In early September, a television station in Madagascar screened a horrifying video. The clip purported to show a young Malagasy woman being tortured to death by members of the Kuwaiti household where she was a domestic worker. Although the Malagasy government later determined that the video was not from Kuwait and the victim was not Malagasy, the broadcast incited popular outrage and placed the issue of human trafficking back on Madagascar’s national agenda.
Few people are more painfully aware of the tragic consequences of trafficking than pastor Helivao Poget, the director of ministry to marginalized people (SAFFIFAA) at the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), one of Presbyterian World Mission’s global partners.
In October 2010, a body bag arrived in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The black vinyl bag, which had been shipped from Lebanon, contained the body of a young woman.