If spending your days and nights traveling the world one port at a time aboard a luxurious cruise ship sounds like a dream job, three former Scientologists have got news for you. As The Daily Beast reports, Gawain Baxter, Laura Baxter, and Valeska Paris — who have lived and worked on the organization’s Freewinds cruise ship for more than a decade — have filed a lawsuit against Church leader David Miscavige and five related organizations for alleged human trafficking.
All three individuals were born into the organization and claim that such early indoctrination made it impossible to leave what they described as “a world filled with abuse, violence, intimidation, and fear.” According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the trio were all part of the group’s Sea Org and Cadet Org, subdivisions within the Church that require members to sign one of those famous “billion-year” contracts, in which they agree to provide free or cheap labor.
In exchange and according to their legal complaint (which was filed in Florida), they endured more than a decade of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.
As Ben Schneiders wrote for the Herald:
One of the plaintiffs alleged they were confined to a hot engine room for days after being accused of “monopolizing” the attention of a prominent celebrity who had their birthday on the ship in 2004, and who is believed to be actor Tom Cruise. There is no suggestion Cruise was aware of the plaintiff’s situation.
The case, brought by leading US plaintiff law firms, alleges the free labor on the cruise ship allowed Scientology leader Miscavige to “maintain a facade of legitimacy, a luxurious lifestyle … and influence over members including celebrities.”
The 86-page filing details how parents hand over custody of their children, some of them as young as six, and are only allowed to see each other once a week. Plaintiff Gawain Baxter was just six when he became a member of Cadet Org. By the time he was 10, he would see his parents for just a few hours a week and spent up to 10 hours per day providing free labor.
When he began working on the Freewinds, which the Herald notes “never docks in U.S. ports or territorial waters,” Gawain had his passport confiscated and would sometimes work 24 hours per day.
“To this day, there are completely defenseless minors being mistreated by Scientology leadership,” Baxter said in a statement. “Just as I was, they are isolated from family and have no way to protect themselves. Scientology must be held accountable for the human rights abuses and trauma it has inflicted without a shred of remorse.”
Fellow plaintiff Valeska Paris also became a member of Cadet Org at the age of six, and she says that she was sexually assaulted on several occasions over the next decade. By the time she was 15, Paris was working as a personal assistant to Miscavige, a role that required her to regularly work 16-hour days.
“Scientology is a system that is designed to perpetuate fear, and I continue to struggle with the trauma,” she said. “No person–child or adult–should have to go through the daily abuse and manipulation I faced.”
The Herald reached out to the Church of Scientology for comment, but had not received one by press time.
(Via The Daily Beast & Sydney Morning Herald)