Haitian Slavery Uncovered In South Florida

Imagine sleeping on a rolled-up mattress on the dinning room floor and having to bathe in the backyard with a garden hose. Try to envision washing dishes, making beds and cooking for a family who beat you and hid you in a closet when visitors arrived.

For six long years, Simone Celestin lived through this horrific ordeal, all the while never attending school. Her story sounds like a slave narrative from another century, but federal prosecutors say it happened in South Florida. They say Celestin is one of an unknown number of children and teens called “restaveks,” who are hidden as slaves within the Haitian immigrant community.

“Restavek” is a Haitian Creole word meaning “one who stays with.” The term applies to an estimated 300,000 poor children in Haiti, mostly girls, who are given or sold by their parents to wealthier families, or taken from orphanages.

The children work in exchange for food, shelter and the promise of school, but often end up victims of physical and sexual abuse, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual report on human trafficking.

Some sneak into the United States when their host family emigrates, then hide in a Haitian-American community, which is often loath to discuss the practice with outsiders.

Story: CBS4