:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2019/7/Y/vA8TOYQ9mMsowZNjpA2A/marcela-loaiza.jpg)
[ad_1]
There was some distance between them to be able to execute an order: extend the arms and spread the legs to the side.
Suddenly, something fell from the bad of one of them. It was a condom with money inside.
"When they saw what it was, they burned my friend's bads with a cigarette."
Marcela Loaiza, a young woman who, like other Latin American women – including Brazilian women – was badually exploited in Japan by a network of criminals who cheat young women by promising a successful career as a model or dancer. country.
"The next day, as if nothing had happened, they forced her to continue working, she had a quota to fill," says Marcela. "And there began a law: the one who hides money will burn his bads.I did not go through it, but I looked at it, I never dared hide money because I was very scared. "
Marcela Loaiza has become an activist International cooperation against human trafficking – Photo: Reproduction / Facebook / Marcela Loaiza
Neither she nor her colleagues have received money directly from their clients.
"They always paid at the hotel or at the place where they took us, but sometimes they gave us tips and even that (the pimps) got us. "
How did hell start?
Like Did Marcela come here? It all started in a nightclub in Pereira, Colombia. A man approached her, but not to invite her to dance or leave. He has just introduced himself, hands him his card and says that she has a huge potential to succeed dancer abroad.
In the nightclub, Marcela gave dance lessons and encouraged parties, in addition to her work as a cashier in a shop.
In the beginning, the 21-year-old did not pay much attention to the proposal. But when her four-year-old daughter fell ill and had to be hospitalized, she had to stop working to look after the girl. He decided to call Pipo, as he had introduced "the agent".
Pipo was very understanding and offered Marcela money to pay for the hospitalization expenses of her daughter. In the future, he added, Marcela could repay him "the money" that he would earn by dancing in the country where "she would surely be hired".
Single mother of modest origin, Marcela agreed. When her daughter recovered and could stay with her grandmother, Marcela decided to go there. But he did not say anything at Pipo's request.
"I only told my mother that I would go to Bogotá to look for work to pay my debts," he says.
Marcela was excited because it would be the first time she would travel by plane.
"I felt like a Hollywood diva that would change her life," she says.
Pipo only said in what country she would go when he would leave her at the airport. "Just before I took the plane, when he gave me the ticket, he said I would go to Japan."
The agent also gave him money and a fake pbadport to "facilitate" his entry into the new country.
This is how Marcela traveled under the name of Margaretta Troff.
Arriving in Japan, I learned that I would adopt a third name: Kelly.
This was told to her by a Colombian woman who received her at the Tokyo airport and took her to a house to live with other women there.
The next day, the woman explained to Marcela that her job would be a "bitch", to pay the huge debt she had for the pbadport, the plane ticket, the accommodation, the food, transportation and money that Pipo had advanced.
When Marcela tried to explain that there was some confusion and that she was calling the police, the woman replied: "You can call, but we do not guarantee that you will arrive in time for your daughter's funeral. "
Thus, in mid-1999, Marcela's nightmare began in the hands of the Yakuza mafia in Japan.
"It was better to do what they said"
The fear that weighed on his family developed in Marcela. permanent. She started prostituting herself in a Tokyo street, always under the watchful eye of the kidnappers, who took her away and looked for her.
"When I was on the street, I was sure it was better to do what they said, because I saw how they were drugging the other girls ( those who rebelled.) I preferred to endure that of taking drugs, asking to be drugged. "
" I met a Mexican, a Venezuelan, several Colombians and Peruvians, of many Russians and Filipinos, "he recalls.
These were 18 months of daily badual exploitation and physical abuse – in the form of blows that even made him unconscious.
During this period, he witnessed the death of a Colombian prostitute victim of punches and padlock shots, victim of a rival mafia group.
Marcela thought of suicide, but the memory of her daughter held her back.
"I asked each man for help (with whom I created a program), but they did not understand me, they were Japanese or, s & # 39; They understood me, they did not care. "
A client fell in love with her, went to all the strip clubs where she worked and always asked to do shows with her.
"They (diligent customers) know this world well, they know that pimps change us, he knew where I would be and he was looking for me," he says.
Marcela had her draw a crying doll and arrows pointing to a map of Colombia, asking for help for the few words that he had learned in Japanese.
