[background noise] -Human trafficking. The trade of humans for the purpose
of forced labor, sexual slavery, and other heinous exploitation. Traffickers may use violence,
manipulation or false promises of financial stability
or romantic relationships to lure victims
into trafficking situations. Human trafficking
is often a hidden crime causing many cases to go unknown but trafficking
is overwhelmingly common and can take place in cities,
suburbs, and rural areas alike. Estimates have found
that over 40 million people are currently enslaved or
being trafficked globally. 79% of those detected being women
and children. This year there has been a 40%
increase in human trafficking cases in the US compared to last year. Many attribute this increase
to the recent pandemic as more people, especially children,
take to the internet to interact with people they may not know. My name is Anthony Padilla and today
I'm going to be sitting down with human trafficking survivors
to learn what it's really like to live through such a harrowing
and torturous experience. Were there trafficking survivors
able to come out of this shocking experience
with a newfound appreciation for life or do they live every day
deeply tortured by the maniacally evil experience
they've gone through at the had of another human being? [music] -Hello, Rebecca. -Hi, how are you? [music] -Shandra. -Yes. Hi.
How are you? [music] -Terry. -Hello Anthony? [music] -Thank you so much for coming on here
and teaching me about the world of surviving human trafficking. -I am honored to be here
and to bring this topic. [chuckles] -Would you consider yourself
a trafficking survivor? Just somebody
who is incredibly resilient? -How we'd like to frame it is we go from a victim to a survivor
to a leader. -We refer to people who have survived
have a lived experience and are now giving back,
as survivor leader. -I was a victim, I survived,
and now I am a thriver. -You are a thriver. Thriver and a leader.
-I think it's better to say that way. [laughter] -I don't want to kind
of become a victim all the time. -How old were you
when you were trafficked and do you remember the events
that led up to that situation? -About 18 when I met my trafficker. I was a single, young mom trying
to put myself through college and I met a young man who I thought had all the answers
to all my problems. Everything was about us as a family
and just got to know my hopes and my dreams and seemed
to have all the solutions. I thought, "Man, I've met the one. I've met the one. Finally,
the tables have turned for me." Unfortunately, the definition of human trafficking
is to use force, fraud, or coercion. He lied about his age,
he lied about what he did. He dated me for six months pretending
to be this other person. -Six months convincing you
that you were in a loving, romantic relationship? -They are looking for
what you are hungry for and then they'll become that
in order to get their hooks in. -When I was 15-years-old,
I was raped by a boss. I wasn't prepared
for what happened so that fight, flight, and freeze kicked in. Because I didn't kick him,
I didn't maim him, I didn't injure him,
I didn't consider it rape, I considered it was my fault. I think, psychologically,
that kind of took over because right after that
is when I started using cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and whatever else
I could get my hands on at the time to dissociate. I started to take
a huge downward spiral. I started going to the streets
of Minneapolis where I knew there was a lot
of cocaine. I met a guy, this guy seemed very gentle
and he seemed like somebody that could save me. -I was 24-years-old. In 1998 political turbulence happened
in Indonesia. We want reformation of the government
and I wasn't safe at that time. I was a labor right activist
so I went to street, I was marching, I got attention of the government,
trying to change the law. -You were fighting
for the people of your country. -If I use all my money to protest,
I cannot survive and my daughter will not go to school
because I don't have any more saving. I decided to go to America. I flew to JFK with the promise
they will pick me up, they will pay me $5,000 a month but the fact many people line
up behind me with the same destination,
hotel job in Chicago. I was exchanged with money. -You were sold then at that moment? -He got a bunch of money
from another man and then he took me
to another location, the same experience,
I was exchanged with money again. At that day I was exchanged
to four people, I was aware but I didn't know
that I was kidnapped. -He told me his job
was relocating him because all of his bands
had gotten gigs there and Las Vegas
was the entertainment capital of the world, so I believed him. We moved into the apartment
his brother had helped us move and he said, "Get dressed up, I'm going to show you out
on the town." He looped the car around
and parked on the side of the cab and there was
this deserted strip mall, on the right side there's no lights,
no signs and he put the car in park and said, "I spent a lot of money
to get you here. We're going to need
to get that money back. Well,
do you see that door right there? That's an escort service, and I'm going to need you
to sign up." I said, "Escort sounds
like prostitution, no way." That's when he slapped me
across the face and he said,
"You're going to go in that room and you're going to get my money
back." I complied, I complied out of fear. I thought, "You know what?
