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Dear Warriors For Truth, My name is Beatrice Fernando, and I am the newest member of the
American Anti-Slavery Group's "Bearing Witness Program" for survivors of
slavery.
I am a native of Sri Lanka and a survivor of slavery. On behalf of the many survivors of
slavery in the "Bearing Witness Program," I want to thank you for your support.
Because of you, we have a platform to speak out, tell our story, and help play a
leadership role in the anti-slavery movement.
I testified before the U.S. Congress on modern-day slavery. The hearing on "Combating
Human Trafficking" was held by the House International Relations Committee. I was on
a panel of experts, including the director of the State Department's Trafficking Office. I
shared my story with congressional leaders and suggesting new policies – based on my
experience – that the US government can implement.
If I close my eyes, the memories of pain take me back to a time when I felt all alone. It
happened two decades ago, but it feels as if it were happening right now.
I am at the airport in Columbo, Sri Lanka, saying good-bye to my three-year-old son. With
his eyes filed with tears, he asks, "Can't I come with you, Mom? When you make a lot
of money will you by me a car to play with?" My heart breaking, I take him in my
arms, and tell him, "If I have the money, I will buy you the world." My
desperation to give him a better life has driven me to leave him with my parents, to go to
Lebanon and be a maid.
At the job agent's office in Beirut, my passport is taken away. The agent makes me stand
in line with a group of women in the same predicament as me. Lebanese men and women pace
in front of us, examining our bodies as if we were vacuum cleaners. I am sold to a wealthy
woman, who takes me home to her mansion up on the forth floor of a condo building.
My chores seem unending. I wash the windows, walls, and bathrooms. I shampoo the carpets,
polish floors, and clean furniture. After twenty hours I am still not done. There's no
food on my plate for dinner, so I scavenge through the trash. I try to call the job
agency, but the woman who now owns me has locked the telephone. I try to flee the
apartment, but she has locked the door.
I can feel the burning on my cheeks as she slaps me. It is night and her kids have gone to
bed. Grasping me by the hair, she bangs my head into the wall and throws me to the floor.
She kicks me and hits me with a broom. If I scream or fight back, she will kill me. So I
bite my lips to bare the pain and then I pass out. This is my daily routine, the life of a
slave...
Let me make a few observations about the problem of human trafficking from the point of
view of someone who experienced it.
1) We need more public awareness campaigns about the dangers of trafficking. I got swept
up in human trafficking because I did not understand the risks. I needed to make money,
and like many people from South and Southeast Asia , I pursued work in the Middle East . I
didn’t know my passport would get taken away, and I didn’t know that I
wouldn’t get paid.
We can reduce the power of traffickers by educating at-risk populations. People don’t
know what can happen to them and can easily be tricked. So here is my suggestion: We need
to make sure there are public service announcements and public education campaigns, not
just in the US but around the world. For example, I am ready today to record a message for
Sri Lankans, in Singhalese, telling them about what happened to me and warning them to be
aware.
2) We need to monitor – and make sure other governments are monitoring – the job
agencies that send so many people to work in the Middle East . In my case, there was an
office in Sri Lanka and an office in Lebanon . The directors of these offices are both
responsible for what happened to me. They did nothing to help me, and they never paid me.
These agencies are sending thousands of people to work overseas. In fact, the population
of Kuwait is two-thirds foreign workers. The percent of foreign workers in the United Arab
Emirates is even higher. People like me are actually the majority, even though we have no
guaranteed rights.
The waves of workers arriving in these countries come through job agencies, but the
agencies are not being watched closely enough. One idea is to insist that agencies have
registration programs, so relatives of workers can always track them down. My parents back
in Sri Lanka were worried sick about me and couldn’t understand why I wasn’t
answering their letters. But they had no way to reach me. We need accountability, and we
should pressure governments around the world to monitor job agencies more closely. And job
agencies should be made liable if employees’ rights are violated by the contracted
employers.
3) We need to give survivors of slavery a platform to speak out and help other survivors
recover. After I jumped off the balcony, I blacked out. I woke up later in the hospital,
paralyzed. Eventually, I got a flight home to Sri Lanka . I didn’t speak much about
what had happened to me. I was ashamed, and I quietly prayed to God for strength. Only a
few years ago, I began to feel I was ready to discuss what had happened to me. So I sat
down and wrote my autobiography, which has now been published under the title In Contempt
of Fate. And thankfully I met someone from the American Anti-Slavery Group, an
organization that has adopted me as a member of its “Bearing Witness Program”
for survivors of slavery.
We need to remove the shame from slavery. To do that, survivors need to talk openly about
their experience in order to help victims of trafficking recover. Our message is that
there is no reason to be ashamed, even though you will at first feel ashamed. Our message
is that you have to believe in yourself and hold on to your faith, even if people will
treat you like an animal. There is a spiritual and psychological side to the recovery
process that should not be neglected.
4) We need to have even tougher monitoring of foreign countries. Every year, the State
Department’s annual report on trafficking should list the amount of money each
country spends on anti-trafficking efforts. We need to evaluate if funding matches
performance. The report should also document the repression of anti-slavery groups. For
instance, in Mauritania the government still bans the abolitionist group SOS Slaves. The
US should do more to support anti-slavery activists in repressive countries where the
government doesn’t allow free discussion on the issue of slavery. And the US should
fund a commission of government officials and NGO activists to ensure the liberation of
all slaves in Sudan.
Dear congressional leaders, I speak before you on behalf of the millions of slaves who
could not be here even if you invited them. Just a few weeks ago I read about an
Indonesian maid enslaved in Bahrain who, like me, was so desperate that she jumped off a
fourth-floor balcony. It pains me to think that two decades after I had to dive off a
balcony to save my life, women are still facing the same agonizing situation.
We can be doing much more to help these women – and children and men. We need to
educate them about the dangers of slavery before they get caught up. We need to monitor
the job agencies that ensnare them. We need to help them overcome their shame after they
escape. And we need to hold accountable the repressive governments that are part of the
problem rather than part of the solution.
I just wanted to thank you again for caring. It means so much to me to know that tens of
thousands of Americans are active in the anti-slavery movement.
Thank you again so much
In Freedom, Sub-Committee on Africa , Global Human Rights, International Operations
Congressman Smith and Members of the Sub-Committee: |
