Leticia Moratal and Jacqueline Aguirre, both victims of human trafficking in New York, spoke about their ordeals with their employers at a press conference held at the Bayanihan Filipino Community Center in Woodside, on January 18.
It was also the re-launch of the Stop Trafficking of People (STOP) Campaign by the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), an alliance of Filipino migrant organizations across 23 cities in the United States first launched in 2002.
Moratal and Aguirre tell their stories
"I did not receive a single penny from my employers. They did not treat me well and they turned me into a slave. They even confiscated my passport and I was not allowed to talk to other Filipinos, nor use the phone or computer to communicate with anybody. Ten years is such a long time, but now I have the courage and I will tell my story," said Moratal, a babysitter turned all-around-domestic-slave by Elsa and Augusto Nolasco and their daughter, Laarni.
On the other hand, Aguirre, an accountant back in the Philippines, talked about how she was promised a green card by her employers, Dorothy de Castro and Perlita Jordan, owners of Best Care Agency, where she worked as a one-woman office employee. She was not paid the salary promised to her from the start, and [received] no overtime pay. At present, she is under removal proceedings by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for overstaying [her visa].
"Some people say I should just go back home to the Philippines or I should just hide from the authorities, but why should I? I know I never did anything wrong," said Aguirre.
Atty. Felix Vinluan, the lawyer representing the cases of Moratal and Aguirre, explained that aside from sex trafficking (which is almost always what comes to mind when talking about "human trafficking"), forced labor – the abuse and misuse of the immigration process to transport migrants into the United States and force them into a situation whereby they have no other means but to work involuntarily for employers – is also a common.
"Their experiences are not their experiences alone. Many cases of human trafficking have been reported nowadays," stated Vinluan.
Stop Trafficking Of People (STOP) Campaign
As the lawyer involved in the case of the Sentosa 27 Nurses – also a big campaign against human trafficking in 2007 – Vinluan also stressed the importance of the role of the Filipino-American community in fighting for the rights of immigrants and migrant workers.
Stop Trafficking of People (STOP) campaign was launched in 2002 by one of NAFCON's member organizations, Philippine Forum, a not-for-profit community-based organization in New York, when another domestic worker, Elma Manliguez, was also trafficked by her employers, Martin Joseph, a banking executive at Merrill Lynch, and his wife, Somanti. With the support of the community and after years of struggle, Manliguez was finally granted the first T-visa (for human trafficking victims) in New York in 2009. She was able to come home to the Philippines to see her child whom she had not seen since she left the Philippines in 1997 when she was hired from an agency to work for Joseph, originally in Malaysia and was later on tricked to come to New York.
In 2007, NAFCON, with its member organizations all over the United States, also led the campaign for justice for the Sentosa 27 Nurses, who also came out and spoke about the labor trafficking and inhumane treatment of their employer, Sentosa Care LLC, which operated in several states. Criminal and civil charges were also filed against Vinluan by Sentosa Care LLC for allegedly advising the nurses to resign. In 2010, victory was once again on the side of the people and the community. The nurses won the civil case and charges against Vinluan were dismissed.
"I believe in the advocacy of NAFCON and the member organizations of NAFCON of which I've been a member as well since the Sentosa 27 Nurses cases back in 2007," Vinluan said.
Representatives from NAFCON member organizations such as Philippine Forum, KABALIKAT Domestic Workers' Support Network, New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP), Anakbayan New York/New Jersey, SANDIWA National Alliance of Filipino-American Youth and Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) were present at the conference.
"More than 4,000 Filipinos leave the country everyday to search for jobs in other places, and hundreds more are being trafficked as a result of the Philippine government's lack of attention on the issues of our migrant workers. Leticia and Jackie are only tow of them, but these two voices will be echoed by the community and they will get the justice they deserve if we all work together. Collective action never fails," Rusty Fabunan of NAFCON said.
Allies from the Independent Workers' Movement, a group fighting for workers' rights in New York composed of NAFCON and other non-Filipino organizations, were also present to show support.
Next steps for human trafficking victims and the community
Both Moratal and Aguirre thanked Atty. Vinluan and all the individuals and organizations who helped them in their struggle for justice. They vowed to help in any way they can to prevent these cases from happening again. They even expressed that they will join the organization in their advocacy and fight for immigrants' rights.
"Whether you like it or not, I want to be a member! And I will speak and march with you whenever and wherever this fight will lead us to," Moratal exclaimed.
Discussions, awareness and education drive on these two cases and on human trafficking and immigrants' rights in general, are ongoing as part of the STOP campaign. Initial discussions have been conducted with members of KABALIKAT and FiRE, and more are expected to be held in the following weeks with different organizations and immigrant communities, Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike, as these cases move forward.
As for the actions in the Philippines, NAFCON also announced that MIGRANTE International, the biggest alliance of Filipino migrant organizations with members in over 22 countries fighting for migrants' rights, has already expressed its support for Moratal and Aguirre. MIGRANTE will be contacting and facilitating communications with the families of the victims back in the Philippines and will make sure that the cases will be heard and addressed by the Philippine government.
