UCLA Center for the Study of Women

On August 2, 1995, a police task force led bythe California Department of Industrial Relations raided a compound surrounded by razor wire in El Monte, California. Inside the compound, the police discovered 72 Thai garment workers who had been forced to work 18-hour days for less than $2 an hour. The workers had been held in debt bondage for more than eight years, sewing tirelessly to pay off the cost of their journey to the United States. This paper examines the designing of a model of trauma-informed care for survivors of human trafficking in Los Angeles County.