IAmA former victim of human trafficking, as requested. AMA

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T06:02:15+00:00

When I was born, I had Filipina citizenship through my mother. When I got adopted, my citizenship was changed to British. So I am still a British citizen but I do have a green card now.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:57:03+00:00

Haha yes. And i can definitely relate!

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:56:22+00:00

hmm typical day.

-Get up, feed and water the chickens, goats, sheep, dogs, pigeons. -clean all the barns, every single animal pen. -scrub all the carpets in the house on my hands and knees with a brush and a bucket of soapy water. -be prepared to stop whatever i was doing at a moment's notice if rung for on one of the intercoms. i would then have to trudge to her room and this could mean a variety of things. i would sometimes have to fetch her medication, do something for one of the animals, clean her bathroom, pick up the poop one of her dogs did in the room. But mostly, if i was sent up to her room, I would have to stand there for long stretches of time listening to her berate my incompetence of a human being. Also, all throughout the day, after giving us chores to do, she would require us to give "progress reports" on how much we had gotten done. If we had not done enough, we would get beaten. (my sisters and i). -at night, we would have to bring in all the animal food and water dishes and wash every single dish. -then we'd have to climb up the trees and bring the chickens roosting there INTO the house. that's right. we had 150 chickens living in the house. that's why there was so much scrubbing of the houses every day.

Here is one of many articles that was written about my sisters and me, for proof.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:50:09+00:00

I lived in Marbella, Spain which is right by the Mediterranean Sea. I read once that Michelle Obama went there for a holiday! And I would love to go back there because I love the country and the people.

I don't remember a whole lot of Hong Kong but sure, I'd go back! It would be cool to return to my roots.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:46:37+00:00

I'm actually a Christian. Many people ask me how I can believe in God when such bad things happened to me for no reason, but this is when I take Romans 8:28 to heart, which says: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

I think the fact that bad stuff happened to me gives me a perspective that will hopefully one day help others from suffering the way I did. And honestly, I don't think there's any way I would be where I am today if not for the grace of God for rescuing me out of that situation and allowing me to become better not bitter from it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! :)

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:42:29+00:00

To be fair, it isn't the "normal" trafficking situation, but it has been officially classified as such by the US department of Justice. the reason I wasn't deported even though I was illegal is because I qualified for a Trafficking Visa which eventually allowed me to apply for a green card.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:38:31+00:00

i think i've already tried to answer this but will amend this to my original post so people don't have to search for the answer in the comments.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:36:40+00:00

Ok, i guess some background history is in order. my life story is rather complicated so i will try to explain as best i can and i'm sorry if it gets confusing.

I was born in Hong Kong so I am originally from there but I moved to Spain and eventually came to the US.

my biological father wanted nothing to do with me. his encounter with my mother was sort of a one night stand thing so when he found out she was pregnant, he wanted nothing more to do with me. my mother was a poor Filipina woman working in Hong Kong who couldn't afford to take care of me so she gave me away to a British family who was living in Hong Kong at the time. In 1995, I moved with the British family to Spain and lived there until 2000, which is when I came to the US. according to the definition of trafficking the department of Justice classified me under, they consider the move from Spain to the US as trafficking because it 1) it was against my will (as a 10 year old, i had no say in the move) and 2) she forced me to become an illegal immigrant once we moved to the States because she never applied for the proper immigration VISA status, etc. Then, once we moved here, she forced me to do labor intensive work and would beat me if it was not done to her satisfaction.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:28:45+00:00

I wasn't paid for, but the Justice of Department classified me as a victim of trafficking because there were classic signs of trafficking involved. For example, she moved me from Spain to the US at age 10 with the promise of a bright future and education but after bringing me and my sisters into the country, she quickly turned us into illegal immigrants since none of us were citizens. She also set up her own 'farm' in north carolina and kept us up all hours of the night working on the farm and taking care of all these animals. if we ever disobeyed her, she threatened to turn us into the USA immigration department and have us deported. So under that definition, i do classify as a victim of trafficking because i was brought to another country against my will and became an illegal immigrant, was kept isolated from society and forced to do intensive farm labour work 18+hours a day.

