A young woman trying to reach her husband in New Jersey has been kidnapped, raped and left for dead by human traffickers at the US-Mexico border.
The incident took place on the border between Mexico and the United States, reportedly close to the El Paso-Juarez trans-border agglomeration, when the woman, who is reportedly Brazilian, was kidnapped, tied up, gagged and then raped by human traffickers.
The victim has been identified as 24-year-old Jessiane Goncalves Schneider. She was found by a farmer, who has not been named, on 5th December, and she has been in hospital ever since her ordeal.
The victim’s sister Regiane Schneider said that Jessiane had been trying to reach her husband, who lives in the state of New Jersey.
But she said: “[U]nfortunately she fell into the wrong hands when trying to cross Mexico.”
The young woman was reportedly made to send videos to her family asking for money, but they did not have enough to pay the traffickers, so they turned her over to the immigration service in Texas.
Regiane said: “Literally they thought they had killed her because she was gagged and with straps around her neck, information given by the doctor himself to a lawyer.”
Her family has created a fundraiser to pay for her medical treatment on GoFundMe (https://www.gofundme.com/f/socorro-para-uma-famlia-desesperada). At the time of writing, it had raised over USD 10,000 out of an USD 8,000 goal.
The GoFundMe post reads in part: “Jessiane Goncalves Schinaider, like many of us, had the dream of arriving here in this land like many of us, but unfortunately she fell into the wrong hands when trying to cross Mexico.
“She is 24 years old and was kidnapped and raped in every way to near death, but God was merciful and a farmer found her just a day after she sent a final video on 5th December asking her family to have mercy on her, but they still didn’t have more resources to send more money to drug dealers, that’s when they called and said that [they] had handed [her] over to Texas Immigration, there were days of anguish until a nurse from Juarez in Mexico managed to find her family in Brazil by her last name.
“Literally they thought they had killed her because she was gagged and with straps around her neck, information given by the doctor himself to a lawyer. Well thank God she’s alive but I’m asking anyone who can help with any amount because the hospital is demanding that her mother come and the expenses will be on account of her husband who has been here for only 3 months.”
It is unclear if the Mexican and the US authorities are investigating the rape and if any arrests had been made at the time of writing.
