Antislavery Usable Past

Lee CS

2010 (Narrative date)

The Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates that there are 2,640,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery in The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Men, women and children are subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Government oppression in the DPRK prompts many North Koreans to flee the country in ways that make them vulnerable to human trafficking in destination countries. Many of the estimated 10 000 North Korean women and girls who have migrated illegally to China to flee abuse and human rights violation are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Some lure, drug, detain or kidnap North Korean women on their arrival, others offer jobs but subsequently force the women into prostitution, domestic service, or forced marriage. If found, Chinese authorities often repatriate victims back to the DPRK where they are subjected to harsh punishment including forced labour in labour camps or death.

Lee CS was taken to China by a man she thought loved her. Upon arrival she was sold to a farmer, kept locked up and forced to become his partner.

I came from xx county, Hamkyung province in NK. I was just staying at my home after high school. Then, I had a chance to learn to be a nurse, where I fell in love with a man, but he happened to be a trafficker. He tempted me to go to China to live a better life, so I just followed him, my love at that time. I didn't know the language, where I was at that time, I just followed him and I ended up with an old farmer who lived in the depths of the mountains. He was very suspicious that I might be running away, so he wouldn't leave home without locking the door from outside. I lived with him as his partner for 6 years. This made me sick and very tired. This was the main reason why I have followed my friend from NK into the same village, who wanted to go to S. Korea for their better life. I have no idea how to go to S. Korea. But I just heard this through my friend who was living at the same village, sold like me. Please help me to get out of this miserable life and make it to S. Korea. Thank you.

Narrative provided by Escaping North Korea: The Plight of Defectors: Hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission House of Representative

Country

Theme

Trafficking

Tags

VOICES: Narratives by Survivors of Modern Slavery

This is the world's largest archive of modern slavery survivor narratives. Across more than a million words spoken or written by survivors of modern slavery, we can see why slavery persists in particular hotspots, analyse patterns in trafficking routes, identify vulnerabilities, understand more about the challenges survivors face in liberation, and discover new antislavery solutions. These narratives offer the chance to systematically design new antislavery strategies based on the experiences, ideas and solutions of enslaved people themselves.

The database is searchable by country, name, theme, and narrative date. Narratives can be viewed in list or map form. A short introduction provides context to each narrative. Narrative provenance appears after the main narrative text.

For ideas on how to use this database, please see our accompanying guide.

Project Lead: Zoe Trodd. Team Members: Andrea Nicholson, Lauren Eglen, Rosemary Pearce, Olivia Wright.

Project Funders: AHRC Antislavery Usable Past grant (2014-19), ESRC/AHRC PaCCS Modern Slavery: Meaning and Measurement grant (2016-19), and AHRC-GCRF Antislavery Knowledge Network grant (2017-2021).

For any queries about the collection please contact: rightslab@nottingham.ac.uk. If you wish to cite a particular narrative, please acknowledge the survivor’s name, the provenance of the narrative and cite: Voices Database, the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham.

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