I'm just going to get the money and things will get better tomorrow." The lady has me give her my ID
to show I'm over 18 and she hands me some paperwork
to fill out and I kind of am stopping
to read and she said, "It just says that you won't solicit,
we don't hire those kinds of girls." I was like, "Oh, see, I can trust him." That was it, I signed up,
got in the car and the phone
started ringing immediately. I just remember starting to cry
and thinking like, "How did I get here?" I was a good kid from a good home,
I was a varsity athlete, I was accepted into university. Like when did suddenly
my boundaries get so pushed
by someone that completely has tricked me into-- I just felt so used
and so deceived and now I don't know
where my daughter is and I'm 19 and I've been hit
for the first time. Now I know right that things
can get dangerous. I started feeling really, not just hopeless,
but just really sad. I'm so embarrassed,
I'm so ashamed to admit to people that I've crossed these lines
that I just- or I wouldn't do. I know I can remember feeling like,
what's my other option? Go back to being in poverty
as a single mom, lonely and sad, alone, unwanted,
unimportant? You feel sometimes stuck
between hoping it gets better or going back to what you hated, and not knowing
that it's going to get worse. When you don't know
it's going to get worse, you just hope that tomorrow
will be better. -Three or four months being with this guy
that he would do things like this. He would say
that he's going to go out and [?], meaning go get some more cocaine because he always had a lot
of cocaine. In the meantime,- [knock] -someone would knock
on our apartment door and they would come in and say,
"I'm waiting for [?] to come back with some drugs. Do you mind if I sit here?"
He puts the cocaine, the crack, out on the table and says,
"Help yourself. " "Well no
I'm not going to help myself, I don't have any money and I'm not going to do
any sexual favors, so I'll just wait." He goes,
"No, seriously just help yourself, he'll be back in a minute." I did the cocaine
and then when I was done the person that was there made me do favors
for them. What I hadn't known was that they had paid
for that in advance. Then the trauma that lives
in our body compounds with all this and pretty soon we're stuck. -You were addicted to this drug,
they knew that you would do anything for the drug,
even though you didn't know that you were signing up
to do anything for the drug it just happening.
-Right exactly, but I ended up doing some things
that I'm not happy with because of being in life
and being very- trying to survive. -He drove about five
to ten minutes away from his house, he rang the bell,
"Mama-san this is a new girl." I knew mama-san
is the woman that runs a brothel. -Did you know
what was about to happen at that point? -I didn't know what is that but I knew this is something wrong
going on. In a few hours, I was end up
in the hands of sex buyers. My trafficker told me, "You have to pay
$30,000 to be free. I was trapped in captivity. -How did you earn money
in that situation. -One sex buyer will deduct $100
from the manipulation tab. Every day, morning to night time,
24 hours, I was sitting in the living room
with a disco light, drug on the table,
alcohol on the table and without clothes. They played with a quarter, if I don't make a quarter for $2,000,
I will not get food. According to get that quarter,
sometimes, we have to fight with life and with other girls, because of hungry. -Before we learn more
about the world of surviving human trafficking. -I can remember rushing my daughter
to a room and shutting the door and saying, "Don't come out
until I come and get you." I could hear him like screaming and there's like blood on the floor
as he dragged them to his room. -I was leading this movement
to jump out two storeys building bathroom. -I just want to take a moment
to mention that I've linked some resources down
below to learn more about human trafficking and stay tuned
because in just a few minutes we're going to learn
some key red flags that could alert you
to a potential trafficking situation. If you want to watch more episodes
about survivors with some incredibly
inspiring stories, I'll go ahead and throw up
a link up here for you to watch. I spent a day
with kidnapping survivors and survivors of police brutality. Now, back to learning
about the world of surviving human trafficking. Can you explain how long this went on
and how much worse it got and your thought process
throughout that? -In nearly six years
I ended up getting bought and sold
between three different traffickers. I've had two of them brand me like
a piece of cattle. -Literally branded. -[?] in five places, hospitalized
for dehydration and over exhaustion, I've been to jail a lot. Ended up getting strung out on drugs
by 21, I was a full-blown addict. By the end, I was in a home
for three years with three other women
and two children. It becomes this very
many cult-like family where then you also become bonded
with the other women where now you're like,
"I could physically run out the door but I can't leave her,
what's going to happen to her son?" -You almost don't want
to save yourself unless you could save everyone. -One time I can remember him saying- I was really sick
I'd gotten like the flu and I had a really bad fever
and chills and throwing up and I would say, "Collins, I need to come home,
I'm really sick." He'd say, "If you come home,
you'll come home to swinging hangers, bitch." And hang the phone up on me. -As if he had just picked up
everything and left. -Those two words and I knew
that I wouldn't see my daughter, I wouldn't know where to look and so you push it down
you suck it up you move forward. I just didn't know
how I was going to get out. It felt like no matter what escape
I tried it wasn't working, I got all the way home
and he showed up too. You're just living in this tornado
of fear, it's like playing Russian roulette
with buyers every time you knock on the door, you don't know
if it's going to be a serial killer or some crazy dude. Just like living
in this prolonged state of fear. -How did you eventually
finally escape. -It was the night before Easter
and I remember thinking, "We have nowhere to go tonight. I am so sick of this life." I fell asleep
with a cart of things at TJ Maxx. I was getting my kids
a whole bunch of Easter things and drop it off at their house
and then I didn't know what was going to happen after that. I pushed it out the door,
cops were swarmed all over me because they watched me, I fell asleep for God's sake,
and I went to jail. I had 11 bench warrants
in three different counties, I was going to be doing some time. At the same time,
one of the guards said, "I think you're pregnant." They did a test, a pregnancy test,
I found out I was. Then I decided, "You know what?
