Two women on a Delta flight were mistaken as sex trafficking victims, bringing a traumatic ending to their vacation in Mexico last week, NBC News reported.
The two Atlanta friends were homeward bound but were met by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the airport, who interrogated the women for over an hour.
Stephanie Ung, who had just celebrated her 26th birthday, recounted the experience with WXIA-TV.
"I just kept telling them that I wanted to go home for my family Thanksgiving dinner, and that they were making me late, but they just didn't care," she told the news outlet. "They just laughed."
Ung is Asian American and thinks she was profiled because of her race.
"I know human trafficking is huge within the Asian community, right, and that's the only reason why I could see you stopping me," she told WXIA-TV, pointing out that her friend was also Asian American. "We're two little girls on the plane. … Mind your own business, but still, that looks like a red flag for everyone."
The Health and Human Rights Journal noted that Southeast Asia was one of the largest hubs in terms of human trafficking, with at least 225,000 women and children being trafficked from the region every year.
The report highlighted gender and ethnicity as a major social determinant facilitating the sale and exploitation of women and children in Southeast Asia.
NBC News noted that, according to a Delta spokesperson, authorities were alerted to the two women after another passenger reported someone else being in possession of their passports.
This could be a "possible indicator of a human trafficking event," Delta said in the statement.
Ung said she and her friend were in possession of their own passports.
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