(Trinidad Guardian) Having arrived in Trinidad and Tobago before the COVID-19 pandemic in search of a better life, Marcia Jimson (not her real name), 17, was sold for $10,000 to a trafficker who then put her to work as a prostitute in an upscale Chaguanas home.
Jimson was one of a dozen Venezuelan women who were trafficked by a businessman who kept them against their will until they were rescued by members of the T&T Police Service five years ago.
Yesterday, Jimson, now 21, broke her silence on the controversial issue of human trafficking, saying she regretted coming to T&T for a job opportunity, as she ended up being used as a sex slave for two months by desperate and sex-craved men—many of whom came from professional backgrounds.
As she recounted her ordeal to Guardian Media yesterday, Jimson broke down in tears, saying after her encounter with hundreds of men who physically, verbally and mentally abused her for sex, she wanted to take her life.
Her story comes a day after Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher ordered a probe into the allegations swirling in public over a UNC parliamentarian’s alleged involved in human trafficking, which was raised in a US State Department Trafficking in Persons report in 2020.
Jimson said she grew up in Tucupita, where she struggled to make ends meet with her mother.
Speaking with a strong Venezuelan accent, Jimson said she was lured to T&T in September of 2018 by a Chinese man who operated a business in Arima.
The businessman also owned an establishment in Venezuela and invited Jimson and another young girl to work as bartenders in an Arima bar.
“I wanted to come out of the hardships, so I grasped at the opportunity. At that time, people were leaving Venezuela in droves to come here to make a better life and I was one of them. I was in search of progression.”
Jimson entered T&T illegally with only the clothes on her back and her national ID.
When the women arrived here, however, they were separated.
She agreed to work for the businessman for one month to pay for her boat ride to T&T. In her second week of working in the Arima establishment, however, she said the businessman and his brother forced her to have sex in a locked room where they then left her for several days.
“I never agreed to this,” she admitted, trying hard to contain her emotion.
“I could not go to the police. I was illegal here. They would have arrested me. It was like a nightmare. I was tricked…. fooled into believing that I was going to work as a bartender.”
The businessman then brought a male client to her.
When she resisted, Jimson said the man got annoyed, destroyed her cell phone and attacked her.
“I was also punched in the face repeatedly. And he became very abusive and started shouting at me for sex because he had already paid his money.”
She was then held down against her will and repeatedly raped by the man.
She subsequently managed to escape the businessman’s clutches after he had sex with her and fell asleep on the bed.
Jimson was later rescued by her aunt, who was living temporarily in Trinidad.
She said she then immediately tried to restart her life here.
