Jay
Jay - Trafficked from Thailand to Belgium
When the Oasis Belgium team encountered Jay, she had been in the Thai brothels in Belgium for years, and was the girlfriend of one of the pimps. It is a common occurrence, that a woman trying to survive in the brothels gets into a relationship with one of her exploiters.
One of the stranger aspects of this kind of human trafficking is, although most of the money is taken off the women, the traffickers understand that there is a very strong cultural obligation to send money home, so this is allowed, even though most of the women’s money has to go to pay off a “debt” the traffickers say they are owed.
Jay sent money to her parents and sent some to help young girls to go through school, saying to us that she wanted them to avoid the life that she had been trapped,
Jay grew up in Thailand in the home of a member of the Thai mafia. He had four wives and there were frequent fights between them and his children, including with Jay, who once tried to kill one of her step mothers with one of the many guns in the house. When she was a teenager she was raped and forced into prostitution in Bangkok. She managed to escape, but was soon returned to the brothels.
After many years of abuse she was visited by a client from Belgium who pretended to fall in love with her, and promised to marry her and bring her to a better life in Belgium. They married and she moved to a small flat near Brussels, but soon there were fights and abuse. She was forced into a Thai brothel in Belgium this time, and at one time was sold for only €30 between brothels. As soon as she entered the brothel they got her addicted to crystal meth and her addiction helped to keep her dependent on the people who were abusing her.
The team cared for her through two drug overdoses and helped her make plans to escape, get help with her addiction and to manage her debts. Finally she made the brave step of getting out of the brothels and returned to Thailand. The team were able to keep in communication with her as she starts a new life, if stillan uncertain life.