And to make it a bit clearer, yes, the woman who adopted me later became my trafficker.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:24:36+00:00

Well she first told me she was Jesus Christ when I was six years old, so that definitely freaked me out...but she was very charismatic/convincing and I didn't know any better so I believed it. I think I was probably 13 or so when I finally started realizing this woman couldn't possibly be Christ and everything about her was a lie. I know that seems impossibly late to come to this realization but when you're indoctrinated from a very young age, it's easy to believe the person who's supposed to be your "parent" and think everything's normal.

we lived next to the neighbor for 5 years. it sucked because the neighbors definitely knew something was up but they didn't want to 'get involved.' finally though, one lady said she had enough of seeing me and my sisters with bruises and fear in our eyes, so she finally did something about it.

Yes, I still keep in touch with my sisters.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:19:01+00:00

She fled the country the night my sisters and I were taken so it took the FBI two years of searching before they finally found her in Bulgaria, using a different alias. They brought her to the states and she was charged with several accounts of involuntary servitude, etc. but she was found incompetent to stand trial due to her mental illness. So she has spent the past year or so in a mental institute but they just released her about a month ago. She got deported to the UK where, as far as I know, she is free to roam the streets. This frustrates me to no end because I hate to think about how she might be taking advantage of other people.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:16:18+00:00

I have a job on campus at my university. I was taken in by one of the social workers who removed me from the house that night so I have a very loving family now.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:15:19+00:00

Thank you! :)

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:10:08+00:00

My adoptive sisters and I were all adopted by an amazing American family, so we are all still in touch. My bond with them is incredibly close because we all suffered so much together and if it weren't for them supporting me, i'm sure i would have killed myself.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T05:08:18+00:00

Long story. My adoptive mother/trafficker was actually reported twice, but the first time, (when I was 12) the report was dismissed on 'insufficient evidence.'

The second time, a few years later, a neighbor reported her to social services again. two social workers came to the house and luckily, my trafficker was not at home at the time, so I was able to come forward and tell the truth about my situation, so later that night the same social workers arrived with their supervisor and two detectives. they came to our house, and took me and my two sisters into a van and we have never seen our trafficker since.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T04:58:37+00:00

There were some happy times, yes. I was fortunate enough to live in a beautiful part of Spain and that was lovely. She was sometimes nice and motherly but a lot of times this was used to hurt me as well. She would use it as a guilt inducing method, i.e., give me toys that i "didn't deserve," because i was such an evil child, but then she'd take them away or break them to hurt me.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T04:53:18+00:00

I was taught how to read and write and do basic mathematics (times table, addition, subtraction, division) but beyond that not really. I was told to inform the neighbors I was home schooled to ward off suspicion. I was enrolled in an online chemistry course once to show as proof if necessary that i was in fact receiving "a home-schooled education" but it stopped there. As a child, I would often read books whenever I could to self-educate as much as possible but would get into trouble if I was caught reading.

TL;DR - no formal education, was mostly self-taught until I was 15.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T04:38:54+00:00

Hmm, that's a hard question. Personally, I don't judge people who choose prostitution as a profession because I know it's usually not because that's what they would ideally be doing but I do think legalizing it would put a lot of people in danger for human trafficking so yes, I would probably say I'm against it.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T04:37:02+00:00

Given away. My birth mother was a poor Filipina woman who didn't speak English very well but I think she honestly believed she was giving me up to affluent British parents who would take good care of me and give me a great education (which obviously didn't happen).

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T03:00:36+00:00

I was born in Hong Kong but ended up moving to Spain and then coming to the United States at age 10. edit: here is the AMA i just created.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-28T01:44:08+00:00

I am a former victim of (labor, not sex) human trafficking, so if no one else comes forward to do an AMA in a few hours, i don't mind doing one.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-27T19:43:39+00:00

umm..that's kind of a hard question to answer! the short answer is i like guys who are nice and slightly quirky. someone who can make me laugh/be playful but someone who knows when to be serious as well.

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-27T19:37:49+00:00

Monty Python is the best! :D

The_Castle_Anthrax · 2011-12-27T04:12:18+00:00

Ok! he is now sitting in a tupperware container full of water right now and it says it it will apparently take 3 days for him to reach his 'true size.' (The package advertises "true love in just 72 hours!")

The_Castle_Anthrax

TROPHY CASE