Maniolas

LOS ANGELES – Former caregiver Angela Guanzon, 36, recalled her two-year nightmare at an elderly care facility in Long Beach, California, where she worked in slave-like conditions.

“I worked 18 hours a day, with very little pay, and slept on the floor,” said Guanzon, one of the Filipino victims of labor trafficking who joined the two-mile “Walk 4 Freedom” in Los Angeles yesterday (Sunday in Manila). “I was threatened when I complained and when I tried to escape.”

Holding a placard that said, “Human Trafficking: Don’t Let It Happen to You,” Guanzon urged other victims to come out of the shadows and get help.

“Many of the victims, especially my fellow Filipinos, are ashamed or afraid to come out and tell their story,” said the Bacolod native, who was rescued by the FBI in 2008. She is now a survivor-organizer for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), a nonprofit organization that provided Guanzon with shelter and legal assistance.

Guanzon was one of about 40 Filipino “modern day slaves” helped by CAST in the Greater Los Angeles Area alone. Most of them were victims of unscrupulous labor recruiters “who prey on those who seek a better life in the US,” CAST Executive Director Kay Buck told the Inquirer. “Not only do they end up being enslaved but also in debt bondage,” she said.

“This human rights violation often happens behind closed doors, hidden from the public. Traffickers often exert control over victims by tearing down their self-esteem, saying that nobody cares about them,” Buck said. “We are walking today to send this message: the people of Los Angeles do care. There is hope. Trafficking victims can come forward, receive help, and live with dignity again.”

Buck also warned Filipinos to “be cautious” when dealing with recruiters. “When you receive a deal that seems almost too good to be true, it may actually be too good to be true.”

The United Nations estimates that 27 million people are living slavery around the world today, with Los Angeles being a top destination for human trafficking in the US. Tens of thousands of people in the US are currently living in some type of modern-day slavery, according to CAST.

Guanzon and other CAST supporters joined more than 100 human rights advocates, including Catholic nuns, in the “Walk 4 Freedom” that began and ended in front of St. Basil’s Church, near the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles. The walk marked the National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

President Barack Obama has declared January 2014 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

“The United States is shining a spotlight on the dark corners where it persists, placing sanctions on some of the worst abusers, giving countries incentives to meet their responsibilities, and partnering with groups that help trafficking victims escape from their abusers’ grip,” Obama said in his proclamation.

Rep. Ed Royce (Republican-California), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has introduced the Fraudulent Overseas Recruitment and Trafficking Elimination (FORTE) Act, which will require overseas labor recruiters to provide detailed employment information to workers. This will help prevent the “bait-and-switch into slave labor or sexual slavery” once the workers enter the US, he said. The legislation will also increase penalties and enforcement mechanisms to combat trafficking.

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