A 16-year old girl from Ecuador came to Ne York to work as a nanny for her
Question:
A 16-year old girl from Ecuador came to Ne York to work as a nanny for her stepsister. The girl was to provide babysitting, while the stepsister promised to provide room and board and an $80 weekly wage, to enroll her in high school, and to assist her with getting into and paying for college. Shortly after the girl’s arrival in New York under a tourist visa, the stepsister took the girl’s passport and put it in an unlocked drawer for safekeeping. During the course of her stay, the girl provided child care and did laundry, cleaning, and vacuuming. She worked eleven to twelve hours a day, seven days a week, without receiving the promised pay. Her duties prevented her from attending high school. To some extent, the girl was treated like a family member, including allowing her to use the stepsister’s computer to send emails, providing her with a YMCA membership, taking her to movies, allowing her to participate in holiday celebrations, and paying for English classes. There were increasing tensions between the parties, with the stepsister calling the girl ungrateful and threatening to send her back to Ecuador. The stepsister also eavesdropped on the girl’s phone conversations with her family in Ecuador. In one incident, the girl was grabbed by her arm, pushed into a car, and told to stay in her room until given permission to leave. The girl left the home about two years after she had arrived. She said that she stayed as long as she did because she loved the stepsister’s children and also because she very much wanted to remain in the United States. After leaving the home, the girl obtained a “T-visa,” available to trafficking victims, and received psychiatric help for depression and post traumatic stress disorder. She subsequently sued the stepsister, claiming that she was deceived into coming to New York, made to work long hours without compensation, isolated, and psychologically abused while being forced to provide domestic services. What laws might address these claims? What should the court decide? Why?
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