"I Was Almost Human Trafficked in Paris” - Uncut with Djanaya Hampton

Today we're speaking to Djanaya Hampton, the Australian woman you've probably already seen going viral online. Every year, Djanaya Hampton takes herself on a solo birthday trip. It’s her own tradition, ticking off a bucket list she made years ago. It had always been safe. It had always been beautiful. Until her 29th birthday, when a night watching the sunset under the Eiffel Tower turned into hours of being followed, surrounded and hunted through the Paris metro by a group of men who were trying to traffic her.

Djanaya walks us through the entire night in real time from the "harmless" photo request that was actually the first red flag, the moment she watched money change hands, losing them on one train only to have them get on the next, and the stranger on a near-empty carriage who may have saved her life. We also talk about what happened after: the Australian Embassy telling her she needed to leave the country immediately, what it really means to be "on the black market," and the wave of support, and disbelief, she's faced since sharing her story.

Djanaya shares:

• Why she started solo-travelling for her birthday every year, and the countries she'd been to before Paris
• The exact moment she first felt something was wrong — before she could even explain why
• What it's like to realise, in real time, that you're being followed by multiple people
• How a stranger who happened to speak Spanish became the reason she got out safely
• What the Australian Embassy told her about being "on the black market"
• Why she waited over a year to share her story, and the response since
• The other survivor stories she's been sent since going viral
• Britt's own close call in Medellín, Colombia

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Introducing Djanaya and her solo birthday travel tradition
• 05:06 – Her 29th birthday at the Eiffel Tower, and the men who approached her
• 08:50 – The "let's take a photo" moment that set off alarm bells
• 13:44 – Followed and surrounded on the Paris metro
• 27:46 – Going to the Australian Embassy
• 36:48 – Going viral, and the wave of messages from other survivors
• 38:43 – Britt's own close call in Colombia

Follow Djanaya on Instagram: @dijonnai___

You can watch our episode with Lurata Lyon here

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Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne

Produced by Keeshia Pettit

Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley

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