Child living in garage sold into slavery by her parents

The story of an Egyptian girl once enslaved in Orange County and the marking of Human Trafficking Awareness Day are reminders that the awful trade in human life has again surfaced.

The story of Shyima Hall, who was brought to this country as a slave at age 10 and forced to work from dawn to midnight in the home of a wealthy Egyptian family living in Irvine, has been told around the world. According to news reports, the child ironed clothes, mopped floors, made beds and groomed the family's hair. She slept in the garage. She did not attend school or have any days off.

Now 19, Shyima had been leased to Amal and Nasser Ibrahim by her mother when they lived in Egypt. She was to work for $45 a week, for 10 years. Her enslavement ended in April 2002 after an anonymous call to Orange County's Department of Child Support Services prompted an investigation. But Shyima's story and its unusual setting  a gated community in Irvine, far from the plantations once associated with slavery in this country has refocused attention on a subject long believed to have been relegated to the dustbin of history.