Rescue

CEBU, THE PHILIPPINES – Three girls who had been trafficked and routinely sold for sex were rescued late last week in an undercover operation. The girls shared similar stories: all came from extremely impoverished families. The youngest was only 14 years old. What had started out like so many other dark nights on the Cebu streets ended with a new beginning.

IJM Cebu assisted the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with the rescue on December 5, providing logistical support leading up to the operation and on-the-ground expertise that night.

CHENNAI, INDIA – IJM helped rescue ten people from slavery in a sawmill last week – including six children, the youngest only 7 years old. Many of the children had been born there, and some of the adults said they had been trapped there for 18 years.

The children, ages 7 to 12, worked alongside the adults, cutting down trees for lumber, without power tools or heavy machinery. They worked ten hours a day, every single day of the week, and received about 50 cents a week – barely enough for food.

KOLKATA, INDIA – Like many Bangladeshi girls, Shohela* loves dance, especially the traditional kinds of dance her culture is known for. So she was thrilled when she found out she could dance and earn much-needed money in India.  

But as soon as Shohela arrived in Kolkata, she learned she would be required to do much more than dance. She had been trafficked to a brothel in a major red-light district.

CHENNAI, INDIA – Today, IJM helped local authorities rescue families from forced labor slavery in two rice mills. It was a joyful emancipation, and it was a reunion for families divided by the constraints of slavery.

Working with police and the government official in charge of the operation, IJM quickly identified the people enslaved in the first rice mill. They helped the children, women and men safely leave the rice mill, once and for all.

But when the rescue team arrived at the second rice mill, it was empty.

BANGALORE, INDIA – After six years in slavery, two brothers were finally set free in an IJM-assisted rescue operation. The brothers had worked at the rose farm since they were young boys. They had never been paid.

"These boys have been slaves since they were 11 and 12,” says IJM Bangalore’s director Peter Williams, who led his team to rescue these boys from slavery. “They told us how the owner of the farm would make them work 14 hours a day, feed them scanty leftovers and beat them regularly. There was no time for school, barely enough time to eat or sleep.

PAMPANGA, THE PHILIPPINES – This weekend, a new day began for girls rescued from a small bar selling underage girls for sex on one of Pampanga's main streets. IJM assisted the Philippine National Police with a rescue operation on Friday, November 16, 2012.

KOLKATA, INDIA – On November 1, 2012, Kolkata police called IJM for assistance with an urgent rescue operation, two staff members mobilized immediately. They met over a dozen police officers at a safe meeting point, then travelled together to the house where they believed two teenage girls had been trafficked for sexual exploitation.

The rescue team entered the house and easily found the small room where both girls had been sold for sex. A single mattress was on the floor; several other mattresses leaned against the wall in the otherwise empty room.

KOLKATA, INDIA – On a Thursday afternoon in October, Kolkata Police called IJM for assistance with an urgent operation in Kolkata's major red-light district. An IJM social worker and lawyer left immediately to meet the police, determined to find and rescue a girl who they believed had been trafficked there.

The police led the way to a brothel, which was dark, but for ominous red lights inside. Since it was daytime, brothel keepers and madams were asleep, many lying in the hallways.

KOLKATA, INDIA – In the early morning light, IJM staff and local police walked through one of Kolkata's largest red-light districts. They entered a dark brothel with several rooms on multiple stories, all facing an empty plaza in the middle.

The team went straight to a room on the first floor, where they believed girls trafficked from Nepal were being sold for sex.

MUMBAI, INDIA – This week, a brothel owner and manager were convicted and sentenced to prison for sex trafficking crimes. The conviction means the traffickers cannot exploit any more young women for sex, and it means justice for one of the survivors from their brothel.

Jansi* left her small village in search of work a few years ago. She went to Bangalore, a booming city in her home state of Karnataka. But she struggled to find good work, so she decided to go back to her old life. As she waited for the bus that would take her home, a man approached her.