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On the morning of the invasion of Ukraine, Julia is on her way home from a night shift when a friend sends her a text. It’s a video of a bombing, just 30 miles away from where her daughter Marta lives.
“My daughter needs me, she needs my help, and I’ve been ready to leave everything,” Julia tells the journalist Annie Kelly, editor of the Guardian’s Rights and Freedom project.
Julia had been waiting for a decision from the Home Office on her asylum application. At this point, she’s not seen her daughter for around eight years. Now, it’s a race against time to get her teenage daughter to safety.
In this four-part series, we hear from Julia on how she was taken from one life as a young mother in Ukraine and ended up in a very different one here in the UK; a life defined by exploitation and human trafficking. After five years trapped in debt bondage working in hotels and brothels, she was discovered by Surrey police in 2019. With the support of the anti-slavery charity Justice and Care, she took on her exploiters in court and won.
In the final episode, we hear about how Julia navigates the asylum system and attempts to get reunited with her daughter Marta. Also, Ahmed Ayeed, the director of public law at Duncan Lewis, explains how the government’s illegal migration bill will impact modern slavery victims if it becomes law.
Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/Reuters
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