Stories of Bangladeshi trafficking victims.
- Unknown female, 12 years old, 2004
"A twelve year old Bangladeshi girl was kidnapped from her family in Bangladesh and smuggled into India where she was sold to a large scale trafficker. To force her into sleeping with up to 10 men a day for money to benefit the traffickers, her owners gang raped her and tortured her for days. This young girl exemplifies a common case among Bangladeshi and other Middle Eastern and South Asian victims."
- Halima, 17 years old
"I was brought here a few years ago, I lived in the streets at that time. A man took me to Daulatdia, the biggest brothel in Bangladesh. He sold me to the owners, who kept me in a room and gave me drugs. Then, a man suddenly came in and started taking off my clothes. I didn't understand what was happening," the young woman says, "I've been working like this since I was 12. That's when my brother sold me to a brothel for 5,000 taka."
- Amina, Unknown Age, 2012
"Amina left her home in Bangladesh to take what she thought was a job in Lebanon as a maid. Despite the promise of opportunity, she found herself exploited at the hands of an abusive employer. She was tortured, molested, and confined to the house for three months. 'I was hardly given any food,' she said later on. 'In solitary confinement in a room, I had no idea what Lebanon even looked like.'"
- Ayesha, 13 years old
Ayesha, a 13 year old Bangladeshi girl married a man twice her age who she thought she loved and went to India, which upset her parents. Her husband told her to hide with his "aunt" until her parents stopped looking for her and could eventually live with him. Outside the aunt's house, Ayesha saw provocatively dressed women lined in the streets approached by men during the night. She soon learned that she would be joining those women. "To 'break me in,' I was raped several times a night for nearly a month before the madam started selling me to men for money. It was typical for me to have ten to twelve buyers a night. They were usually abusive, treating me as if they owned my body. I have a deep scar on my neck from a knife blade, which I got trying to save a young girl in my house from being gang raped. It almost killed me." Ayesha gave birth to three children in her captivity.
SOURCES:
Gustafsson, Jenny. "Human Trafficking in and from Bangladesh." The National. Arts & Lifestyle, 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 18 May 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenational.ae%2Farts-lifestyle%2Fthe-review%2Fhuman-trafficking-in-and-from-bangladesh%23page3>.
"Victims' Stories." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/192360.htm>.
Ayesha. "Survivor Stories." Ayesha. Equality Now, n.d. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.equalitynow.org/survivorstories/ayesha>.