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Survivor of Slavery to Testify at Congressional Hearings on Wednesday

Beatrice Fernando, a native Sri Lankan who escaped from slavery in Lebanon, will share her shocking story and call on Congress to take strong action against human trafficking

WASHINGTON, DC — Escaped slave Beatrice Fernando will testify today at a House International Relations Subcommittee hearing on "Combating Human Trafficking." A native of Sri Lanka who was trafficked to Lebanon, Fernando will recount her experience and issue a series of innovative policy recommendations.

The hearings, which begin at 11 a.m. in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building, will feature a panel of experts on trafficking, including the director of the State Department's Trafficking Office. Fernando is the only witness who is a survivor of slavery.

"This is a historic moment for Beatrice," noted Jesse Sage, associate director of the American Anti-Slavery Group, where Fernando is an associate. "For years she has struggled to come to terms with her experience and wondered whether people would even care about what happened to her. To be invited to testify to Congress is an important part of her healing process."

Fernando's testimony will take her congressional audience back inside the Beirut apartment where she was held as a slave by a wealthy woman. "My chores seem unending. After twenty hours I am still not done. There's no food on my plate for dinner, so I scavenge through the trash. I try to flee the apartment, but she has locked the door."

Fernando will also recount the physical abuse she endured: "I can feel the burning on my cheeks as she slaps me. Grasping me by the hair, she bangs my head into the wall and throws me to the floor. She kicks me and hits me with a broom. If I scream or fight back, she will kill me. So I bite my lips to bare the pain and then I pass out. This is my daily routine, the life of a slave."

Fernando, who recently published her autobiography In Contempt of Fate, will call on Congress to increase public awareness programs for at-risk populations, closely monitor job agencies that send thousands of South Asians to the Middle East, and help protect anti-slavery groups repressed by governments in the region, including Mauritania.

Fernando will also discuss trafficking in her native Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami.