My article "Saudis Import Slaves to America" lists instances of Saudi immigrants to the United States accused or convicted of holding slaves - Homaidan Ali Al-Turki and Sarah Khonaizan, Turki Bin Abdul Aziz, Abdulrahman S. Al-Banyan, Saad Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his wife Noora, Hana Al Jader. This entry provides information on new cases, including non-Saudi instances and non-American ones.
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Abdelnasser Eid Youssef Ibrahim, 45, and his former wife Amal Ahmed Ewis-abd Motelib, 43: The Egyptian immigrants, living in Irvine, California, pleaded guilty today to four felonies in a child slave case. They admitted bringing a 10-year-old Egyptian girl in 2000 to the United States and making her work as a servant for up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, to their family of seven during August 2000-April 2002. Each of them pleaded guilty to conspiracy, holding a person in involuntary servitude through force or coercion, obtaining labor through unlawful force or coercion, and harboring an illegal immigrant (her visitor's visa expired after six months). The two have agreed to pay the girl $101,516 in restitution. They will be sentenced Oct. 23 and could be sentenced to as much as 50 years in prison, though 3 years is expected. The couple acknowledged threatening to send the girl back to Egypt, slapping her, and calling her names. She lived in squalor in an unlit, unventilated 12-by-8-foot area in the garage, was forbidden from going outside, much less allowed to attend school or see a doctor.
The story behind this case is of interest. Here is how Rachanee Srisavasdi describes it in the Orange County Register:
In 1999, the girl's older sister was working for Ibrahim and Motelib. The pair told the girl's parents that they caught the sister stealing and threatened to report her unless her younger sister worked for them. So the parents decided to allow their younger daughter to work as a domestic servant. The parents agreed to pay 100 Egyptian pounds – about $30 – monthly to Ibrahim and Motelib for 10 years. Once here, the girl's passport was taken. She didn't receive any money and had to work as a nanny and housekeeper.
Where Shyima lived in Irvine, Cal.; her picture, aged 9.
As a postscript, the girl, now 16, has decided to stay in the United States and has received a green card. A ward of Orange County Superior Court, she is living in foster care, taking summer school classes, and plans to attend college. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Keenan said she has not been back to Egypt and doesn't want to return. (June 30, 2006) Oct. 23, 2006 update: U.S. District Judge James Selna sentenced Ibrahim to three years in federal prison and Motelib to 22 months. They must pay their victim more than $76,000 in restitution, being the money the girl should have been paid during her two years of work for their family. The two will be deported after serving their sentences. U.S. Attorney Debra Yang confirmed that, "As a result of recent changes in federal law [the girl] has been granted a visa that will allow her to stay and hopefully prosper in the United States." July 30, 2007 update: ABC News has done a Primetime segment on this case, with much information about the enslaved girl. Here name is Shyima, she is one of twelve children from a destitute part of Alexandria, she relocated with the Ibrahims in August 2000 to a gated community in the wealthy Northwood district of Irvine, California, and her paperwork claimed she was "a student" on vacation who would stay in the United States just one month. She worked long hours every day, washing dishes, cleaning laundry, and cleaning house. She lived alone in a small, dirty room of the Ibrahims' garage with no heating or air conditioning. She slept on a mattress and washed her clothes in a bucket. She could neither socialize with the family nor leave the house. She knew no English. This regimen lasted for 16 months, until April 9, 2002, when an anonymous tip brought a detective to the house and the whole story unraveled. Chuck and Jenny Hall invited Shyima to their home and adopted her. Shyima learned English and now attends school. "She recently got her driver's license, runs track at school, and attended the senior prom this past spring."
Abdenasser Ennassime and his wife, Tonya, both immigrants from Morocco, were arrested in the Tacoma, Washington, area after being indicted. He is charged with one count of harboring an alien and one count of forced labor; she is just charged with harboring an alien. The alien in question is Lamia Ennassime, 17, the daughter Abdenasser's brother. Lamia arrived to her uncle and aunt at the age of 12 in September 2001, to help care for their young son and with housework in exchange for lodging and the chance to study. In fact, the accusation states, she made breakfast and dinner, did laundry, cleaned the house, and worked long hours without pay at the family's espresso stand. In March 2004, after Abdenasser read Lamia's diary, in which she complained about her mistreatment, he punched her three times in the face, withdrew her from school, and forced her to work even longer hours at the espresso stand. The couple's lawyer said Lamia made up the allegations as a way to remain in the United States. (December 16, 2005)
Waleed Al Saleh, a Kuwaiti major and military attaché at the embassy in Washington, and his wife, Maysaa Al Omar, stand accused of regularly beating and abusing three domestic workers whom they kept under conditions akin to slavery, according to a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit also names the Kuwaiti government as a defendant.
