Slavery In The Suburbs

Special Report: Slavery In The Suburbs

They came from different countries, but share the same story of looking to better their lives only to end up as slaves… and they're not alone.

June 2004: A woman from India said she was held hostage and treated like a slave.

August 2004: A massage shop owner admits to heading an international pimping ring.

March 2005: Two young Indonesian women were being kept as slaves.

"The sale of human beings is now the second most lucrative trade in the world," Mayli Miller-Muro of the Tahirih Justice Center said.

Andrew and David came to New Hampshire with the promise of high paying jobs with the now closed Bradley Tree Company.

When they arrived at Logan airport from Jamaica, their new bosses took them into an elevator, then took their passports and their freedom.

They were driven to a Litchfield, New Hampshire home and forced to work like slaves and live like animals.

"It was a shed, a tool shed," Andrew said. "That's where we are going to sleep that's where we are going to eat."

The cramped shed had no running water, no bathroom and barely any heat.

"That man gave me some kick, kick me kick me kick me," former slave David said.

They worked long grueling hours for very little money, and were ordered to pay $50 a week to rent that shed.

"They were putting fear in your head that if you leave they are going to come at ya, they gonna get cha’," Andrew said.

"All their freedom, all their human dignity is systematically taken away," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Zuckerman said.

Human trafficking and domestic slavery is getting worse in New England and across the country. Over the past four years the justice department has prosecuted over 200 cases.

"These kind of things can be going on right in front of us and we don’t necessarily recognize it," Zuckerman said.

One woman who lives in fear every day applied for an office job. Instead, she was fooled into becoming a slave, first in Saudi Arabia and then in America.

"They don’t see anything you do as good, whatever you do it’s not right," the woman said.

Now living in Massachusetts, she's still haunted by the threats she endured.

"She was saying ‘I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you with a gun’ and I didn't want to die you know because my daughter all the time I was thinking about her," she said.

The couple that held her captive are believed to be back in Saudi Arabia. As for Andrew and David, the man and women who brought them to America are both serving five years in federal prison.

(Copyright 2005 by WHDHTV 7News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Segment Information

Reported by:

Caterina Bandini

Producer:

Justin Solomon

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