reallives12

Tina, a teenager from a rural Indonesian village, incurred hundreds of dollars in debt for
four months of domestic service training and board over four months at an Indonesian
migrant labor center. From there Tina, like many other Indonesian girls, was transported to
Malaysia, believing she would work as a maid for a Malaysian couple. Forced to work up to
15 hours a day in a family business where she slept on the floor, Tina was told her salary
would be withheld until she finished her two-year contract. After many instances of physical
abuse, she sought refuge at a victims' shelter of a Malaysian NGO. Tina has filed a
complaint with the police against her employer and has been given an extension of her
immigration visa in order to pursue her case in Malaysia.
Victims of human trafficking pay a horrible price. Physical and psychological harm,
including disease and stunted growth, often has permanent effects, ostracizing trafficking
victims from their families and communities. Trafficking victims often miss critical
opportunities for social, moral, and spiritual development. In many cases the exploitation of
trafficking victims is progressive: a child trafficked into one form of labor may be further
abused in another. In Nepal, girls recruited to work in carpet factories, hotels, and
restaurants have been forced later into the sex industry in India. In the Philippines, and in
many other countries, children who initially migrate or are recruited for the hotel and
tourism industry, often end up trapped in brothels. A brutal reality of the modern-day slave
trade is that its victims are all too often bought and sold many times over.
Victims forced into sex slavery are often subdued with drugs and suffer extreme violence.
Victims trafficked for sexual exploitation suffer physical and emotional damage from
premature sexual activity, forced substance abuse, and exposure to sexually transmitted
diseases including HIV/AIDS. Some victims suffer permanent damage to their reproductive
organs. Moreover, the victim is typically trafficked to a location where he or she cannot
speak or understand the language, compounding the psychological damage from isolation
and domination. Ironically, the human capacity to endure unspeakable hardship and
deprivation leads many trapped victims to continue to work, hoping for eventual freedom.
Trafficking in Persons Is a Human Rights Violation. Fundamentally, trafficking in persons
violates the universal human right to life, liberty, and freedom from slavery in all its forms.
Trafficking of children undermines the basic need of a child to grow up in a protective
environment and the right to be free from sexual abuse and exploitation.