Slave maids cost the price of a smart phone

[n2doc]

By Susan V. Ople, Special for CNN

If you ask young people what they could get for U.S. $200 or less, their answers would probably include a tablet, a smart phone, or a designer bag. Not on the list, a foreign maid - unless you live in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, or any country in the Middle East.

In the United States, maids are for the rich and famous. Modern-day slavery in the western world commonly wears the face of a prostitute, a trafficked child, or an illegal migrant exploited by his or her employer. For third world countries, human slavery often has the face of a domestic worker isolated from society and kept invisible inside private homes of their employers.

As an advocate for migrant workers’ rights, I have seen slavery up close. It has many faces: a jealous female employer, sexual predators, pimps, illegal recruiters, and corrupt officials. Common among them is the belief that a foreign domestic worker is a commodity to be used or sold, or both.

Sarah (not her real name) was a Filipino domestic worker sold 11 times to different employers in Saudi Arabia. She ended up in a hospital after being beaten black and blue by the last of her employers. She was repatriated home without months of unpaid wages. Slavery has left its thumbprint in the way she speaks, at times incoherent, and in her distrust of people.


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http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/09/slave-maids-cost-the-price-of-a-smart-phone/

[PowerToThePeople]

1. i don't have words... n/t

[Mnemosyne]

2. They view no one other than themselves as human, makes it easier to abuse someone. nt

[XemaSab]

3. "Whore's Glory"

It's on Netflix, and it's about sex workers in Thailand, Bangladesh, and Mexico.

In Bangladesh, a girl is sold from one brothel to another for $90. She looks 15 and she says she's been a prostitute for 8 years. Girls at this brothel sell themselves to around 12 men a day for 60 cents a pop. Every girl born in the brothel can expect to die there.

There are no words.

[pnwmom]

4. A woman told me that there was a Filipina who was being held a couple blocks from me

by "Arabs."

The woman who told me is Filipina herself, and she helped the other woman escape. She never wanted to talk about it again. I think the escapee is still hiding somewhere, because the employer had her passport and she was afraid she'd be sent back to the Phillipines.