The lawsuit claims violations of labor laws, anti-trafficking laws, as well as the 13th Amendment, which prohibits slavery. It also states that the couple used diplomatic immunity to avoid criminal charges. The three women, originally from India, said they came to the United States in the summer of 2005 to work as domestic help. … The workers were promised monthly wages of $1,280 to work a six-day, 48-hour week, according to the lawsuit. Instead, the women were regularly subjected to physical abuse and constant duty taking care of the couple's home and four children, including year-old triplets. The women were allowed out of the McLean home only once a month to attend church services.
The lawsuit alleges that the women only received a fraction of their promised wages, which were sent directly to family members overseas. The couple took the women's passports from them. The alleged abuse included death threats, pulled hair, and beatings - including one with a box of frozen chicken. The couple demanded that all three triplets' diapers be changed every two hours, whether they were soiled or not. The couple also demanded that all their laundry be ironed, including underwear, according to the lawsuit. The women said in the lawsuit that they were afraid they would be killed if they fled the home. One of the women finally escaped in October 2005 to the home of a neighbor, who called police. The two other women fled a few months later.
Comment: If all this is true, it sounds like one couple brought a little bit of Kuwait with them to McLean, Virginia. (January 17, 2007)
Saeed Mohammed al-Shamsi, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Australia, stands accused by Nuruddin Bhola Meah, a Bangladeshi man, of being paid just A$500 for working in his Canberra home for an average of 13 hours every weekday, from March 28 to September 23, 2005. Meah prepared a schedule of his average day:
7 am: Arrive at ambassadorial home. 7 am-9 am: Prepare, serve and clear breakfast. 9 am-10 am: Wash and iron, dust, clean floors, vacuum. 10 am: Go to the embassy. 10 am-2:30 pm: Cook and serve meals, clean up, sort mail. 2:30 pm: Return to ambassadorial home. 2:30 pm-6 pm: Clean up from midday meal. 8 pm-10:30 pm: Prepare dinner, wash up. 10:30 pm: Leave ambassadorial home.
When Meah complained that he had not been paid on September 23, 2005, the ambassador allegedly threatened him with deportation. Meah has filed a suit against the government of the United Arab Emirates, claiming domestic slavery and seeking A$48,000 for breach of contract, on the basis that the weekly pay for such work is A$579.30, plus overtime. (March 11, 2007)
Rozina Mohd Ali, 43, of Sugarland, Texas, a Houston householder, pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in federal district court "for her role in holding an Indonesian woman in forced labor as a domestic servant." According to the Department of Justice press release:
Ali admitted she withheld the victim's Indonesian passport in order to force the victim to work for Ali and Ali's family. Ali forced the victim to work long hours over a four to five year period, performing house and yard work and taking care of the defendant and defendant's family members with almost no compensation. In August of 2002, Ali agreed to employ the victim to work as a domestic servant for her in Malaysia for approximately $112 per month. A contract setting up the arrangement was executed. Then, Ali brought the victim to the United States on a temporary visitor's visa to work as a domestic servant. From then until August of 2007, the victim worked tirelessly for Ali or Ali's relatives as was only paid twice for her labor. The total compensation paid to the victim during the nearly five year period of "employment" was approximately $320.
During that time, Ali prevented the victim from returning to Indonesia by withholding her passport (necessary for international travel) and by threatening her with physical harm and other adverse consequences if she did not continue working for Ali. However, on August 19, 2007, the victim successfully escaped Ali's residence. She was then discovered by strangers, who assisted her by taking her to the Indonesian Consulate.
Under the terms of her plea agreement, Ali will spend one year and a day in prison and will pay the victim $72,676 in restitution. (April 3, 2008)
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