Are you a victim of labor trafficking?
If you believe you are a victim of labor trafficking, please contact 1-888-373-7888 for help or to talk. Help is available in your language. It is free and it is confidential.
What is labor trafficking?
Labor trafficking occurs when victims are pressured, fooled or forced to work for little or no pay. They are often trafficked to manufacture or produce products we use every day. Sometimes victims are tricked to work in homes as nannies, maids, or domestic help for very little or no pay and limited personal freedom.
Are you a victim of labor trafficking?
- Are your personal documents like your passport or work visa being withheld from you?
- Are you not receiving payments on time or at all?
- Is a portion or all of your pay going to finance your housing, food, clothing, etc?
- Do you fear something bad will happen to you or a loved one if you leave your current employment situation?
- Has your employer forced drugs on you that have made you addicted?
- Are you allowed to speak for yourself or are you silenced?
- Are you forced to live in cramped poor conditions?
- Are you not free to come and go as you please?
- Are you told what to say and do?
- Are you forced to live with your employer?
- Are you being threatened by your employer or anyone else?
- Do you have any possessions of your own are you allowed to have your own belongings?
The Lee Family’s Story
A volunteer social worker from China lured a foreign mother who spoke broken English and worked three jobs into giving up her children. This mother was being abused by her husband and had no family to lean on. She was beaten down and vulnerable, only wanting the best for her children. She felt she was failing to provide them with the food, education, and safety they needed.
The Chinese woman claiming to be a volunteer social worker was charismatic and controlling. She earned the trust of the desperate mother. Over the next few years, she helped incarcerate the drunk, abusive husband and doted on the woman’s children, taking them on vacations to her home in China, buying them clothes, and introducing them to different cultures.
Eventually, the female predator convinced the vulnerable mother she’d care for the children. However, she did not follow through with her promise of getting the kid’s a good education or social life. She also did not follow through with her promise to keep the mother and her children in communication. For the next 13 years, the children moved from country to country experiencing mounting levels of physical, emotional, and mental abuse. They cleaned around the clock and cared for hundreds of chickens and other farm animals. They were even given caffeine pills to stay awake to work.
After 5 years of being moved to the U.S illegally by the trafficker, alert neighbors got involved and made an alert to social workers, and the kids were freed.
Additional Resources:
For more information or help – consider these resources.
If You See Something, SPEAK UP!
If you think you have witnessed human trafficking, do not hesitate to call the national human trafficking hotline:
This project was support by Grant number 2017-VA-GX-0050 awarded by the Office of Victims of Crime, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication, program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office of Victim’s Crime.