Human Trafficking Victim Obtains Successful Settlement in Federal Court

From the time she was five years old, Miriam (not her real name), a Nigerian victim of human trafficking, lived with an aunt’s family where she was mistreated and abused, especially by an older cousin. In 2003, when she was 27 years old, that cousin and her husband took Miriam to New York with them where she worked as an unpaid, badly treated domestic servant, caring for their children, cleaning their house, and cooking their meals.  Although she was permitted to leave the house, Miriam had no legal status, no money of her own, no identification, and lived with the constant threat of deportation by her cousin if she talked about her situation to outsiders. Miriam felt imprisoned and remained subservient.  The cousin forced Miriam to take jobs outside the home but confiscated her paychecks. As the cousin’s psychological and physical abuse increased, Miriam began to be fearful for her life.

In 2011, Miriam learned that her cousin was planning to send her back to Nigeria to force her to marry, and with the assistance of an acquaintance she had met at one of her jobs, Miriam finally fled.  That same friend helped connect her to the City Bar Justice Center’s Immigrant Women & Children Project (IWC), which assisted her in reporting her trafficking to law enforcement and applying for and obtaining lawful immigration status in the United States as a human trafficking victim.

IWC’s work for Miriam did not end there.  Having identified potential legal remedies for obtaining compensation for the unpaid work that Miriam had performed as a trafficking victim, as well as for the paychecks that her cousin had stolen from her, IWC joined forces with pro bono lawyers at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, to bring a federal civil lawsuit against Miriam’s cousin and her husband.  In August 2012, Greenberg Traurig filed a complaint on Miriam’s behalf in the Eastern District of New York, which alleged, among other claims, violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, violations of the Federal Labor Standards Act, false imprisonment, conversion, and assault and battery.  After completing discovery, Greenberg Traurig successfully defeated a motion for summary judgment brought by the defendants.  In December 2015, shortly before trial was scheduled to begin, the case was settled.

Miriam is now successfully living on her own, working full-time as a home health aide, and is in the process of applying for permanent residency in the United States.  IWC Director Suzanne Tomatore reports that “Miriam is now safe, self-sufficient, and free from exploitation. The team at Greenberg Traurig worked tirelessly to help her get a settlement that will allow her to save money for her future.”  That team includes Greenberg Traurig attorneys Daniel Clarkson, Meghan Newcomer, Sean Berens, and Julia Rogawski, as well as former Greenberg Traurig shareholder William Silverman (now a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP).

The Immigrant Women & Children Project has been assisting survivors of human trafficking and other violent, gender-based crimes with civil legal assistance since 2002.  As evidenced by Miriam’s case, IWC’s partnership with pro bono attorneys is essential to helping survivors of trafficking access justice so that they can begin rebuilding their lives.