Tales of torture from victims of trafficking

DHAKA: When Inoka Priyangani left her home and family in Sri Lanka as a 21-year-old to work in Kuwait, she had no idea what awaited her. She was bundled off to work as a maid by an agent, Harshana.
When she wanted to leave because she was being maltreated by her employers, the agent beat her up for complaining and raped her.
"He also brought other men whom I was forced to service...I lived in a state of virtual slavery for five months," recalls Inoka.
When she did manage to escape, she approached her embassy for help, only to be told by an official there that she was lying. She was promptly handed back to Harshana. After numerous such attempts, Inoka finally made it back home, two months pregnant.
Inoka''s was among the several testimonies narrated by others similarly battered women from South Asia at a symbolic "Court of women on the violence of trafficking and HIV/AIDS" organised here by the Asian Women''s Human Rights Council and UNDP.
They came from different countries but their stories were common. Most of them had been lured into lea-ving home with the promise of a job but on reaching the other country, were either forced into prostitution or made to work as cheap lab-our in inhuman conditions.
Ten-year-old Najma of Pakistan was sold by her uncle to a feudal landlord as a bonded labourer, Fulon from Bangladesh was sold by her mother-in-law to a tout who brought her to India and pushed her into prostitution while Tuni from Orissa had a similar tale to tell.
Few people in the audience remained unmoved as these victims spoke about the pain and suffering they had endured.
"Trafficking is nothing but modern slavery... It seems slavery never ended. My struggle in South Africa is nothing compared to what these women have gone through," thundered Winnie Mandela, the fiesty and controversial president of the African National Congress Women League, who fought ceaselessly against apartheid and has been at the forefront of the women''s movement in South Africa.
"In South Africa, nobody forced us to join the struggle. We had a choice between being a freedom-fighter or a collaborator but these women were given no choice," she remarked.
The stories of the trafficked women also painted a horrific picture of the enormity of the problem.
The organisers said that trafficking in humans for profit has emerged as the third largest form of illegal trade after drugs and arms with South Asia emerging as the hotspot in this global trade.