China Daily

Maid was held in a state of ‘slavery’

- By AMY HE in New York amyhe@chinadaily­usa.com

A Chinese woman has been charged with beating and starving a woman she brought from Shanghai to work as her nanny in the United States, and of holding he rina state of“slavery or indentured servitude ”, according to prosecutor­s.

The accused woman is now in jail awaiting a court appearance, which is set for next month.

Lili Huang, 35 of Woodbury, Wisconsin, was charged on July 15 with five counts of traffickin­g in human labor in the alleged assaults on the nanny. She was given two bail options: $1 million without conditions, or $350,000 with conditions that include ankle monitoring. She was scheduled to appear in court on Aug 18 to enter a plea or request a hearing.

Huang was charged with labor traffickin­g, seizing a passport with intent to break the law, false imprisonme­nt, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault causing substantia­l bodily harm, according to the Washington County Attorney’s Office.

The 58-year-old nanny was working in “indentured servitude” conditions, according to prosecutor­s. Her identity has not been disclosed.

She was found last Thursday night on a street after she escaped the house where she had been working since March, according to media reports. She had two black eyes, a broken sternum and multiple broken ribs, and fled the house in search of an airport so she could return home, she told police, through translator­s.

She said that she had been hired as a nanny in Shanghai to work for Huang’s family, and moved with the family when they relocated to the US. She had been promised $890 a month, but was forced to work 18-hour days taking care of two children, cooking and cleaning, according to the attorney’s office.

She was physically assaulted by Huang, often in front of the children, according to a statement from the attorney’s office. When she told her employer she wanted to return to China, Huang took her passport and told her that she was “not going anywhere”.

On July 4, Huang grabbed the nanny’s hair and bashed her head into a table and by the following week, she was “so disabled by the beatings that she could not get up off her hands and knees for four hours”, prosecutor­s allege. Huang also withheld food from the nanny, who has lost more than 30 pounds since coming to the US.

The complaint said police from four cities, along with US Department of Homeland Security agents, searched Huang’s home and arrested her.

Prosecutin­g attorney Pete Orput, said human labor traffickin­g “is a crime that no one can believe exists in their community”.

“However, it is here. It is being committed by some of our citizens. And it amounts to nothing less than slavery in the 21st century,” Orput said.

Gregory Cendana, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, said Asian immigrants are vulnerable to labor traffickin­g because they have “little access to informatio­n” about their rights.

In the complaint filed with police, the nanny said Huang’s family was “very wealthy and had multiple homes in China”.

 ??  ?? Lili Huang
Lili Huang

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