(Reuters) J’s cousin promised her a well paid job in India as a housekeeper. Instead, she found herself in a brothel until the United Nations brought her home to Kenya when it was alerted to the human trafficking route.
“When I heard there were job vacancies in India, I was so happy,” said J, asking that only her initial be used to protect her privacy.
When she got there, her passport was confiscated and she was forced into sex work to pay off $9,000 her traffickers, fellow East Africans, told her she owed them for her travel and lodging, she said.
In the past year, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) repatriated 12 Kenyan women who had been trafficked to India, the first time it said it had been asked to help Kenyans there.