LOS ANGELES – A recent U.S. State Department report says 27 million people worldwide are subject to forced labor and sexual slavery. A major effort is under way in California to fight the problem. Virginia Isaias was forced to marry at 15 in her native Mexico, and later kidnapped with her six-year-old daughter and forced into prostitution. Her story is told in a documentary now being produced, called Sands of Silence. Isaias herself is now an anti-trafficking activist who talks about the cost of human trafficking to groups such as this one, in Santa Ana, California.
Source: Californians Target Human Trafficking
“They take your baby and give it to another woman and they give another woman’s baby to you. So a mother is less likely to flee. They also threaten you and have people watching over you,” said Isaias.
IsaIas escaped and paid a ransom for her child. Her story is all too common, says filmmaker Chelo Alvarez-Stehle.
“Because of globalization, or migration, that pushes people to move from one country to another and they become vulnerable to traffickers,” said Alvarez-Stehle.