I don't want this life anymore." -The bigger event that led to me finally escaping
was he actually beat up the little-- the boy that was in the home. He was 15, it was his son, he came in
and my trafficker just started beating him
like a grown man and I can remember rushing
my daughter to a room and shutting the door and saying don't come out until I come
and get you. I could hear him screaming and there's like blood on the floor
as he dragged him to his room. At that point, I called home and I said- I told my aunt what had happened,
my aunt works worked at a domestic violence shelter
at the time as a children's advocate, and she said, "That's going to happen
to your daughter." I said, "No, he loves her,
he wouldn't do that." She said, "Because she's seven
and she's compliant. When she talks back
for the first time that will happen to your daughter." I couldn't risk it
for my girl anymore, so, the first opportunity
that he was out of town, I called my mom
and asked her to put plane tickets on her credit card because I didn't-- you don't have any money
and he takes everything. My mom of course said, "Yes." That's it, my plan was I'm just going
to sleep on couches get on food stamps,
get on government housing, 28 years old I got a criminal record
I've ended- gotten all these prostitution-related
charges on my record. Like what do you do? You're right back
to the same vulnerabilities of being a single mom in poverty
trying to make ends meet. Now,
I've got all this other compounded, huge gap in job,
history criminal record, PTSD, like an extreme amount
of PTSD from all the trauma
and the cult's behavior. It's just a lot--
it's a lot to try to figure out. -I tried to escape for many times. One time I was in Connecticut
during this situation, they took me to different states. -You were never in one spot long
enough for anyone to even be able to find you
or report that you were there or for you to communicate
with anyone else. -When I was in Connecticut
I tried to jump, I just make a connection
in between all the sheets, my clothes, just to jump out
from the wood and I couldn't get there
even though I was a girl scout, I knew how to survive. -You were connecting every piece
of fabric to try to loop- to try to drop yourself down
from the window. -I couldn't get to the ground
because it was so high. I realized it was in the wood, dark,
so I climbed up and I said, "I am trapped." -You actually secured this thing out
the window and then you climb down
and then you realize that you're just in the middle
of the woods and you couldn't run anywhere. Then you climbed
all the way back up? -Some girls holding that. -Oh, it was like a team effort then. -Yes, we tried to escape all of us escaped
but it wasn't a success but they took me back
to Brooklyn, New York. I said, "This an opportunity
for me to go to the airport and my trafficker slept,
the pornstar slept, I sneaked out to the bathroom and I saw a little window. I went to the kitchen,
try to find what-- knife, I couldn't find it
so I used a little spoon. -To unscrew the window? -Thank God, it was open. -When it opened what was your feeling
seeing that you had this opportunity to maybe finally escape? -The girls behind me at that time. I was leading this movement
to jump out it was so high. -How high was it you think? -Two storey building bathroom. -You had to take that risk. -I will make it. In the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen, I jump. -Did you hurt yourself
that you're on your fall. -No pain, no nothing I ended smoothly but the 12 years old girl
jumped on me. [laughter] -She just jumped on you. -It was painful. -Without warning just like oh,
a body is on me now. -I wave my hand,
one day I will pick you up. -Then you had to wave up
at everyone else and say I'll rescue you. -I was crying Anthony,
it was sad that you see I have my freedom outside. When I see that window
it is like a jail, it's really like- you cannot imagine
that the girl inside and I was outside and I knew exactly
how it was difficult. Then we went to law enforcement,
we went to Consul General, nobody helped us. -You were just left there to fend
for yourself and figure out how to earn some kind
of money to get a flight back home. Then you at the same time are seeking justice for the girls
that are being trafficked and you promised them
that you would save them as well. -I really experienced
in the become a homeless. There was a man he was a US Navy. Now for an officer, he sat next to me
and asked me about many things and I told him and he said, "I will help you,
come back tomorrow at noon." Anthony, I didn't know what was noon. -You don't know what the noon meant
at that point. -I didn't know what was noon. He told me, "Okay, are you ready?"
