Ayub Hossain (far left), CBSDP Youth, Trafficking and Social Exclusion Programme Organiser; Halima's father; 'Halima'; James Pender and John Biswas (far right), CBSDP Regional Manager (Photo: © CBSDP/CMS) Halima was sold by her aunt, who lived in India, to a brothel there when she was just 12 years old.
Involuntarily, she became one of an estimated 20,000 Bangladeshi women and children who are tricked into becoming sex slaves in India each year.
To break her spirited refusal to sleep with men, Halima was locked in a darkened room for a week, fed very little food, tortured and raped.
The girl, not yet a teenager, was helpless to resist.
Subsequently, she was forced to work as a prostitute for six years, sometimes being violated by up to 15 male clients a night. As well as often feeling ill, overcome by powerlessness and at the end of her strength, Halima contemplated suicide.
She had no means of contacting her father, a poor day labourer, or her landless family in a small village in western Bangladesh, who had given their blessing when her aunt offered to find Halima "paid work".
Eventually, she convinced a regular customer to help her to escape. She made her way back to Bangladesh.
She said of her time in India, “I will never go back there. That is where I lost my life. When I am alone in my house, I cry when I remember what I went through.
“I am happy to be back in Bangladesh and free from psychological and sexual torture.”
Halima heard of the Church of Bangladesh Social Development Programme (CBSDP) and took part in its Women and Children Trafficking Prevention programme. After CBSDP gave her vocational training, she started her own tailoring business.
Feeling empowered, she decided to take her traffickers to court through the CBSDP’s Rights, Advocacy and Empowerment programme.
After 18 months of legal battles – during which her abusers used intimidation tactics – the traffickers agreed to an out-of-court settlement.
Halima, now 22, was awarded the equivalent of £450, which would be three years’ salary for a poor Bangladeshi family.
Community worker James Pender, who has supported Halima, pointed out, “Getting any settlement for trafficked women is extremely rare and to have the money paid upfront is nothing short of a miracle.
“The amount would have significantly hurt the traffickers and is a fortune to Halima and her family.”
Just as significantly, the traffickers involved have been ordered to sign a legal statement admitting their crime and promising not to undertake trafficking again. The document can be used in their prosecution if they resume such exploitation.
So Halima’s victory became not just a financial and psychological one, but a moral one too.
‘Halima’ is an alias used here to spare her further risk. James Pender is jointly supported in his work in Bangladesh by CMS and USPG.
If you want to read about CMS’ part in campaigning against sex trafficking, find out how arrests in Bangladesh followed a CMS anti-sex-trade drive
and how a Channel 4 TV star helped to launch the CMS campaign
and how a housemaid's refusal to arrange sex for her bosses made her a target for revenge.