Magdalene and her family were rescued from exploitation in the UK

Magdalene and each of her children were kept under lock and key. She was delivered every day to a factory where she worked gruelling 12 hour shifts. Every penny of her wages was paid into the account of her trafficker.

Despite going without food herself, she still couldn’t nourish her children with the meagre amount she was given.

Her children were forced to stand around the table and watch as the traffickers ate. They were left only the scraps to eat themselves. Her baby was drastically underweight and, whilst she kept a brave face for the sake of her family, the bright future she imagined was slipping further away with each punishing day.

But, when we work together we can bring hope to any story.

Hope for Justice worked closely with other agencies to identify Magdalene’s family and get them out of exploitation. When our team first arrived on the scene they were overwhelmed by the smell of despairing poverty. We made it possible for the family to enter aftercare and provided clean nappies, new clothes, toiletries and hot food there and then, to alleviate as much of the family’s immediate suffering as we could.

Not long after the rescue we visited the family in their aftercare facility, and saw the children giggling and playing.

We held Magdalene’s happy, care-free, chubby-cheeked baby in our arms and knew that they are now living a new life in freedom.

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