This post is a bit of a follow-up on the story about two Filipino women who may have been held captive as slaves in a Virginia mansion owned by the Saudi government. There is more information available on this story.
Moreover, it looks like Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) may be getting involved in a high-level human trafficking investigation.
The investigation is in its very early stages and complicated by the possibility that some of those involved may have diplomatic immunity, said a State Department spokesperson.
A 2008 U.S. Government Accountability Office report notes that in previous cases, “…The accused foreign diplomats held full diplomatic immunity and this could not be prosecuted in U.S. courts.”
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said Saudi Arabia has been faulted in the past for abuse of a special visa program that allows foreign diplomats to bring household workers into the United States.
“They bring them in; they work them seven days a week; they take their passports away,” Wolf said.
Check out this report on the two alleged slavery victims, via a local Washington, DC’s NBC affiliate:
Here is another report from the courageous reporter named Jackie Bensen:
View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.
The enslavement of women by Saudis on American soil is not unprecedented, as the case of Homaidan al-Turki demonstrates.
h/t WZ