"It was very complicated, I told him that I did not want money, I wanted to leave, but he did not understand me."
Eight months and many drawings later, Marcela finally managed to impress upon the client that she was there against her will and that she needed help.
With the help of the client and another companion, they began planning an escape. They communicated with each other with small tickets, soon destroyed so as not to leave clues.
One day, he left a bag containing clothes and a wig to Marcela to look for in a McDonald's snack bar located near the place where she had presented shows.
"He helped me, gave me money, drew me the map to reach the consulate of Colombia and explained which buses to take. "
Forgetting the men who watched her, Marcela escaped.
"I ran, ran, ran, ran," she told BBC News World. Following the client's instructions, she was able to go to the consulate, which helped her to return to Colombia.
One of his biggest fears remained unresolved: by paying his "debt", he is sold by his pimps to another Japanese criminal group.
Japanese human rights activist Shihoko Fujiwara is one of the founders of Lighthouse, a nongovernmental organization that has been fighting against human trafficking in Japan since 2004.
She explains L & # 39; Japanese economy experienced an economic boom in the 1970s. "Japanese men began to travel abroad to buy bad from women."
Marcela Loaiza (left) with another trafficking victim, a young woman created a foundation to help others "In the 1980s and 1990s, the country began trafficking women from Philippines, Thailand, Russia, South Korea, "he continued." We saw several women s coming from Colombia and other parts of Latin America. "
The traffic of Latin Americans at this time coincides with the internationalization of the activities of the mafia Yakuza, which has formed links with Latin American traffickers, journalists David E. Kaplan and Ale c Dubro in the book Yakuza: The criminal world of crime in Japan (Yakuza: The Criminal World of Japan, in free translation).
"Yakuza has caused problems in other parts of Latin America, especially in the bad trade … Recruitment of prostitutes and" hostesses "have cheated women from Mexico to Brazil to go to Japan, "says the book.
In 1996, according to the authors, the Mexican authorities dismantled an operation of trafficking in women for the purpose of badual exploitation, which lasted a decade.
With one of the recruiters arrested, a list bearing the name of 1.2 thousand female victims was found.
According to the testimony of another Colombian victim of badual exploitation in Japan in 1984, she and other young women were subjected to difficult, humiliating and "painful" journeys.
"I got up to go to work at 8 am Sometimes it was 2 in the morning at 3 in the morning and I was still not asleep.I was obliged to do five, six shows It was so inhuman that they became flesh, living flesh (Men) playing jan-ken-pon (jokenpo, or stone paper and scissors) and asked why they explained that was to see which of them was going to have bad with me first and queuing for me. "
According to Japanese police, there were 46 cases of human trafficking in the country. countries in 2017 – 28 Japanese, 13 Asians and 1 Brazilian.
But, according to experts, official statistics do not reflect the magnitude of the problem, as many cases of badual exploitation are never reported.
A report from the US State Department states that "as it has been reported over the last five years, Japan is a destination, source and transit country" for human trafficking.
From one nightclub to another
The Fujiwara activist and members of his team have already visited nightclubs targeting allegations of enslavement and bad. exploitation of Latin women. They discovered that pimps move these women every ten days, from one nightclub to another, all over Japan.
And clients who pay $ 20 more "can have bad with the dancers".
"They have a condom, a handkerchief and they have ten minutes to have bad.This kind of service is standard in Latin strip clubs," he says.
And bad takes place in a small booth, the size of a phone booth.
Fujiwara reported her findings to the police but, frustrated, said that many victims of bad trafficking are eventually arrested for prostitution and illegal residence in the country.
Instead of being treated as victims, they are deported, says the activist. "They do not bother to investigate their cases."
Although she thinks that the number of Latinas exploited in the country has decreased, she thinks that this group "is the one who suffers more violence, more exploitation and longer than women's" Other nationalities because they had to pay higher debts (to come from farther), but they were treated very badly. "
At the present time, these practices are not more used, at least on a large scale.
The return of this world is not usually easy.
"It was like we saw someone who was about to die, she had a fear that transcended the normal," says Paula, a friend of the young Fernanda, who was exploited in Japan (both names are fictitious, preserve identities).
Shortly before her friend's return, Paula spoke to her on the phone. "She looked desperate and begged me to let her stay at home," said Fernanda, who lives in northern Brazil.
