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Trafficking victim speaks out
'Katya' describes her enslavement after
Claire Reising
Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: News
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When she traveled from Ukraine to the U.S. three years ago, the woman known for her safety as "Katya" planned to study and work. Instead, she was forced into bonded labor at a strip club for six days a week and 12 hours per day. She had no contact with the outside world for months.
"We didn't have any rights," she said.
Katya told her story yesterday at "Bought and Sold: Human Trafficking and Bonded Labor in the U.S.," a Center for Social Concerns symposium held in the Notre Dame Law School courtroom.
The symposium also featured Notre Dame law professor Bridgette Carr, Angus Lowe, senior special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs, and junior Katherine Dunn, who has encountered human trafficking victims during service-learning internships.
Katya's testimony recounted how a Ukrainian acquaintance tricked her into leaving Virginia Beach, where she was working, and going with him to Detroit, where two men enslaved her. She said the men took away her legal documents and passport and claimed she owed them thousands of dollars for travel. At age 19, her life consisted of working at Cheetah's strip club and enduring abuse from her captors.
"Many times they screamed at us. They beat us," Katya said. "It was really scary. I never saw my mom for three years. For me, it was really hard because at that point, I was only 19."
Months later, Katya and another victim she lived with managed to escape when a patron of the strip club contacted Lowe and helped the women escape to a hotel
"The first hours when I ran away were the scariest hours of my life," Katya said.
Carr explained that the fear human trafficking victims experience also inhibits them from trying to escape.
The speakers told the story of a woman who escaped from Katya's captors. The men reacted by having an accomplice attempt to firebomb her car.
"They thought thoroughly through how they would psychologically terrorize these women so they would never think of escaping," Carr said.
"We didn't have any rights," she said.
Katya told her story yesterday at "Bought and Sold: Human Trafficking and Bonded Labor in the U.S.," a Center for Social Concerns symposium held in the Notre Dame Law School courtroom.
The symposium also featured Notre Dame law professor Bridgette Carr, Angus Lowe, senior special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs, and junior Katherine Dunn, who has encountered human trafficking victims during service-learning internships.
Katya's testimony recounted how a Ukrainian acquaintance tricked her into leaving Virginia Beach, where she was working, and going with him to Detroit, where two men enslaved her. She said the men took away her legal documents and passport and claimed she owed them thousands of dollars for travel. At age 19, her life consisted of working at Cheetah's strip club and enduring abuse from her captors.
"Many times they screamed at us. They beat us," Katya said. "It was really scary. I never saw my mom for three years. For me, it was really hard because at that point, I was only 19."
Months later, Katya and another victim she lived with managed to escape when a patron of the strip club contacted Lowe and helped the women escape to a hotel
"The first hours when I ran away were the scariest hours of my life," Katya said.
Carr explained that the fear human trafficking victims experience also inhibits them from trying to escape.
The speakers told the story of a woman who escaped from Katya's captors. The men reacted by having an accomplice attempt to firebomb her car.
"They thought thoroughly through how they would psychologically terrorize these women so they would never think of escaping," Carr said.