The Weekly
Observer Volume 14 | Issue 2
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Trafficked African migrant rescued after two years of hell in sex trade Shruti Suresh An African migrant was forced into the sex trade in India and infected with HIV. Miria (name changed), 24, was rescued by a Bangalore aid group and says she was forced to sleep with scores of men every day by a woman who promised her a new life in India. Miria is among the thousands of women trafficked every year across India from the African continent. In 2013, 3,940 human trafficking cases were reported nationwide, with 254 of those in Karnataka. There have been 131 reported cases in Bangalore this year alone. Miria was just 13 when her dad was killed by his brother over a land dispute. She fled to Uganda with her family. While in Uganda, Miria befriended her neighbour Rahma and used to babysit her child. By the time she was 22, Miria was an unwed mother and desperately wanted a job. Rahma, who had moved to India, contacted and told her that she would get her a good job in New Delhi. She got the documents required for Miria to travel to India. In July 2012, Miria went to Kenya with a friend of Rahma and via Kenya came
to India. The middleman gave her passport and documents to Rahma in Delhi, before disappearing. Rahma took her to a small house and kept her
would help me. I didn’t have a passport. I wanted help but couldn’t ask for it. “They would send men to beat the girls, pull their teeth out or gouge their
The trafficking survivor rescued in Bangalore. there with four more girls. Miria said: “My mother didn’t know where I was or what I was doing. I didn’t tell her anything. I just believed I would make money and help her.” Rahma started asking her to sleep with men. Finally, she understood she had been betrayed by someone she considered a friend. She said, “I realized that Rahma had set me up.” Rahma told her she would have to make money for her by sleeping with men. I did not have anyone who
eyes out. They did damage one would never forget in life. Two girls were killed because they refused to do such work,” she said. She was asked to bed more than ten men every day, mostly African. Even if she was ill, there was no respite from the ordeal. She said: “They won’t listen. All they cared was about money. They didn’t have any feeling, any heart.” Nigerian men double her size were sleeping with her. Sometimes when unwell, she pleaded with them to
leave her alone. She said: “If I had died it wouldn’t have mattered, my life was not important, only money was. He had paid for me to sleep with him." “I couldn’t complain to the police. If I did, they would send me to the embassy. The embassy was very far, if I tried going there, I would be killed,” said Miria. Once, a man choked her and hit her so hard that she started vomiting blood. “I will never forget what that man did to me," said Miria, retreating into tears. According to Miria, there was a network of pimps like Rahma. Miria was diagnosed HIV positive eight months ago. Rahma called and threatened her mother that she would kill her daughter if she didn’t return her money. One day she told her story to a friend Mable and sought help. Mable bought her tickets to Bangalore and gave her Rs. 2000. She said: "I reached out to the police three times but they did not help me as I did not have any documents to prove my identity. They asked me to go to the FRO (Foreigner Registration Office). “Again, I was asked to go to the embassy but they
wouldn’t give me any papers to support that my documents were taken away from me. I was helpless.” She was eventually taken to a shelter home in Bangalore. She said: “I had no idea about my case. I stayed there for four months like a prisoner. One day, I told them ‘I will kill myself.’ They got scared.” She then called her mother, who contacted the Uganda High Commission and the Red Cross. But the police did not take any action to arrange her return to Uganda. She ran away from the shelter with no place to go to. Mrs. Seema Diwan, head of Talaash, an NGO in Bangalore said: “She was rescued from near Byrathi village in Bangalore. The association is set to obtain tickets for her return to Uganda and we are awaiting a travel permit for her.” Mr. Hamlet, Program Officer at Talaash said, “What made her case difficult is her refugee status in Uganda.” She is now housed at a shelter run by missionaries, which is for HIV patients. Miria believes things will be better when she goes home. Her mother knows what she has been through, and her family is anticipating her return.