"You said" of course you can come. "
Fernanda spent a month at her friend's house, so far they have not seen each other for two years after leaving of her friend in Japan in 2012. "The person who came back from the Asian nation" did not look like my unrecognizable friend.
Fernanda was slimmer, fragile and very sad. But it was his behavior, not his appearance, that alarmed Paula the most.
"She was very frightened by the noises: the sound of the phone or when a door sank in. She was very suspicious, she felt persecuted all the time, she asked me all the copies of the house key … "
It was only after Paula learned that her friend had" returned from a private prison in hell ".
Before leaving for Japan, Fernanda was "a happy woman," says Paula. "She was a black woman with a sculptural body, she came from a middle-clbad family, her parents were professionals and her brothers lived abroad."
In 2012, Fernanda was a divorced mother of two children. Trained in the administration, she had economic stability, but, according to her friend, "she has never been interested in practicing a profession other than artistic".
"She has always dreamed of being recognized as a model and an actress, appearing on television, brilliant."
Fernanda was a member of the Community Samba School and it is there that a man approached to talk to her about her modeling agency in Japan.
"This man attended all the community events," said Paula. "Promise his success abroad."
Fernanda fell in love with the man and informed his parents and friends of his intention to go to Japan.
"Everyone told her about the dangers of prostitution abroad, but she only listened to this man," said her friend.
Paula would later know that the man had changed dramatically when he arrived in Japan with Fernanda.
"He took his pbadport and took her to a hotel room with other women," says Paula, recounting what she had heard from Fernanda.
"At that moment, she realized that she had fallen into a trap and that the man she loved was part of it."
In the beginning, Fernanda was taken to the attic of the hotel, where the prostitution network was operating. She told Paula that she was "forced to have bad, get screwed and drink alcohol."
"Until 2014, she was in a sort of private prison, being raped every day by different people, like a bad slave."
Fernanda did not like to recall the Japan period and told Paula that "it was a nightmare that nobody wanted."
Paula does not know how Fernanda got rid of her mackerel – she suspects that her friend managed to pay her "debt" and was left out.
"During the first week she stayed at home, I did everything to try to convince her to report everything to the authorities, but I could not."
Fernanda and her family were not only ashamed of the incident, but feared retaliation because the traffickers had a lot of information about them, which is often remembered by Fernanda in Japan.
The victim came for treatment. psychological, but abandoned after four months.
Paula realized that her friend had started drinking a lot and taking drugs – but she refused to be hospitalized for detoxification. In addition, he returned to prostitution.
"Unfortunately, I lost contact with her.The parents, who take care of her two children, moved without a trace."
Paula tried to find Fernanda via social networks, without success so far. Fernanda is gone.
"The last time I had news of her, she was still selling her own body."
Between 2011 and 2017, the US State Department report cites Japan among the countries "whose governments do not fully comply with minimum standards of protection for victims of trafficking in persons", although the Asian country has changed in 2018, in the face of increased government efforts to eliminate the problem.
However, the same survey warns that many bad traffickers are treated with indulgence by Japanese courts, "receiving small sentences often suspended".
And that in many cases the authorities arrested, charged and deported foreigners who "had fled the conditions of exploitation (imposed) by the agents who hired them instead of having their case examined and investigated. Send to protection services ". Experts and activists heard by BBC News World agree that legal reforms to punish human trafficking, as well as new controls and immigration policies, have made the country less risky and less profitable for the mafias involved in the trafficking and badual exploitation of foreigners in Japan.
"Thus, traffickers are using more and more vulnerable Japanese children and women," Fujiwara explains.
Marcela Loaiza has already written books about her experience and, with the support of the UN, went to different countries of Latin America to give lectures in schools, universities , judicial bodies and consulates on trafficking in human beings.
She also founded an organization that bears her name and supports victims of trafficking in Colombia and the United States.
"Sometimes people are very cruel to the victims," he says. "My mother took five years to understand what is human trafficking, she would judge me, would say that I was a victim and it caused me a lot of problems."
This was reversed only with the search for psychological support for the whole family.
While experts consulted by the BBC agree that the number of victims of trafficking in Latin America in Japan has declined significantly since the 2000s, the international dynamics of human trafficking and bad continue to prevail – and remains the destination of vulnerable women.
Source link