He called FBI, he spoke to the officer
and the investigation started. The law enforcement took me
to raid the location because of I have all the notes
in my back, so snipper, undercover oh,
maybe a bunch of law enforcement surrounded
this place, I said, "This is the place,
this is the place." -You were there
and you saw it get surrounded. -I saw it like in the movie
how they raid the place, it was amazing I was crying loud when the girl out only
with the towel. All they were without clothes. -Were these the same girls that you promised
that you would save. -Some, yes, some of them are not
and then the police officer make a hole asks me
to peep through the hole to identify who are they
and I say like, "It was Johnny Wong." I say this and this. -Wow. Do you know what that caused for him? -I testified, they were convicted
and prosecuted. -You. found yourself in one
of the most horrifying situations that anyone could find themselves in, in a foreign country
with no idea what anything was. You sought justice
and then you actually were able to bring these people that are part
of these sex trafficking rings to justice as well. -It's not easy
but we have to talk about it. -Has this network of people
or any of the people involved with trafficking you been
held accountable in any way? -Not in this life. -Nothing legally? -None of my traffickers
have ever been in trouble for trafficking. -One thing that I was angry
because the people that bought my body,
that bought those girl's body, actually I have all the information. When people bought my body,
I tried to be nice, "What is your name?"
I put in my notes. -You had all of their names? -I gave to law enforcement
but there wasn't any prosecution. -These people that were in charge
if it were prosecuted but none of the people that actually took advantage of you
and abused you and your body and used you received
any kind of punishment at all? -The most abusive people
in this network, not only traffickers but sex buyers. -How has your life changed
since being trafficked? -We have scar because of experience in the hand
of traffickers and sex buyers. It gave me a scar- -Absolutely.
--that cannot go away. I visit the psychiatric therapist
constantly, regularly because I need help. -I'm sure
that you're constantly thinking that at any moment
you could be trafficked again. -Yes. That's so true
because when I walk around, "Oh, they might be a victim." Or myself, I have to be careful. -What do you think
was the most difficult part about adapting back to normalcy
after being trafficked? -For me, it became my own kind
of spiritual journey of like, "Why did I leave
when others had died, and is there a power
greater than myself?" That first year, I can remember
having this moment where I just got mad at God
and was just like, "This sucks too man.
Is this my future? Living in this hopelessness
and poverty and this government-subsidized crappy
apartment with cockroaches? I don't want this either." I felt like I had this piercing
thought that went through my mind. It wasn't this audible like,
"Thus says the Lord." -[laughs] Right. -It was this piercing
thought that radically cut through my hopelessness like a knife. I can remember having this thought,
"If you give me the same amount of time that you gave the enemy,
I will never be outdone." I can't actually undo
in 30 days what the six years of being exploited
to do to my psyche, to do to my mental health,
to do to my financial-economic empowerment or lack thereof. In that moment I remember
something shifted and I thought, "All right,
as hard as this is going to get, I have to give this new life
a try for six years. I have to. I have to give them
the same amount of time." -It's not just about escaping
and everything is good, it's about this long recovery
process. I feel like you were so powerful
in that moment to give yourself as much time to recover as much time
as had been taken away from you. -You hear stories about other people
that have built something with their lives
or came out of rough circumstances, we all know lots of people
we've at least heard about on television
or read about on the internet. I think, you know what? If other people have figured
this out, I can too. -What do you think
should be done to prevent others from experiencing what you did? -Prevention through education
and public awareness. -It needs to be discussed openly
and frequently to everyone? -Yes. Also, we as people who know,
don't give a wrong message. Human trafficking is hidden. You cannot see
with your plain sight. -Moonchild wants to know
what the biggest red flag was that you wish
that you would have seen sooner. -The whole job situation
was something that I wish I would
have seen sooner. Frequent trips out of town,
two cell phones, job that no one can visit,
really hyper-sexual culture, fueling hypersexuality often like,
"Well, let's go to the strip club." Or, "You should get up there."
