On October 16, 2011, survivors of torture from TASSC International testified on a morning panel at a conference on Human Trafficking held at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. The conference was sponsored by the Franciscan Action Network and the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.
All four of the survivors who testified were from Ethiopia. In order to escape their torturers, they had to rely on human smugglers who helped them escape to Sudan, and on a dangerous journey that took them through the Middle East and Latin America until they could cross the U.S. – Mexico border several months and thousands of dollars later.
“There is a direct link between torture and human trafficking,” Demissie Abebe, director of TASSC, shared with the audience. “Where there is war, there is torture. And where there is torture, there is human trafficking. That’s the only way many people can survive, by placing themselves at the mercy of these human smugglers.”
Many of the survivors also focused on their detention experience once they crossed the U.S. – Mexico border. “After all I had been through, when I finally crossed the border into the United States, I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought now I will be treated with dignity,” said Saba, a 28 year old woman from Ethiopia. “Instead, I was placed in a cold room and left there for many hours. Days later, my hands, my waist, and my feet were shackled and I was driven by ICE from a detention center in California to another detention center in Arizona. I spent months there, treated like a criminal, until I could post bond and come to Washington DC to petition for political asylum.”
One of the questions that surfaced during the conference was “Why are survivors of torture, who have been re-traumatized by their experience of human trafficking, punished when they cross the border and ask for political asylum? Isn’t there any alternative to placing them in detention? What crime have they committed?”
According to Amnesty International, “refugees and asylum seekers must be remembered and considered in the larger debate on immigration reform. Specifically, as legislators and lay people think about border issues, they must remember that U.S. borders often present the only viable avenue for protection to asylum seekers from around the world, that asylum seekers have the right under international and domestic law to seek protection in the United States, and that any increased enforcement measures must not take place in a manner that violates the human rights of asylum seekers.”
Every year, TASSC International helps hundreds of survivors of torture, from many different countries, apply for political asylum. In recent years, most survivors come from Africa and, increasingly, many of them arrive in the United States after experiencing a traumatic and dangerous journey through the Middle East and Latin America at the mercy of human traffickers.
In the afternoon, a panel of human rights providers from Catholic religious communities and the Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also testified on their work to combat human trafficking. In recent years, stories regarding the trafficking of women and children, and laborers, have appeared in the press. But until today, very few stories have been shared about survivors of torture caught in these trafficking networks.
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking, was also invited to speak at the conference, but was unable to extend her visa to remain in the United States an extra day.
