Human trafficking is trafficking of people where force,fraud or coercion is used. The purpose is usually for providing labor, services or commercial sexual activity.Human trafficking and forced labor/ slavery is a crime in the USA but still exists in today’s day and age.Well it is unbelievable but true. January is Human Trafficking Prevention month. Since 2010, the President has dedicated this month to raise awareness about human trafficking and to educate the community about how to identify and prevent this crime. Discussing the subject of Human Trafficking is vital to promote awareness about this timely and relevant topic.According to the Department of Defense, in 2023 $99 billion dollars is estimated to be made through sex trafficking and $51 billion per year is made through forced labor. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, out of 24.9million people trapped in forced labor in the United States, 16 million people are exploited in domestic work, 4.8 million are forced into sexual exploitation and 4 million people are addressed by the US government.
According to the National human trafficking hotline reports, since 2007 Wisconsin has had 796 human trafficking cases, involving 1,640 victims.
Today, I will be reviewing the book Hidden Girl by Shyima Hall and Lisa Wysocky is a memoir of a young woman who lived a life under slavery during her childhood . Through this book Shyima Hall bravely shares her experience as a modern-day slave and the challenges she faces on the path to a new life in America.
The book starts off with a young 8-year-old Shyima living in Cairo, Egypt with a family with multiple siblings who were combating poverty . Although her family didn’t have much money, or a nice house, she still felt loved and cared for by her family. Her childhood was good until one day, when her parents sold her into slavery to work for a rich Egyptian family so she could make money for them. When her captor’s family decides to move to the United States, they smuggle Shyima illegally so that she could continue working for them. Shyima completely dreads this as her captors are abusive and don’t give her any resources that a child of her age deserves including education or medical care. They don’t provide her with good food,clothes or medical care but instead rely on her for all household duties including cooking, cleaning their house, watching their kids and obeying their instructions. She was forced to live in the garage of the house and had to work 16 hours everyday. Few years later in 2002,a concerned neighbor got suspicious and called the police. This anonymous phone call led to her rescue. She was put in foster care systems and finally got adopted. Her captors were convicted and sent to prison followed by deportation. Shyima didn’t know English and had never been to a school. However, after the rescue she went to school and despite all challenges managed to become a strong and independent woman.Today, Shyima continues to share her story of being trafficked and being enslaved at a young age. She volunteers at the Police Department in California serving the community and ensuring nobody goes through what she went through. The book not only shares the perspective of a survivor but also provides resources to identify individuals who have been trafficked or under forced labor and ways to help.