Debt, Desperation, and the Wrong Door

I am from Madagascar and currently in the Tai Lam Centre for Women.

I was born and raised in a very underprivileged family in Madagascar. My parents had no stable jobs. We lived in a small village where my father had a small rice field. My mother was only 16 when I was born, and my father was 19. They were not yet ready to manage a family or support us adequately.

As the eldest of four children at the time, I still remember going from village to village alone to sell fruits that my father harvested from his farm. This meant I could only attend school in the mornings; in the afternoons, I had to help my parents.

Later, because of our difficult life, my parents separated. My three younger brothers and I went to live with our paternal grandmother. Neither parent was able to take care of us — we were lucky if we saw them once a year.

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Double Exposure: Framed in a Foreign Land

I am Mexican and I work as a professional photographer in Mexico City. I have been doing this work for more than 30 years. My business is producing annual calendars for companies or factories, showing the most professional side of their work.

A few months before coming to Hong Kong, I did a job for a tourist company that had purchased some ships from a factory in America. I carried out the work for the company’s annual calendar, with images of a shipyard in the city of Marseille, France. I also took a trip on the ship to understand its function. I did all this a few months before coming to Hong Kong.

If you check my passport, you will see my travel history, as before carrying out the job, I made a trip to identify the places where the work would be done, and then returned to complete it. This process took me approximately four months to carry out — producing and finishing the images, presenting them to my clients and, if they were satisfied, printing the calendars.

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From Sunbeds to Shackles

I am from the island of Mallorca, Spain, and was arrested at Hong Kong International Airport for carrying in my suitcase pills containing an illegal substance known as “ecstasy” — specifically about 14,000 pills with a total weight of 2.367 kg.

I am currently 58 years old and held at Stanley Prison, awaiting a Supreme Court hearing for sentencing, having voluntarily pleaded guilty.

I wish to share the story of my life and explain how I made the mistake that placed me in this unnatural situation as a prisoner in Hong Kong.

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Turned to dust by “powdered gold”

I am writing to share my story from the Federal Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. My family was very poor, and I became an orphan at a young age. I am now a mother of three children—my eldest is fifteen, my second is five, and my youngest is two years and four months old, born via Caesarean section.

I have three sisters from the same mother. Our mother died during childbirth when I was very young, so I never knew her. My father passed away in a motor accident, leaving us orphaned. Life became extremely difficult for my sisters and me.

After our parents’ deaths, my eldest sister moved to town to work as a babysitter. I stayed in the village with another sister, where we fetched water for widows and elderly people to earn money for food. None of us attended school. Our uncle provided no support, while his own children went to school and mocked us for our work.

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From clothes seller to drug courier

I am 45 years old, born in Tanzania in the Mbeya region, Kyela district. In a family of 11 children, I am the 10th child.

I got married when I was 17 years old and was blessed with four children, all of whom are boys. But when I was pregnant with my last child, that is when my life changed until today where I am here in prison. When I was three months pregnant, I went to the hospital to start the antenatal care. When you are pregnant in Tanzania, you must test for HIV. I tested and was found to be infected with the HIV virus.

When I returned home and explained the HIV test results to my husband and asked him to test as well, he angrily refused to get tested saying he is safe and has no infection. Since I was the one infected, I entered this situation on my own, and my life changed. He started drinking heavily and beating me a lot.

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Manipulated by my naiveté

I used to trust people easily, thinking everyone was good. Perhaps it was due to my naiveté and lack of experience. I was born into a respectable family during a difficult time in my country, marked by conflict and crisis. This forced us to move constantly.

I studied from a young age with the goal of becoming a professional. I graduated, completed my military service, and then entered university to study commercial engineering. I worked during the day in private security and had several close friends from university.

I didn’t understand how illegal businesses operated or how seemingly good people could professionally deceive and manipulate others.

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A truck-full of lies

I was born in 1989 in western Mongolia. I lived with my wife and our two-and-a-half-year-old son. My wife graduated from university in 2011 and works as an accountant, earning a monthly income. I work as a heavy truck driver, and my monthly income is around 3 million tugrug. Together, our household income is substantial for our country (approximately $1280 USD). Our immediate and extended families all live in the same area. We were married in 2020, and I finished building our house in 2019, thanks to my job.

In my entire life, I had never had any trouble with the law. I’ve never used drugs or abused alcohol, and I have spent my life working and caring for my family. My international travel was limited to five trips: a one-week holiday in Russia, three work trips to China in 2014, 2016, and 2018, and the trip in question to South America and Hong Kong between May 30 and June 6, 2024.

I went on the trip with the hope of earning extra money for my family. When I left Mongolia, I was unaware that I was being recruited to transport drugs. I was lied to, and only upon arrival in South America was I forced to transport dangerous drugs inside my body.

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Free Thailand holiday trap

The incident occurred in April 2024.  

I was in debt to the bank for about 200,000 HKD due to accumulated medical expenses for my mother-in-law cancer treatment. At the time, I had a quarrel with my wife and she asked for a divorce. I was feeling extremely down. Suddenly, I received a phone call offering a free trip including airfare and hotel  to Thailand. Desperate for any form of escape, I accepted the offer, failing to recognize it as the precise moment I was targeted for exploitation.

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The nail that sealed my coffin

I am 76 years old and I was born in Lima, Peru. I am single and I have two children, one 45 years old and a 35-year-old daughter, but I have not heard anything from them in more than 30 years. My closest relative is (or was?) My 65-year-old sister, who had been hospitalized for breast cancer since before my trip to Hong Kong. Now I don’t know if he’s still alive because I have no way to call, since I don’t remember the numbers because they are on the phone that the police seized and there is no way to get it back or to be able to ask for the numbers, since it is part of the evidence.

