Lured from Colombia, she was trapped in a sex ring run by the Japanese mafia — until she escaped to help others
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Marcela Loaiza was 21 when she was lured from Colombia, trapped in a sex trafficking ring run and forced by Japan’s Yakuza mafia to sell sex on the streets of Tokyo.
After 18 months of sexual exploitation, she escaped, so weak and ill that her hair and teeth were falling out.
Today Loaiza, 35, runs a non-governmental organisation that bears her name to raise awareness about human trafficking among girls, women and men in Colombia and the United States, where she now lives.
While the Colombian government says tackling human trafficking is a priority, Loaiza says much more needs to be done to prevent women falling prey to trafficking rings in the first place, and to provide the health care and psychological support survivors need to recover.
Loaiza spoke with Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone from the Colombian city of Cali, and recalled how she escaped forced prostitution and the mafia, and how she moved past the pain and guilt and healed.
“I remember a Colombian man coming up to me in a nightclub in Colombia where I was working as a professional dancer. He introduced himself to me as a talent scout looking to hire dancers to work abroad. I didn’t accept his offer, but I took his card and kept it.
“Back then, I had two jobs: one as a cashier in a supermarket and another as a dancer on the weekends. A few weeks later after I’d met the man, my daughter, who was three-and-a-half years old then, had an asthma attack. I stayed with her in hospital night and day for two days as she recovered. As a result, I lost my two jobs, and I didn’t have the money to pay for the hospital bill. I was a single mother. I was desperate. So I got in touch with the man I’d met at the nightclub and he lent me the money to pay for my daughter’s treatment. That was the hook that got me in.
“He offered me work as a professional dancer in Japan. It seemed the best way to earn money to look after my daughter and buy a house I had always wanted for my mother. I left my daughter with my mother. Within a week, I was in Tokyo.
“At the airport, I was met by three Japanese men and a Colombian woman. I later learnt she was a recruiter for the traffickers and had been a victim of trafficking herself.
“I had no idea I’d been sex trafficked”: A terrifying true story
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