Volunteers and police in Moscow have rescued a woman and her three-year-old daughter who were held in slavery, according to the Telegram news channel Mash.
The child was born into captivity and had spent her entire three years of life locked inside a facility near Shcherbinka without ever leaving the premises.
The mother and child were detained in a three-storey building located near Shcherbinka, a settlement in the southern expansion zone of Moscow. Formally, the establishment operated as an addiction shelter intended to assist individuals suffering from substance dependency.
The woman originally arrived at the facility alongside a male colleague from Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. She worked at the establishment with him and became pregnant while residing there.
After her partner was deported back to Tajikistan, the woman and her newborn daughter fell under the complete control of the shelter owner.
Forced labor and confinement
The shelter owner forced the mother to run the household, collect expired food products from local stores, and prepare those goods to feed the drug addicts staying at the facility.
During her three years of life, the young girl was never permitted to leave the room where she was locked, remaining confined throughout her early childhood.
Shcherbinka is located within the Novomoskovsky Administrative Okrug, a territory incorporated into Moscow as part of the city's major geographic expansion. Mash, which reported the rescue operation by law enforcement and volunteers, is a popular Russian online news outlet operating on the Telegram messaging platform.
Previous human trafficking incidents
The rescue follows earlier reports of forced labor and human trafficking in the broader Moscow region.
In a separate case in Moscow Oblast, a group of trash streamers held in captivity were forced to work as security guards for Gorki-2, an elite residential estate situated along Rublevskoye Highway.
Trash streamers are online video creators in Russia known for broadcasting controversial live content. Rublevskoye Highway is an affluent district west of Moscow known for housing high-profile residents and gated luxury estates.
