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The testimonies of human trafficking survivors that appear in this section of the site are compiled from a variety of sources, including print and online media, television, governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and individual survivors. Note: All the news stories are the copyright of the publications. All non-public sources have granted Polaris Project permission to include the testimonies for the purpose of raising awareness about the real life experiences of men, women, and children who have been forced into labor and sexual exploitation.
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“People … think trafficking only happens in India and China. Just because you make $100,000 a year and live in a fancy house doesn’t mean that it won’t happen to your kids,” Flores told TODAY’s Natalie Morales in a taped interview that was done for an MSNBC special titled “Sex Slaves: The Teen Trade” that will air Sunday (10 p.m. ET).
Erica MacDonald, a federal prosecutor assigned to sex trade cases, confirmed Flores’ account.
“These are cases that we work on on a regular basis,” MacDonald told TODAY’s Amy Robach after watching Flores tell Morales of her ordeal. “These are things that are happening to our youth in our suburbs. It not just something that happens just to the poor or in the inner city. It’s something that happens to every single one of our youth.” Read more... |
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The late-night calls began when Theresa Flores was 15.
In 1980, before everyone had a cell phone, the private phone that Flores' parents had installed in her bedroom was a luxury. But it nearly proved her undoing.
Minutes after getting a call, Flores would silently slip out of the house, cut through the backyard and get in a car waiting at the curb. She would then be whisked away from her home in an affluent Detroit suburb to homes and hotels, anonymous places where she was forced to have sex for hours with strangers.
"I can't describe to you the feeling of terror. No child should ever have to know that kind of fear. I didn't know what I was going to have to endure that night, for how long, or if I was going to come back home."
What started innocently with Flores' infatuation with an older male classmate turned to date rape caught on film by some of the rapist's friends. They used the photos to blackmail the girl into sexual slavery that lasted two years and involved hundreds of men. Read more... |
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For almost a year, 20-year-old Katya, a university student from Ukraine was forced to work strip clubs in Detroit by two men she thought were taking her to a waitressing job in America.
Alex Maksimenko’s and Michail Aronov imprisoned her and 15 other women in separate apartments around Detroit.
Katya: "We couldn't kept any money in our apartment because the guys has keys. They have, I believe, there was listen us in the apartment. And we could not hide nothing. They're say, if they find at least a dollar, it will be something bad happen to us."
The 12 hour shifts yielded up to $1000 a night but the women saw none of it. |
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"I met my boyfriend at my girl-friend’s house. He had been dating me for a month already when he told me he was going to marry me. My boyfriend told me we could earn some money for our wedding if we went to work in Greece at his friend’s company. |
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"When the war started I decided to go to Karabakh to help wounded soldiers. I was there during the whole period of military activities. After the cease-fire I came to Armenia, but there was no work and no means to live. My neighbour was going to Turkey to do trade. |
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"My name is Anita Sharma Bhattarai. I am 28 years old. I am from Nepal. Last year, my husband took another wife. Soon after, he began to beat me, torment me, and disregard my children. I decided it would be best if I and my children moved out of our home.
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Bopha lived in a rural village and married at 17. Her husband immediately took her to a hotel in another village and left her. |
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"Your Royal Highness, distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Youth Delegates:
Allow me to start by saying that it is a profound honour to be representing the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which represents some 50 NGOs around the world and such an honour to give the keynote address on an issue of deep, personal importance to myself.
Firstly, I would like to tell you about myself for just a moment. I am a survivor of Commercial Sexual Exploitation. I grew up in the sex trade in Canada from the age of 14- 22. During those eight years in the sex trade most of my friends died; they died from drugs, AIDS, violence, murder and some from suicide. |
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"My name is Dawn and I am a daughter, sister, mother and contributing member of society. I am also an abused and molested child, former drug addict and prostitute. My life started out fairly normally up until my parents divorced when I was six years old. |
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Deng, in her late 20's, was recruited in her native Thailand to travel voluntarily to Australia where she was told she could make lots of money as a prostitute. Upon arrival in Australia, however, she was met by traffickers who took away her passport and locked her in a house. |
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THE FRONTLINES