Or, "My last girlfriend did it." All these things
that continually push your boundaries little
by little by little. -Do you think there's any one type
of person that is more at risk for being trafficked? -One of the things, Anthony,
what I do when I go out and do trainings
is I'm going to walk around the room and I'm going to look everyone
in the eye. Those people that give me
eye contact, I'm not going to mess with them. The people that look away or don't give me eye contact
they are good candidates. Chances are they have
lower self-esteem. If you're coming from a broken home,
if you're in foster care, all kinds of ways that people
are targeted, but the most vulnerable people
are those of us that have pre-existing conditions. Like I said,
a lot of our girls have autism, multiple personality disorders,
whatever, came from a foster care system, were sexually abused
before the age of 10. Those are the folks
that they're going to look for. They're going to look outside
of AAA meetings, they're going to look outside
of schools, they're going to try
to get folks young because the younger you are,
the easier it is to mold them. -Has your experience being
trafficked influenced the way that you raise your own kids. -Oh, absolutely. You may be surprised
that she was like, "You've made me afraid
of everything." I'm like, "I think it's normal
to carry your keys as a weapon when you're on your way." -Yes, you got to stab someone
in the eye if they get close maybe. -I'm a lot more aware and alert
about the way that predatory behavior targets
different age groups, just because of the work I'm in, but I think I'm a lot more relaxed
than people would think I am. I want my daughter to go date people,
I want her to have a normal life. I just want her to be smart. I can remember recently she was-- she had said she was going out
with someone and I was like, "Oh what's their name? She's like, "Mom, I know you're going
to do like the whole check on.? Then it's that funny time
when you're like, "Oh, nice to meet you,"
and you're thinking and I know your mom's name's Karen,
and your dad is Steve. [laughter] -You went full investigatory
mode on that. -Yes, all the time. -Yes, sometimes
I become overprotective. [laughter] -Yes, you experienced first hand. -Especially to my daughter,
my daughter is 24 years old. Where did you go [?] Then, "Mom, I'm okay I'm an adult."
But still-- -It is a little bit over the top
sometimes but at the same time you experienced firsthand,
your children probably understand. -Yes, my children knew that,
they said, "I'm so proud of you mama,"
so I was crying. It is just amazing
that my family supports me. -Why do you think it's so difficult
for some people to understand just how common
human trafficking really is? -I guess
if you haven't been addicted, if you haven't been in the life,
if you don't understand systems of oppression,
if you don't understand marginalized folks,
then you're not going to get it. When you live in your bubble
and you don't get out of that. -When you have privilege,
you don't understand the lengths that some people will go
that do not have the privilege to have safety, to have shelter,
to have some money and some peace of mind, and the situations that you can find
yourself in when you get desperate. -If we would rewind all this
and go back to when I was 14 years old I would say, "Anthony,
you are absolutely out of your mind. None of those things will ever happen
to me, I will never go through any of that." -If you could say something
to anyone watching who is thinking that they may be part of a trafficking situation
themselves, is there anything
that you'd want to say to them? -If anyone is forcing you to do
anything you're not comfortable with, it doesn't just have to feel
like this big giant word of human trafficking. If anyone is forcing you
to do something with a friend, a buddy, a landlord, a drug dealer that you feel really
uncomfortable doing and you're feeling pressured,
please reach out for help. There are tons of advocates
that want to help you, that want to support you,
that want to help you get your dreams
without that person intimidating you or pressuring you. You can always call
the human trafficking hotline which is 1888- 37-37-888. -It's gradual and it can happen
from the person that you trust most in your life, the person that you could never
imagine deceiving you or taking advantage
of you in any way. -Right. -All right you got five seconds
to shout out or promote anything you want
directly in the camera, go. -Www.mentariusa.org
and be a part of this movement. -Go buy my book. In Pursuit of Love on Amazon, download the audible
it's me reading it, it's going to give you a lot
more info on how you can get involved
in the fight. -Check out our website,
check out the resources, get some education
and use that as a tool to help other people
get out the life. -The most important thing
is to subscribe to Anthony Padilla link
and be a part of it. -[laughs] Thank you. Thank you so much Rebecca
I feel like I understand the world of human trafficking
just a little bit more. -Thanks so much for having me on
and using your platform to raise real awareness,
you've got such a great reach, you can use it for anything
and we appreciate you. -After spending the day
with these incredibly strong trafficking survivors, I've come to understand
just how much it takes for one to not only go
through such a horrific and life-altering event but to also advocate
and spread awareness about it in order to protect millions
of others who may fall into similar situations. See you later bright guys. -Press a like. [music] -I will go to America. I will eat pizza hot,
I will eat McDonald, I will get a dollar. -[laughs] McDonald's, baby, America. -I might meet Whitney Houston. [laughter] -You thought you might meet Whitney Houston here.
-I didn't know you before, but I knew Whitney Houston.
