The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

ANN Marie Davis, the wife of Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, called for people to fight against human trafficking.

She was speaking yesterday during the launch of a public campaign recognising World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

She discussed how families are sometimes deceived into giving their children to wealthier families, believing the child will have a better life, only for the opposite to occur.

She referenced the case of Shyima, who was sold as a pre-teen to a wealthy Egyptian family to work in their California home and was forced to live in a windowless garage for two years, according to a Trafficking in Persons Report released in 2009.

The report detailed how Shyima woke up before dawn and often worked past midnight, ironing the family’s clothes, mopping the marble floors, and “dusting the family’s crystal,” for which she earned $45 monthly. At times, she worked up to 20 hours a day.

“She lived under constant fear and loneliness with very little possibility of going to school or having a normal childhood,” Ms Davis said. “Could you imagine? You see how small our eight-year-olds are? Can you imagine a young girl at eight years old like that being sold into slavery, being trafficked? This is what we’re up against.”

This year’s campaign theme is “Leave No Child Behind in the Fight Against Human Trafficking”.

Mrs Davis said the theme “resonates deeply” with the Office of the Spouse of the Prime Minister, which has a portfolio dedicated to protecting the vulnerable in the community, “particularly women and children, and combating malicious effects of gender-based violence against women and children”.

When asked to respond to frustration from women advocates about the stalled move to criminalise marital rape, she inaccurately said the Protection Against Violence Bill passed last year sufficiently addresses the issue.