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Did you witness Human Trafficking in Scientology?

I am inviting personal and eyewitness testimonies about Human Trafficking or Labor Trafficking in Scientology -- whether it be in the Sea Org, at a Scientology Class V Org, at a Mission of Scientology, with a scientology member, in a company owned or run by a scientologist, or in any place associated with the Church of Scientology.

Each day I will add one item which points to Human Trafficking as it relates specifically to the Church of Scientology, and I encourage you to contribute your thoughts, your stories, and your experiences about the daily item. There are at this moment 28 items on the list, though the list may grow during our month of examining this topic.

Please contribute and discuss. Links to other sites or stories are also encouraged.
 

OTBT

Patron Meritorious
I am inviting personal and eyewitness testimonies about Human Trafficking or Labor Trafficking in Scientology -- whether it be in the Sea Org, at a Scientology Class V Org, at a Mission of Scientology, with a scientology member, in a company owned or run by a scientologist, or in any place associated with the Church of Scientology.

Each day I will add one item which points to Human Trafficking as it relates specifically to the Church of Scientology, and I encourage you to contribute your thoughts, your stories, and your experiences about the daily item. There are at this moment 28 items on the list, though the list may grow during our month of examining this topic.

Please contribute and discuss. Links to other sites or stories are also encouraged.

Thank you for starting this thread. I will be contributing to various of the 28 items, as applicable. "Labor Trafficking" is a wonderful description applicable to scientology enterprises.

I have been "out" for many years, but should be able to add personal stories on this topic, as the days progress in this thread.
 

Cherished

Silver Meritorious Patron
This is a terrific subject and a great way to approach it.

The first subject, of the fencing and security, might seem like one that doesn't need explanation, but I hope that people will use the opportunity to focus on the one topic and really tell that little bit of the story.

As a non-Scientologist, I'm not familiar with the security access at PAC, for example, and what freedom of movement people in LA may or may not have.

Looking forward to all your insights.

The US government's program for dealing with human trafficking comes under the department of health and human services. I think these need to be the people we get to know.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/index.html
 

Takin Time

Patron with Honors
Day 1. Employees are housed in compounds, behind fences with locked gates and mounted security cameras.

Here's the Hacienda and Sherwood Gardens in Clearwater Florida. These are the two berthing buildings for Sea Org at Flag. Sea Org members are not allowed to live "off base". I've not met any other categories of Scientology housed like this... just the Sea Org.

Each has a fence around it. Hacienda has enormous hedges (padding the ironwork fences), usually overgrown but trimmed in this photo I took while driving by one day.

Hacienda:
3612373389_7332af6a08_o.jpg


Sherwood Gardens:
3613188368_1e61eb33d3_o.jpg


These two old apartment-complexes-turn-sea-org-berthing are both on Keene Rd, north of Drew and south of Sunset Point Rd.

I'm sure someone willing to get out of their car could take some photos of the security cameras or other "security" intended to keep staff members in, rather than protected from the big bad world outside.
 

Takin Time

Patron with Honors
As a non-Scientologist, I'm not familiar with the security access at PAC, for example, and what freedom of movement people in LA may or may not have.
When I was in the Sea Org at PAC and also at CC Int, we had berthing buildings (which were all run down) but we didn't have fences. I've read extensively online that Gold Base has fences all around it, though.
 

AnonOrange

Gold Meritorious Patron
You have started a VERY important thread.

I am working on exposing cases of False Imprisonment and Human Trafficking, specifically at Gold Base. I have already submitted some names and documentation to a gov. agency that is currently looking into this.

In addition, I filed a report of Human Trafficking with the "Polaris Project" and they confirmed that they are also investigating.

So your post is VERY relevant to my interests (and everyone else here). Please do realize that this is probably the single most damning issue we can expose the cult with. This country has gotten rid of salvery over a century ago, and yet, in Hemet, Los Angeles and Clearwater, it is still going on.

Here's the thread I started on the subject. I still need more names to make a stronger case:

URGENT: Need names of family members, disconnected at Gold Base
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=11353
 

AnonOrange

Gold Meritorious Patron
Fences at Gold Base ? Ya' think ?

I've read extensively online that Gold Base has fences all around it, though.

fence_blades_fgnd_focus.jpg


I believe this is the most important picture taken during the last year or so. Pope almost got arrested for taking it. The CHP cops were called but Pope talked himself out of the arrest.
 

AnonOrange

Gold Meritorious Patron
By the way, do you have some pix (or links) of Gold Base relevant to today's topic?

