Sentosa 27 and Human Trafficking
February 26, 2009In an article on Nurse.com, Lorraine Steefel reports on the December 8th, 2008, International Building Global Alliances Symposium sponsored by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS). At that symposium, I spoke about the Sentosa 27 nurses, who migrated to this country to work in a chain of nursing homes in New York State under a contract that was violated in multiple ways by the owners of the chain. When the nurses quit their jobs, the owners were able to get them charged with conspiracy, patient abandonment, and endangering the welfare of patients. Fortunately, a court of appeals said there was no case. On January 18th, law professor Mitchell Rubenstein wrote that this “is a critically important employment law case that will shortly make its way into law school casebooks.” Migrating nurses are at risk for exploitation and human trafficking, and we all need to be mindful of this fact.
—Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, AJN Editor-in-Chief
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