Women made vulnerable by embassy treatment
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
July 1, 2009
Diplomats from Middle Eastern countries serving in Washington made their household servants vulnerable to enslavement by Soripada Lubis when they slashed their workers' salaries and treated them poorly, human trafficking authorities said.
According to court documents, the women enticed into Lubis' network came to the United States as domestic servants for diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen and other countries.
Mark Lagon, director of the Polaris Project and former head of the State Department's human trafficking office, said the women were particularly vulnerable because of their status in the diplomats' homes.
"These women came into the United States legally and they were leveraged to become victims," he said. In every case, the women's visas expired before or soon after they met Lubis, court documents said.
Prosecutors believe Lubis found the women by using contacts at the Indonesian Embassy, where he was once a driver.
One victim, whose identity The Examiner has chosen to protect, said in a sworn statement that she came to the U.S. in 2001 to work as a nanny for an unnamed Bahrain diplomat who promised her $800 a month.
But once she was in the U.S., the diplomat told her she would only earn $300 a month and would receive nothing until she worked for him for six months.
She met Lubis while picking up the diplomat's children from school and he offered her better pay. "He promised me there would be a better life living at his place," she said in the statement.
In October 2001, she moved into Lubis' basement. She paid him $350 a month to live there on weekends. During the week, she lived with a Potomac family and cleaned their house. She claims Lubis sexually assaulted her at least 50 times. She still lives with the Potomac family, her employer said.
