Child maids now being exported to US

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Child maids now being exported to US

Shyima Hall, 19, discusses her domestic enslavement Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008, in Beaumont, Calif. Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in Northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the United States is an extension of an illegal but common practice among the upper class in Africa.

Child maids now being exported to US

The windowless garage where Shyima Hall, 19, lived while forced to work as an unpaid maid is shown on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008, in Irvine, Calif. Hall worked as a servant for a wealthy Egyptian couple and was eventually taken by them to California, where she worked 20 hour days inside their posh home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the United States is an extension of an illegal but common practice among the upper class in Africa.