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WORLD> America
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Child maid trafficking spreads from Africa to US
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-29 11:59 If you could fly the garage where Shyima slept 7,000 miles to the sandy alleyway where her Egyptian family now lives, it would pass for the best home in the neighborhood. The garage's walls are made of concrete instead of hand-patted bricks. Its roof doesn't leak. Its door shuts all the way. Shyima's mother and her 10 brothers and sisters live in a two-bedroom house with uneven walls and a flaking ceiling. None of them have ever had a bed to themselves, much less a whole room. At night, bodies cover the sagging couches. Shown a snapshot of the windowless garage, Shyima's mother in the coastal town of Agami made a clucking sound of approval. "It's much cleaner than where many people here sleep," said Helal, the child rights advocate. He explains that Shyima's treatment in the Ibrahim home is considered normal, even good, by Egyptian standards. Even though many child maids are physically abused, child labor is rarely prosecuted because the work isn't considered strenuous. Many employers even see themselves as benefactors. "There is a sense that children should work to help their family, but also that they are being given an opportunity," said Mark Lagon, the director of the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. That's especially the case for well-off families who transport their child servants to Western countries. In 2006, a US district court in Michigan sentenced a Cameroonian man to 17 years in prison for bringing a 14-year-old girl from his country to work as his unpaid maid. That same year, a Moroccan couple was sentenced to home confinement for forcing their 12-year-old Moroccan niece to work grueling hours caring for their baby. In Germantown, Md., a Nigerian couple used their daughter's passport to bring in a 14-year-old Nigerian girl as their maid. She worked for them for five years before escaping in 2001. In Germany, France, the Netherlands and England, African immigrants have been arrested for forcing children from their home countries to work as their servants. In several of these cases, the employers argued that they took the children with the parents' permission. The Cameroonian girl's mother flew to Detroit to testify in court against her daughter, saying the girl was ungrateful for the good life her employers had provided her. Shyima's mother, Salwa Mahmoud, said her father believed she would have better opportunities in America. "I didn't want her to travel but our family's condition dictated that she had to go," explained Mahmoud, a squat, round-faced woman with calloused hands and feet. She is missing two front teeth because she couldn't afford a dentist. "If she had stayed here in Egypt, she would have been ordinary," said Awatef, Shyima's older sister. "Just like us." On April 3, 2002, an anonymous caller phoned the California Department of Social Services to report that a young girl was living inside the garage of 28 Pacific Grove. A few days later, Nasser Ibrahim opened the door to a detective from the Irvine Police Department. Asked if any children lived there beside his own, he first said no, then yes -- "a distant relative." He said he had "not yet" enrolled her in school. She did "chores, just like the other kids," according to the police transcript. Shyima was upstairs cleaning when Ibrahim came to get her. "He told me that I was not allowed to say anything," said Shyima. "That if I said anything I would never see my parents again." When police searched the house, they turned up several home videos showing Shyima at work. They seized the contract signed by Shyima's illiterate parents. Asked by police if anyone other than his immediate family lived in the house, Eid, one of the twins, said: "Hummm ... Yeah ... Her name is Shyima," according to the transcript. "She uh ... She works -- she works for us at the house, like, she cleans up the dishes and stuff like that." Twelve-year-old Heba got flustered: "Yeah. She's uh, my, uh, How do I say this? Uh ... My dad's ... Oh, wait, like ... She's like my cousin, but -- She's my dad's daughter's friend. Oops! The other way. Okay, I'm confused." Heba eventually admitted that Shyima had lived with the family for three years in Egypt and in California. The police put Shyima in a squad car. They noted her hands were red and caked with dead, hard-looking skin. |
