Human Trafficking & Human Slavery

Today Sasu Nina, the Executive Directress of the organization Agar, came in with one of their clients. Agar, which means helper in the Ethiopian language, is an organization whose mission is caring for and empowering the vulnerable in Ethiopia. One of its project is to respond to and rehabilitate girls that have been abused from Human Trafficking.

Halimat is a 20-year-old girl from a very poor remote village in northeastern Ethiopia. She has no education and cannot read or write. Young men solicit these girls with stories of a plethora of opportunities and a good life working as a domestic in the Mideast. In their own village the future is one of despair and poverty, so the sales pitch falls on fertile ears. Usually the trafficking route is through Djibouti, on a ship across the Red Sea to Yemen, where they walk for endless miles, are put in trucks for many days, and are sold by brokers several times to dealers on their way to Mideast countries. They enter the countries illegally and are placed as domestic workers with no pay.

Halimat, after working for a family in Abu Dhabi for 20 months, asked for some salary. The wife in anger pushed her off a fourth floor balcony. She sustained multiple fractures of the jaw and face. She could not open her mouth. She also had a right femur fracture. The police arrested her in that once she stepped outside the house she was illegal, i.e. illegal domestics are a prisoner to the house and cannot leave. She had surgery on her femur and then she was put in jail. The police paid for her air ticket back to Ethiopia, where she had multiple surgeries on her mouth and face. Agar strives to rehabilitate these girls as there is nothing for them in their home villages.

Destination countries include Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Dubai and Lebanon. Sasu has had 128 girls this past year at Agar as a result of human slavery from these countries. In one case the girl’s legs were cut severely when she asked for a salary. Many end in death.

I cannot imagine the courage that these young girls have to muster to embark on this evil journey. In the face of dismal poverty, no hope for the future and no family support they entrust their lives to strangers on trust and hope alone. Then to be betrayed into slavery and abused emotionally and physically is an injustice that defies imagination. The kindness, compassion and love that Sasu and Agar give to these abused girls must be honored. If it soothes the wounds of one young girl, it is a job well done by a faithful servant. (For more information on Agar visit their website.)
-- Don