Leila Ashirova and Bakiya Kasymova from Kazakhstan were freed, along with 14 other people, after ten years of being held captive in the basement of an apartment building where they were forced to work at a supermarket in Moscow. Police received a tip that missing children were being held at the supermarket and, while the police were investigating the market, someone alerted them that people were being kept there as slaves. Activists from the Civic Assistance Committee went in to free the people with journalists as their witnesses. Leila and Bakiya's passports and all their documentation were taken by their traffickers. They were forced to work long hours with no pay, were not allowed to leave the premises unattended, and if they refused or tried to escape they were beaten. After the women were freed from captivity, they spoke out about their plight to the media and how local police turned a blind eye to their enslavement. Their traffickers were taken in for questioning and then released. About two weeks later, all of the charges against the traffickers were dropped because the prosecutors could not find evidence that a crime had been committed (Lillis, 2012). To make matters worse, a week after the charges were dropped the women were facing deportation from Russia on immigration violations because they were illegally residing on Russian territory without proper documentation (Balmforth, 2012).