At the age of 18, Emily Waters was going to college and working as an underage bartender at a hotel in Long Island. There she met her boyfriend, who quickly became her drug dealer, he then turned into her trafficker. She was trafficked in Texas, where she attempted to escape twice, both attempts were unsuccessful and she was found and brutally beaten. She successfully escaped in 2001 after a friend bought her a plane ticket out of state and she left with only the clothes on her back. Waters now works with victims, as the director of human trafficking at the safe center. She also works as the director of Nassau County’s Human Trafficking Intervention Court, where she is helping to turn victims into survivors.

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