Here are some links to my bucket of photos. Not sure exactly what you're looking for, but there a plent of pictures of fences. Ideally, I guess you'd be looking for people tied up and thrown in a white van, but I haven't been able to get that yet.

That's the day when we raided Gold and they let their goons out to try to intimidate us. It was quite fun. Got lots of videos:
http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/RonRules/GoldBaseSep6/

Those were taken on the day I was attacked by the security guards:
http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/RonRules/GoldBaseOct26/

Some miscelaneous pictures of the mods made at Gold, some maps and really funny pictures of Jeff Stone (Riverside County Board of Supervisors).
http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/RonRules/GoldBaseMisc/
 
Day 1

Thanks, AO. Ok, we've got Clearwater and Los Angeles and Gold Base.

Does anyone know if there are any other Scientology housing compounds with fences? I'm not familiar with some of the other Sea Org housing compounds in other countries, or in NY.
 

moarxenu

Patron with Honors
Human Trafficking issue is key to the Van Sickle cases

This thread is so timely and relevant to Barry Van Sickle's cases for Marc and Claire Headley and Laura Decrescenzo. Human trafficking is core to their cases, and, indeed, to most if not all of Sea Org abuses.

The courage of Marc, Claire, and Laura is remarkable. Going through litigation no doubt always carries the risk of re-traumatization as well the usual harrassment.

The stories people post here could help them win their cases. Barry is effectively lawyering their complaints. It would help immeasurably if he had the massive support of society and particularly other lawyers with a passion for human rights. That will happen if people speak up, and we communicate their stories to human rights organizations and churches.

Human trafficking is of national and international concern right across political and religious contention on other issues. Everyone is anti-human trafficking. No one is pro-human trafficking except the Church of Scientology and other organized crime operations.

The national and international organizations concerned with human trafficking need to hear your stories. Amnesty International in the UK is quietly investigating. They would not doubt be interested in hearing stories from survivors of St. Hill.

That is a beginning. The stories you tell here will engage the support of anti-human trafficking organizations. You will make a difference in putting the abuses to an end.
 

AnonOrange

Gold Meritorious Patron
Thanks, AO. Ok, we've got Clearwater and Los Angeles and Gold Base.

Does anyone know if there are any other Scientology housing compounds with fences? I'm not familiar with some of the other Sea Org housing compounds in other countries, or in NY.

I believe there is an RPF in Copenhagen, Denmark and at Saint-Hill, England. The Ex's here will know this much better than I.
 

Cherished

Silver Meritorious Patron
For those who worked at PAC and similar, were the doors kept locked? Did all staff have access 24/7? How did that work?
 

CornPie

Patron Meritorious
...Here's the Hacienda and Sherwood Gardens in Clearwater Florida. These are the two berthing buildings for Sea Org at Flag. Sea Org members are not allowed to live "off base"...
Note 1: The Sherwood and Hacienda are known as "gardens", not "apartments".
Note 2: These "gardens" are West of Keene RD, but do not have Keene RD addresses.
Note 3: The Google film vehicle has not been inside the sections, but has been around them.
Note 4: Notice a golf course and an airport just East of Keene RD.

Sherwood Gardens
1301 Amble Lane
Clearwater FL 34615
Contact: (813) 441-1139
Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...134,-82.762955&spn=0.003852,0.007172&t=h&z=18
Map Note: When you drag the orange man onto the map, Amble Lane will not light up.

Hacienda Gardens
551 Saturn AVE N
Clearwater, FL

Google Street View: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...7.97189,-82.764934&spn=0.007704,0.014344&z=17
Hacienda Gardens is W of Keene, East of Saturn.
Google did not drive on East-or-West on Lakeview RD
Google did not drive on North-or-South on Jeffords ST

Video of Hacienda Gardens: www.xenutv.com/interviews/lawrence-1.htm
In the 1st minute of the video above, are Astra, Zoe and Lawrence Woodcraft standing outside of Hacienda Gardens, after the young women got out. Zoe says on video; that while she and Astra were trapped inside, they thought about escaping, but there was no way; with the fences, security guards, cameras, motion detectors, and the staff.

The two pictures below are by Talkin Time: (in post #5 of this thread)
Hacienda Gardens:
3612373389_7332af6a08_o.jpg


Sherwood Gardens: (notice the Sea Org bus inside the fence)
3613188368_1e61eb33d3_o.jpg
 
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Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
For those who worked at PAC and similar, were the doors kept locked? Did all staff have access 24/7? How did that work?

