead, but because I did not speak English and I was threatened by my trafficker not to say anything, I just let the husband do the talking. I couldn't tell the nurse or doctor that I was being abused. So I was just sent home.”
Kay Buck, the CEO and executive director of CAST, said that Matul's case underscored the importance involving medical professionals in combatting human trafficking.
“Her case in fact helped us understand the role that health practitioners play in identifying human trafficking, because unfortunately they sent her home with her trafficker.”
See no evil
For three years, Matul joined the family at a church every Sunday, surrounded by other families in the Indonesian community where her trafficking situation was taking place.
But no one recognised her for what she was; a domestic slave.
“From the outside looking in, you can't really that that I was in this type of abusive situation. My trafficker was also a member of the church choir, with her husband. Once a week we went to practice. With other people around, she didn't seem different.
Everything seemed normal. But behind closed doors, it was different.”
She said she did not blame the neighbours and understood now the difficulty in identifying victims of labour trafficking in seemingly innocuous situations.
After three years of round-the-clock abuse, she escaped after writing a letter to a neighbour pleading for help.
Progress and recovery
At CAST, Matul received counselling, legal assistance and job training.
She joined support groups and learned to speak and write in English.
She has received numerous awards for her leadership and in September 2012, she was recognised by President Barack Obama as a hero in today's abolitionist movement.
Matul says recognising the root causes for trafficking; including poverty, migration issues and volatile country scenarios, are crucial to tackling the crime.
“Knowing where the food you eat comes from, making sure it does not involve slave labour, or the clothes you wear, or the phone you use; if every individual realises that, then trafficking may end.”
She was the founder and coordinator of the Survivor Leadership programme at CAST which brings together survivors of diverse forms of human trafficking to combat the crime on a national level.
Matul has reached out to her home country to raise awareness of the there.
*Namibian Sun journalist Jana-Mari Smith is in the United States on invitation by the US Department of State's Foreign Press Centre. She has joined 19 other journalists from around the world to take part in an international reporting tour to create awareness and gain insight into combatting human trafficking through prevention, protection and prosecution.
JANA-MARI SMITH
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