Apa yon restavèk jwenn lajistis lan Florid. E an Ayiti menm?

May 18, 2008

A Haitian in U.S. Wins Case Over Forced Labor

By CARMEN GENTILE
MIAMI — Amid tears, Simone Celestin recalled the repeated beatings she endured at the hands of her adoptive family while working for them as an unpaid servant for six years.

Ms. Celestin, 23, told a South Florida court in March that she was brought to the United States from Haiti at the age of 14 and never attended school. She recalled for jurors how she was hit with a broom or shoe, worked 15-hour days, and was forced to sleep on the floor and eat table scraps.

Her recollections persuaded jurors to convict members of her adoptive family, Evelyn Theodore, 74, and Maude Paulin, her 52-year-old daughter, of conspiring to violate Ms. Celestin’s civil rights and compelling her to perform forced labor. The women, who are also Haitian and adopted Ms. Celestin when she was 5, are scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday. Ms. Celestin told jurors that her situation was so dire she contemplated suicide, debating one day in March 2004 whether she should drink “motor oil or bleach” after she was beaten for not making the bed properly.

Eventually, she fled and was taken to an area hospital, and she linked up with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

The State Department has estimated that 14,500 to 17,500 of the immigrants coming to the United States every year find themselves in a forced labor situation.

According to a department study, just over 25 percent of the cases of unpaid servitude involve forced domestic labor, and nearly half of victims fall prey to sex rings and prostitution.

But cases like Ms. Celestin’s are rarely tried, as victims are often afraid or unable to come forward. However, since the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed in 2000, prosecutions have increased from less than a handful nationwide per year to about a dozen.

Lawyers for the defendants said that they would appeal the verdict and that Ms. Celestin lied about her living conditions to remain in the United States.

“She exaggerated her case, and it suited everyone’s purpose to just go along with it,” said Leonard Fenn, the lawyer for Ms. Theodore, who characterized his client as a strict disciplinarian and “an old-fashioned woman from an old-fashioned country.”

“But I don’t think she was a slave owner or slave master as the verdict found,” Mr. Fenn said.

Even the lawyer for a defendant acquitted of all charges in the case took exception to the ruling.

“There were numerous inconsistencies in the government’s case,” said the lawyer, Joe DeFabio, who represented Claire Telasco. Ms. Telasco was acquitted of conspiracy and forced labor charges. He noted how Ms. Celestin’s hospital records did not indicate any signs of bruising or other trauma.

“Her not being in school was certainly wrong,” Mr. DeFabio said, “but forced labor and slavery, I don’t agree with that.”

He said Ms. Celestin’s living conditions as an adoptive child reflected a practice in Haiti known in Creole as “restavek,” or “staying with,” in which children from poor Haitian families are turned over to wealthier ones who care for them in exchange for domestic services. Though a common practice in Haiti, restavek is widely denounced by international rights groups as a form of modern-day slavery.

The lawyer for Ms. Celestin refused to comment on the case until the sentencing.

But Grace Chung Becker, acting attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, said the “defendants used their power and affluence to coerce a vulnerable 14-year-old girl into their personal service for six years.”

Ms. Celestin was given housing assistance by the immigrant advocacy center and attends remedial education classes and receives counseling.

Her case caught the attention of State Department officials focusing on combating modern-day slavery in the United States.

“Victims like this woman are often scared to go to police or immigration because they are afraid they will be treated like a criminal,” said Mark Lagon, director of the department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

“There is certainly a pattern of people being vulnerable and used any way they are wanted,” Mr. Lagon said.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company