No pay, no freedom: Brazil struggles to rescue maids from slavery
AUGUST 12, 2020 / 11:06 PM / UPDATED 42 MINUTES AGO
Fabio Teixeira
6 MIN READ
RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Whenever Elisa goes out in her small town in northeastern Brazil, she fears seeing the family she once considered her own.
After almost three decades of domestic work with no pay and little freedom, Elisa realized she was a slave and plotted to escape the household where she had lived since the age of seven.
The 38-year-old was rescued in 2018 after alerting the authorities and has started to build a new life. But a reminder of her captivity, fear and exploitation is never too far away.
“Every now and then I see the family,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from her home in Ipira town in Bahia state. The family told officials they took Elisa in as a child after she was abandoned by her parents when they separated.
“It is kind of a horrible, difficult feeling,” added Elisa, who did not give her real name for fear of reprisals. “There’s a sense of fear, even though they can’t do anything to me.”
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-trafficking-domesticworkers-fe/no-pay-no-freedom-brazil-struggles-to-rescue-maids-from-slavery-idUSKCN2590CT?rpc=401&