My data is up to 1996. In PAC the exterior doors had card readers to get in from outside, but to get out there were standard crash bars and you could just push the doors open and walk out. There were CCTV cameras, but no rules in force that stopped anyone walking out onto the street and away.

Similarly for the HGB on Hollywood Boulevard. Somewhere around 1993 there was a rule put in that you weren't supposed to leave the org during the day without getting the CO's permission, but that wasn't always kept in, and if you walked out of the front door you didn't get grilled by the security guard on the front desk as to why. When I was planning to leave (but hadn't told anyone) at the end of 1995, I had no trouble getting out one lunchtime to have photos taken so I could renew my passport that had just expired, even though I was off post working in the galley.

Many a time I walked from PAC to the HGB on a Sunday morning, spending some time in the Farmer's Market on Ivar opposite the HGB.

Paul
 

CornPie

Patron Meritorious
...When I was planning to leave [the sea org] (but hadn't told anyone) at the end of 1995, I had no trouble getting out one lunchtime to have photos taken so I could renew my passport that had just expired, even though I was off post working in the galley...
I am requesting an answer from Dulloldfart/Paul -- and everyone else who who wants to chip in, and provide information, to help sea-orgers get away from scientology, now and in the future:

Q1) Did scientology have possession of your old (expiring) passport, and were you aware that they had a practice of withholding passports?

Q2) How did you know your old passport had even expired, considering passports are active for so many years? (Do you just have a good memory, did you ask somebody, did they ask why you wanted to know, or was there a friendly mole that advised you of the expiration date and the hoops to jump)?

Q3) How did you take possession of your new passport from your government without scientology intercepting it (did you pick it up, have it sent a friend's home, etc.) Were you concerned that somebody at your government would tell scientology that you were obtaining a new passport? If so, was there anything you did to thwart that?

Q4) Were you aware that scientology had a practice of withholding passports from sea-org'ers who wanted out? If so, how did you become aware of this practice? (did you know it from day one, years later, previous attempts to get out, conversations with others, etc.)?

Q5) Did you eventually blow -- or did you route off they way scientology wanted you to?

Q6) In addition to the above questions, what other advice do you have for people who want to get away from scientology, and get their passport, without scientology making the passport situation difficult, in other words to remove their upper-hand, and just get away from them in general (passport related or not)?
 
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Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
I am requesting an answer from Dulloldfart -- and everyone else who who wants to chip in, and help sea-orgers get away from scientology, now and in the future:

Q1) Did scientology have possession of your old (expiring) passport, and were you aware that they had a practice of withholding passports?

Q2) How did you know your old passport had even expired, considering they're active for so many years? (Do you just have a good memory, did you ask, did they ask why you wanted to know, or was there a friendly mole that advised you)?

Q3) How did you take possession of your new passport from your government (without scientology intercepting it, did you pick it up, have it sent a friend's address, etc.) Were you concerned that somebody at your government would tell scientology that you were obtaining a new passport?

Q4) Were you aware that scientology had a practice of withholding passports from sea-org'ers who wanted out? If so, how did you become aware of this practice? (conversations with others, etc)?

Q5) Did you eventually blow -- or did you route off they way scientology wanted you to?

Q6) What pertinent advice do you have for people who want to get away from scientology, and get their passport, without scientology making the passport situation difficult, in other words removing their upper-hand?

1. I had possession of my passport and other docs. The only time I had to hand in docs (passport and credit cards) was when I started on the PAC RPF in Jan 1996.

2. N/A.

3. For years I had retained a mailbox at Georges General Store, costing $12 a month. I didn't like the idea of my personal mail going through the org's HCO for various reasons. Including a) Having my mail viewed or censored by others; b) Maybe not receiving mail because it had been sorted into someone else's basket by an idiot and that person didn't check their basket too often; c) Being connected with a Scientology address to the outside party. The idea that someone in the British Embassy would snitch on me to the CofS never entered my mind. I had to get an English person to authenticate my photos, and I used an ITO staff member. I told her I wanted to visit my mother. Getting the passport was not essential to blowing, as I ended up staying in the US for a further ten years, but it was essential to visiting my dying mother in the UK, which I successfully did before she popped off later that year.

4. N/A. I vaguely remember hearing about students having to hand their passports in, but at the time I probably agreed with the idea.

5. I routed out properly. Took about four months (six months from the start but I reneged and tried working it out and staying for two months of that).

