A former slave girl is in Malta to raise awareness about human trafficking.

Rani Hong was raised in a village in southern India, but her childhood ended when she was just seven.

Kidnapped from her mother and sold to a slave master, she was forced into the brick-making industry in a neighbouring state.

“I was sold into slavery to another state where I didn’t know the language and was unfamiliar with the area. I didn’t know what was happening to me,” the 46-year-old said.

When she cried for her mother, she was told her family was dead.

Following a year of abuse and torture, which included being kept in a cage, the girl was deemed to be “dying and destitute”.

She had become physically and mentally ill, and was of no use to her owner.

In a bid to make one last profit from the child, Ms Hong was sold for illegal adoption.

This is what saved her, as she was adopted into a stable home in the US after being trafficked to Canada.

Ms Hong was reunited with her biological mother two decades later and has since become an advocate for those victimised by trafficking.

Among other accomplishments, she founded Tronie Foundation, acted as a UN special adviser and forms part of the Global Sustainability Network Forum.

“The US is where I currently live, but today I speak for those without a voice.

“There are millions of children who cannot be at these conferences to voice their pain and agony.”

Ms Hong was one of the speakers during a conference about best practices to end human trafficking, currently being held in Malta by the Amersi Foundation, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the President's Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society.