Kanti Salgadu knows what it means to be treated like property. At nineteen, she left Sri Lanka for Los Angeles, promised a good job. Instead, she was forced to cook, clean, and care for children around the clock for four years. Her traffickers took her passport and told her she had been “bought.”

Now, decades later, she’s fighting for others. Following pressure from the Freedom United community and other advocates, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1362 into law. This new law regulates foreign labor recruiters. It marks a major step toward protecting temporary migrant workers from trafficking and abuse.

A survivor’s voice behind the law

CalMatters reports,

Once you’re on the plane to America, everything changes. They take your passport. They isolate you. You’re told you owe them — for the plane ticket, for the job, for every imaginary cost.

Then the wages stop. One month. Six months. A year. Or in my case — four years.

I was made to work nonstop. I wasn’t paid. I was alone. I didn’t speak English, and I had no way out.

The person I was working for threatened my family. When my father died, I was told I couldn’t go home. I couldn’t even send money. I was a prisoner.

This didn’t happen in a far-off country. It happened here, in California. And it’s still happening today.

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