6. None really. I don't have current data. If they ask for your passport and you say no I won't hand it over and it's illegal to demand it, you aren't going to last long there.

Paul
 

CornPie

Patron Meritorious
...Q1...The only time I had to hand in docs (passport and credit cards) was when I started on the PAC RPF in Jan 1996...
Thanks for the answers.

Prior to this, I assumed that the sea org always kept passports for everyone, but you dispelled that myth -- at least in your 1996 and prior era.

Other than on Q1 (above), where you indicated, when you went onto the RPF for 4-6 months in January of 1996 -- at which point you "had" to hand over your passport and credit cards. And you did this not knowing how long you'd be "in" the RPF. Just a bit more, for Dulloldfart/paul, or anybody one else who cares to shed light:

Q1: Where did you go for your RPF?

Q2: Had you wanted to blow the RPF, how difficult would it have been to do so?

Q3: Is it true what they say about not being able to vote?

Q4: And I believe you said in another post, that you were not aware of any a) pole running program, b) nose pushing of small objects such as peanuts or pencils.

Q5: What other pertinent RPF issues do you care to shed light on?
 

Ladybird

Silver Meritorious Patron
I suggest posting this on Exscientologykids.com also. There are quite a few posters there who grew up in the cult or joined as minors, and many of them are recently out of scientology.

Here is an excerpt from a story posted just last week by someone recently escaped from Flag Land Base in Clearwater. This person might have current information and be willing to speak out:

http://www.exscientologykids.com/eskforums/viewtopic.php?t=6082

(...) They decided to run the SO bases as navy camps and they were doing real boot camps at the base (I have seen on my junior who got kicked and slapped in his face and got called "motherfucker" in the church), I was getting 3-4 hrs sleeps a day, half a pay because we were unable to recruit, I was assigned 29 programs so I did not even know which one to run in the course room, looked like everyone felt they were my seniors - for me in the course room I felt everyone should be a student, not an officer, but I got ordered so many times to drop this student - care onlyabout these two senior executives, etc, slowly I started to get disappointed the way the Sea Org was run. One more thing if you come from a foreign country the first thing they do when you arrive they will take your passport away so you won't be able to blow from the org. An other thing you might or might not be able to get a green card - if not you might get forced into a marriage to stay in the country (I have seen the cases of 50 individuals on this!!!! ) They won't let you to leave - I have seen people on leaving line sometimes for 2 yrs before they were let to go. I have seen SP declearations 2-3 times a week of very well known scientologists. My ideal Debbie Cook Captain FSO blew from church too with her husband! The food, the pay, you clothing is terrible, you might sleep in a room with 5 other people and if you added up with the other room you might have 10 people for one bathroom. You get mistreated many times - you did good on the week but you made someone pissed off - you migh winding up washing dishes 'till 4 AM and have to wake up at 6:00 AM. You have a little chance (close to zero) to become Class XII or get auditing, because most of the times even the higest level execs don't get auditing. Anyway, I came back from vacation - with two passport (one expired and a n ew one) and when they asked me to hand it over I gave them the expired one (in the OSA there was no Hungarian staff, they could not read my passport), and I hid the other one. I started hiding stuff, bringing over clothes, etc to the training room and hiding them over a ciling tile in a bag, and I bought a back, slowly i was getting enough stuff to be able to blow - 3 months hiding and preparing (I did not want to go to ethics room and wait there for yrs like others to leave). I saved every penny and I got 500 $ at the end. In breaktime when I said I would go to Walgreens for medicine I got papers and I kept searching for cheap apartments and job and was making phone calls from a nearby post office (in SO uniform !! ). then came my prison break style escape. I hit the circuitbreaker breakers of the building and I knew all of the cameras of the buidling would be down and made a run from the back door to the bus station. I took the first incoming bus. Do not take taxi cab! many drivers are scientologist in Clearwater and they might take you back to the church and you might get sentenced to RPF! Do take the bus! I wound up in Largo, from there I took a bus to Tampa. Usualy for two weeks after a SO members blows disguised SO members are hiding in Tampa Airport trying to catchhim/her (I knew most of the staff really well, I knew most of the caught cases really well). So I was hiding in a cheap place, got a temporary job and applied for the army. Due to a previous injury in the SO I failed on the military entrance, but I gained a lot time during the application process, and they gave up on finding me - I got back to Tampa, got a cheap place again, started a temporary job, then better job, then a better one, then a better one...Now I live here nearby, decleared, but indepenendent and free. I work as a chemistrist and searching for answers - why did this happen?
 
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