Labor Trafficking News from October

Throughout the month there are many cases or stories that break regarding forced labor. They are usually not on the front pages of our newspapers, rather they are buried deep and sometimes are only accessible through the internet. These are some of the stories both headline articles and those that were not from October.

In their Fourth Annual Report, the Payson Center for International Development at the University of Tulane reports that not enough is being done to prevent suppliers from using child labor within their supply chains. Child labor (worst forms), forced labor and labor trafficking still occur within the industry and include abuses such as physical, sexual and verbal harassment along with restricted movement and children being sent to farms separate from their parents and guardians. While some companies have worked to clean-up their supply chains there is at least one company notably absent. Read more

Details about the first case involving charges of labor rather than sex trafficking in Canada began to come out at the beginning of October. A group of 19 or more victims were lured from Hungry to work in Canada. Once they arrived they were forced to work for a construction company and were controlled through threats of harm to either their families or to themselves. The workers were forced to apply for government support. The traffickers would take this money once it arrived. Ten members of a family are being charged in the crime. Read more

Authorities arrested 23 people and were looking for more in connection with a Chinese human trafficking ring in places such as New York City and Long Island. Victims paid up to $75,000 to come to the US for work. The victims families were threatened and required to pay off these fees while the victims were living in poor conditions and were forced to work in "slave-like conditions" in restaurants. Read more

A man was convicted in Missouri for his role in a scheme which spread across 14 states. It involved the recruitment of illegal aliens to work in places such as hotels. The employees were lead to believe the conditions of employment would be different. Once in the US the victims were threatened with deportation. The man was not charged with forced labor but was convicted under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charges. Read more

Additional charges have been brought against the Sou brothers in the Hawaii Aloun Farm case involving the 44 workers they brought to the US from Thailand. They have been charged with five counts of forced labor for threatening workers. There are also two counts of document (passport) confiscation, and two counts for hiding workers from the authorities after their visas were expired in order to force them to work. Read more

A potential case of child abuse/labor is being investigated in Britain. While it is still early in the investigation it appears that 8 children were being forced to work on a farm in near freezing weather while inadequately dressed. The children were between 9 and 15 years old. Read more

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the "California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010" on the 18th of October. The Act requires manufacturers and retailers within California to detail what they are doing to ensure there is no slavery within their supply chains. This must be posted on the company's website. Read more

While a lot of attention is given to child labor in Uzbekistan's cotton industry, very little attention is paid to the forced labor of adults in the same industry. People from many different industries including police officers and teachers were reportedly being forced to pick cotton during this year's harvest particularly because prices for cotton are currently high. Uzbeki news sources reported several abuses related to people who refused to work. Teachers were beaten in effort to compel them to work and a whole village had its power cut to punish a man who refused to work. According to the report even the sick and old are being compelled to pick cotton. Of the 3,400,000 tons of cotton that was picked China is expected to receive at least 100,000 tons Read more

Photo by Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department.

Canada's First Case of Forced Labor (If the Charges Remain)

Human trafficking charge laid
By TAMARA CHERRY, TORONTO SUN
Last Updated: October 11, 2010 6:25pm

The alleged head of a crime family wanted in a massive human trafficking investigation was slapped with police bracelets over the weekend.

Ferenc Domotor, 48, was arrested in the Hamilton area Saturday, a day after police announced arrest warrants for him and nine members of his family.

They’re wanted in connection with Canada’s biggest human trafficking investigation since the Criminal Code charge came into effect five years ago.

As of Monday, police had identified 19 victims, alleging they were trafficked from a small Hungarian town to Hamilton and forced to work for the Domotor family’s construction company without pay.

According to investigators, men brought from Hungary were coached on how to claim refugee status.

They also alleged traffickers made the victims file for social assistance and stole their payments.

The victims were kept in basements, restricted in where they could go or speak with and had threats made against them and their families in Hungary, police alleged.

Domotor is charged with human trafficking and fraud.

“We believe they are in the Hamilton area but we fear some may have left the country,” a police source said Monday of the outstanding family members.

Explaining why the investigation took 10 months before the arrest warrants were announced for human trafficking charges, the source said: “It’s not an investigation of a bag of coke. It’s an investigation of human beings. And these people have fears, they have families and they have threats. And you really as a police officer have to ensure these people that they’re safe or else they’re not going to come forward...

“We need our justice system on board, that’s huge. The justice system needs to learn what human trafficking’s about.”

Also wanted on charges of trafficking in persons and fraud are: Ferenc Domotor Jr., 20, Gyongyi Kolompar, 40, Gizella Kolompar, 41, Lajos Domotor, 42, Ferenc Karadi, 47, Gizella Domotor, 42, Attila Kolompar, 35, and Gyula Domotor, 32.

Zsanett Karadi, 24, is wanted for theft.

Not only is this the biggest human trafficking bust in Canada, but if the charges stick, they will be Canada’s first involving forced labour. The country has seen several human trafficking cases involving sex trafficking, mostly of Canadian women and girls.

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This could be the first case brought to the courts on forced labor in Canada and it is the largest human trafficking case to date in the country. Ten people are being charged in the case and at this point, 19 victims have been identified. They came from a small village in Hungary and were forced to work in the family's construction firm. They were restricted in who they were allowed to talk to, they were kept in basements and the Social Service money they received from the state was confiscated by the traffickers. The victims families were also threatened should the victims not comply. The investigation took 10 months and it seems that unfortunately some of the family members may have already fled the country. Despite these setbacks, this case is sure to be monumental in the fight against human trafficking and forced labor in Canada.

Dying to Work

While we frequently discuss the trafficking of women and girls, or that of children, the trafficking of men is a less commonly explored subject. A few years ago, I worked as a research assistant at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University. One of the duties I was tasked with was creating an annotated bibliography for an anti-trafficking study that included academic literature on the trafficking of men. I was shocked at the paltry amount of academic literature on the trafficking of men for work other than prostitution. True, there is a significant amount of grey literature but the academic studies and resources on the trafficking of men are vastly overshadowed by those on the trafficking of women and children. I always wondered if this was because in many societies across the globe there is a notion that men are more in charge of their destinies; are less in need of protection. It is easy to forget that there are so many circumstances that can intertwine to result in conditions of modern slavery for millions of men around the world.

Trafficking of men feeds a number of industries, such as agriculture, service, and construction. In a Huffington Post article posted on September 15th, Cameron Sinclair explores the darker side of the construction industry, focusing on the situation in the UAE. According to Sinclair, there are more than 1.1 million indentured construction workers in the UAE, mainly from India, Pakistan, and Nepal. Once they arrive in the UAE, as in many other countries, they find themselves in labor camps with inadequate food and even worse housing. Frequently, these men have their passports and other documentation taken away and receive meager wages, if they are even paid. As the global economic downturn has put over $300 billion in construction projects on hold in the UAE alone, indentured construction workers are often the most severely impacted. Without status in the UAE, they have no access to services or assistance and, without documentation or passports, they cannot return home.

As it has become increasingly imperative, even trendy, to "go green," Sinclair reminds us that we must look at not only our environmental footprint, but also our ethical footprint. What does it really mean if we construct an environmentally friendly building if we use exploitative labor practices? Can we laud such a structure when it was built on the backs of people who are living as modern slaves?

Read the full article here

In a recent search I conducted, I found that there are more academic resources available today than there were three years ago on the trafficking of men. However, this remains a fertile avenue for further research and exploration.