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Toll of Human Trafficking through eyes of a victim

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http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/10/americas/freedom-project-mexico-trafficking-survivor/index.html

Karla Jacinto is sitting in a serene garden. She looks at the ordinary sights of flowers and can hear people beyond the garden walls, walking and talking in Mexico City.

She looks straight into my eyes, her voice cracking slightly, as she tells me the number she wants me to remember -- 43,200.

By her own estimate, 43,200 is the number of times she was raped after falling into the hands of human traffickers.

She says up to 30 johns a day, seven days a week, for the best part of four years -- 43,200.

Mistreated from the age of 5


Karla says she was abused for as long as she can remember and felt rejected by her mother. "I came from a dysfunctional family. I was sexually abused and mistreated from the age of 5 by a relative,' she says.

When she was 12 she was targeted by a trafficker who lured her away using kind words and a fast car.

She says she was waiting for some friends near a subway station in Mexico City, when a little boy selling sweets came up to her, telling her somebody was sending her a piece of candy as a gift.

Five minutes later, Karla says, an older man was talking to her, telling her that he was a used car salesman.

The initial awkwardness disappeared as soon as the man started telling her that he was also abused as a boy. He was also very affectionate and quite a gentleman, she says.

They exchanged phone numbers and when he called a week later, Karla says she got excited. He asked her to go on a trip to nearby Puebla with him and dazzled her by showing up driving a bright red Firebird Trans Am.

"When I saw the car I couldn't believe it. I was very impressed by such a big car. It was exciting for me. He asked me to get in the car to go places," she says.

Four years of hell


It was the beginning of four years of hell. The first time she was forced to work as a prostitute she was taken to Guadalajara, one of Mexico's largest cities.

"I started at 10 a.m. and finished at midnight. We were in Guadalajara for a week. Do the math. Twenty per day for a week. Some men would laugh at me because I was crying. I had to close my eyes so that that I wouldn't see what they were doing to me, so that I wouldn't feel anything," Karla says.

There would be several other cities. She would be sent to brothels, roadside motels, streets known for prostitution and even homes. There were no holidays or days off, and after the first few days, she was made to see at least 30 customers a day, seven days a week.

In her nightmare world even a pregnancy was cause for horror not joy.

Karla gave birth at 15 to a girl -- a baby fathered by the pimp who would use the daughter to tighten the noose around her neck: if she didn't fulfill his every wish, he would either harm or kill the baby.

He took the baby away from her a month after the baby was born, and she was not allowed to see her again until the girl was more than a year old.

Karla Jacinto was finally rescued in 2008 during an anti-trafficking operation in Mexico City.

Her ordeal lasted four very long and tormenting years. She was still a minor, only 16, when it ended -- but she has endured a lifetime of horror that will stay with her as long as she lives.

CNN independently verified portions of Karla's story. We have spoken with the United Against Human Trafficking group she was referred to after being rescued, and to senior officials at Road to Home, a shelter where Karla lived for one year after her rescue. Due to the clandestine nature of the human trafficking business, corroborating everything Karla told us is not possible.

Her message is that human trafficking and forced prostitution still happens and is a growing problem in our world.

Karla says: "These minors are being abducted, lured, and yanked away from their families. Don't just listen to me. You need to learn about what happened to me and take the blindfold off your eyes."

Doing nothing, she says, puts countless girls at risk of being trafficked for years and raped tens of thousands of times, just like she was.

An under reported situation affecting thousands of children and women in Central/South America and US.

More detail and Video at link
 
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