I lived in Lima in a family house, but I was robbed by bad people and I was left living on the street. I didn’t have a job since at my age it’s difficult to find a job. Sometimes I was a security guard for cars and I could get to eat and sleep in a hotel of 20 soles a night (something like 8 dollars USD). Sometimes I had to beg for food at a restaurant when they were about to close.

Just one of those days, a man saw me in the restaurant asking for food. I remember him staring at me and, when I left, he came out to meet me a few meters from there and called me.

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The cigarette that burned down my life

A Personal Warning

Stay Clear of Crime and Traffickers

My name is KTB, and I want to share my story with you, not just to tell you what happened to me, but to serve as a warning to help you avoid the same fate. I made a series of bad choices, believing in quick money and trusting the wrong people, and now I am paying a heavy price. I hope my experience can help you think twice before walking down a similar path.

The Beginning: A Chance Encounter that Changed Everything

It all started around Christmas time in 2022. I was in Lan Kwai Fong, enjoying a night out when I met a guy we’ll call “X.” Our first interaction was simple as I asked for a cigarette, and that small gesture led to a conversation. We talked about tattoos, clothes, and shared common interests. X was easy to talk to, and he gave me the feeling of an older brother figure, someone who understood life and seemed to have experience. We exchanged phone numbers, and after that night, we occasionally kept in touch.

At first, our conversations were casual. X told me he worked in high-end liquor sales selling spirits and whisky, dealing with wealthy clients, fancy dinners, and luxury lifestyles. He made it sound so glamorous, and I thought that maybe if I stuck with him, I could learn something new or even find a job that would make me proud. I was curious, eager to try something different, and naïve enough to believe I could learn from him.

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Freedom, how wonderful

The moment you become an inmate, you begin to recognize your mistakes and cherish your past life.

You realize that before committing any act, you need to think 150 times. “Is this necessary?”

You realize that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation. There is only one truly hopeless situation—when they are screwing the lid shut on your coffin. Everything else is SOLVABLE.

If you think your life is terrible—evaluate your surroundings. Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are.

Start reading. Change your worldview. Write down your thoughts. Learn new foreign languages for yourself. Forget the phrase “no time.” Forget it! There is plenty of time; you just don’t notice it or you waste it on nonsense. Establish a routine. Set an alarm with a terrible melody so you have to jump out of bed and turn it off immediately. Then you will get used to waking up at the same time.

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The heavy burden of light decisions – PART 2

This is a second letter from a previous post

Three months have passed since my arrest, along with my beloved partner.

We are from Ukraine, and our family is there, where the war has been ongoing for over two years. I worry every day about my family, and about my little son. You never know which home a rocket will strike.

I find myself behind bars, without internet, a phone, or contact with my relatives.

I don’t know how to hold a pen in my hands.

I feel terrible when I see news about my country, but I cannot call my mother to find out if everything is okay. I was very worried about how my mother’s heart would react when she learned that her daughter and son-in-law were deprived of freedom due to their own foolishness. I am scared that something might happen to them and I won’t find out.

Or that I will find out, but too late.

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The heavy burden of light decisions – PART 1

In 2019, we moved to Poland for work because we couldn’t find employment in our small town in the Odesa region of Ukraine. Our initial six-month visa expired just as the coronavirus pandemic began, but we were given special documents that allowed us to stay. We later applied for the Karta Pobytu (residence permit).

On February 22, 2022, we received our residence cards and planned a trip home to see our family, especially our son. Two days later, February 24, 2022, the war in Ukraine began.

Our family was strongly against us returning due to the Russian invasion. My mother assured us they were safe and our town was protected. We decided to stay and work, believing the war wouldn’t reach them. We mainly worked in large warehouses and factories. Our income covered rent, food, and utilities, and we managed to send some money home, though not as often as we wished.

Our major mistake was not knowing how to save. Whenever life brought a problem—a sudden toothache, a broken car, delayed wages, or reduced work hours—we ran into financial trouble. Over four years in Poland, we accumulated significant debt. We managed to make payments, but the burden was heavy. Every winter brought problems, preventing us from celebrating my December birthday, the New Year, and even my partner’s birthday. We realized that money was the solution to all our issues.

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Sweet invitation from a bitter destiny

Hello, I am 30 years old, from Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Through this letter, I want to share the way I was recruited.

I was in the center of my city after visiting a client when a man approached me. He complimented me and started a conversation. He asked about my life—my children, my work. I told him I used to sell meals but stopped, and that I also worked as a prostitute.

He asked how much I would charge. I said 150 reais for one hour. Then he said, “I have a better job for you, where you’ll earn much more.”

At first I thought it would be something to do with prostitution, but I was wrong. He said it was easy and that everything would be alright; I just had to do everything he told me to do.

He offered me $5,000 USD—about 30,000 reais—to carry drugs on a trip.

Desperate for money to restart my business, furnish my daughter’s room, and help my mother pay debts, I accepted. He took my information and told me to bring my passport the next day.

The following day, he gave me an envelope with travel documents and 300 reais. He warned me not to fail, saying my family would be at risk. I promised I wouldn’t.

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A reckless game

I am 21 this year. I was born in mainland China and came to Hong Kong with my mother in 2018, when I started Form 1. Due to cultural differences and being a transfer student, I struggled academically and socially. With my mother working long hours, I spent my time at billiard halls and game centers. I dropped out after two months and began hanging out with friends I met outside school.

I was skilled at billiards and spent most of my time at the hall, where I met older friends who treated me well. My daily expenses came from the HK$100 my mother left me each morning before her 12-hour cleaning shifts. Before leaving each day, she would always tell me, “If you can’t study well, then just find a proper job. Don’t keep wandering outside with bad people who’ll lead you astray!” But I treated those words like noise in the background, thinking, “How could I possibly run into bad people?”

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