I fled Turkish ‘hell’- victim

A HUMAN trafficking victim has testified that she escaped from slavery

in Turkey where she was forced to work as a maid for 19 hours without resting.

Alice Lubinda has also told the court that she fought attempts by a Moroccan prostitute to introduce her to sexual slavery in a shanty compound in the Turkish city of Istanbul after she escaped from her cruel employer.

Lubinda, 24, said this before Lusaka Magistrate Felix Kaoma yesterday in a case where her male friend Paul Zambara, 24, a student at Apex University, and her mother Loveness Chitambara, 54, are jointly charged for allegedly traffic ing her to Tur ey between July 1 and August 31, 2019.

She said Zambara organized her visa to Turkey and she was recruited by a Turkish employment agency known as Job Me to work as a maid.

She said upon arrival in Istanbul she met a Moroccan woman only identified as essica who immediately confiscated her phone and passport after which she was taken to Job Me offices where she met her would-be employersa Syrian woman and her husband from Dubai.

“They made me sign a contract for three years six months in Turkish language. They said I will be paid US$200 per month and that I will be communicating with my family. I used to wake up at 07: 00 hours and start work until 13 to 14:00 hours when they would post me to other houses where I worked until 03:00 hours the next morning.

n the first house used to sleep in the toys’ room, in the second house I used to sleep in the kids’ room while in the third house I used to sleep in the toilet. I worked for two months and when I asked for my salary they said the company would only pay me after finish my contract,” Lubinda said.

She said the woman’s husband then started making sexual advances to her but she refused after which she was taken to the Turkish city of Mersin where she worked for another family for the same hours without resting.

Lubinda said in Mersin she was posted to various houses before her main employer moved with her back to Istanbul where she was made to dispose of the litter bin at 02:00 hours, an opportunity she used to escape.

She said after escaping from the captivity, she contacted Jessica who took her to ob Me office the ne t morning.

She said she insisted on being allowed to return to Zambia but they refused and after a few days she was taken to a house in a shanty compound where she found a drunken woman who was also smoking cigarettes.

“This woman had cameras everywhere in the house and used to bring men. She would invite me to greet them and they said they had heard a lot about me and wanted me to be their friend. When I refused she used to get upset,” Lubinda said. Trial continues today.