Masood's Story

Human trafficking is making modernday slaves out of millions of vulnerable children. Masood is a young boy from Pakistan who was exploited and defiled. This is his story.*

My name is Masood. I am from the Galliat region of Pakistan, in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is beautiful there—so green and peaceful.

My mother died when I was young and my father remarried not long afterward. My stepmother constantly mistreated me. As I got older, living with her became unbearable. Finally, I boarded a bus and left on my own. I was only 15. I didn’t know where the bus was going—I just got off at the last stop. It was a busy bus terminal in the huge, crowded city of Rawalpindi.

I didn’t know anyone in this strange city. I was hungry, so I asked a hotel owner if I could work for him. I thought I could wash dishes to make money. He said yes, and told me I could stay in a room with some other children.

My first night there, a man came into the room and forced me to have sex with him. I was terrified, but what could I do? The second night another man came and did the same thing. Fighting back my shame, I went to the hotel manager and told him what was happening. I was stunned when he told me not to bother him. He said that kind of thing happened all the time. When I told him I wanted to leave, he said the police would throw me in jail and I’d be killed by strangers.

Afraid of what he’d said, I stayed. I washed dishes during the day, and served “customers” at night. Every customer paid about $.50 or bought me dinner. All of the boys at the hotel did the same thing. I hated what I was doing, so I began to use alcohol and drugs to try to block it out. After awhile, I became numb—I had no other choice. My family didn’t care about me, and I had nowhere else to go.


At one point I tried to get a normal job, but I had no skills. I had only been to school up to fourth grade. Nobody would give me work without abusing me, so I decided I would start charging every customer myself. I became a prostitute—and that’s how I made a living.

I have learned a lot since I started working as a prostitute. There are networks in the city that sell boys to wealthy older men who use them as companions. These men keep the boys for a while and then re-sell them when they get bored. Of course, once a boy has had one or two owners, his value drops. He is re-sold for less and less money each time.

I used to have dreams, but this is how my life turned out. Sometimes I still imagine what it would be like to have a real job, a family, a house of my own … to be normal. But there’s no way I could have any of that now.

*This story is based on interviews with Masood. His name has been changed to protect his identity.

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