Child maid trafficking spreads to U.S.

[dcsmart]

IRVINE, Calif. — Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door.

They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.

But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid.

Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.

The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer..

...She arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Aug. 3, 2000, according to court documents. The family brought her back to their spacious five-bedroom, two-story home, decorated in the style of a Tuscan villa with a fountain of two angels spouting water through a conch. She was told to sleep in the garage.

It had no windows and was neither heated nor air-conditioned. Soon after she arrived, the garage's only light bulb went out. The Ibrahims didn't replace it. From then on, Shyima lived in the dark.

She was told to call them Madame Amal and Hajj Nasser, terms of respect. They called her "shaghala," or servant. Their five children called her "stupid."


SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/28/child-maid-trafficking-sp_n_153814.html


see also a previous post of mine about slavery in Florida:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x411012

[Frustratedlady]

1. What a horrible story, and it doesn't appear prison taught the woman a lesson.

I can't believe that is going on in the United States.

I'm even more naive than I thought.

[progressoid]

8. Not only should she (and her husband) go back to prison,

we need to spread the word to other nations that we don't tolerate that crap.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

2. Hey, it's Globalization!

Those American maids are making too much!

:sarcasm:

[dipsydoodle]

3. Words defy me

x(

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

4. Spreads? I'm willing to bet it's been here for a while.

I wonder how many families on Fifth Avenue do the exact same thing.

[norepubsin08]

5. probably one of these poor children in the White House

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I couldn't read the link.

Did these asshats get deported?

[progressoid]

7. Here's the epilogue:

EPILOGUE: On a recent afternoon in Cairo, Madame Amal walked into the lobby of her apartment complex wearing designer sunglasses and a chic scarf.

After nearly two years in a U.S. prison cell, she's living once more in the spacious apartment where Shyima first worked as her maid. The apartment is adorned in the style of a Louis XIV palace, with ornately carved settees, gold-leaf vases and life-sized portraits of her and her husband.

She did not agree to be interviewed for this story.

Before the door closed behind her, a little girl slipped in carrying grocery bags. She wore a shabby T-shirt. Her small feet slapped the floor in loose flip-flops. Her eyes were trained on the ground.

She looked to be around 9 years old.