The data
Every case on SlaveryMap, drawn from public sources and shown with its location deliberately generalized to protect survivors.
631 of 1,631 cite a source · Updated
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Greece GR
Investigators determined the victims were part of a group of 32 illegal immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh who were being kept in a refrigerated truck, owned by a 43-year-old resident of Athens.
Iraq IQ
Enforcement's involvement is unknown. The Kuwaiti contractor announced that it would return them to their home countries and pay them back salaries. Najlaa officials contended that they've cared for the men's basic needs while the company has tried to find them jobs in Iraq. The laborers said they paid middlemen more than $2,000 to get to Iraq for jobs that they were told would earn them $600 to $800 a month. Some of the men took out loans to cover the fees. "They promised us the moon and stars," said Davidson Peters, 42, a Sri Lankan. "While we are here, wives have left their husbands and children have been shut out of their schools" because money for the families has dried up. The men live in three warehouses with long rows of bunk beds crammed tightly together. Reporters who tried to get a better glimpse inside were ushered away by armed guards. According to McClatchy, the conditions in which the men have been held appear to violate guidelines the U.S. military handed down in 2006 that urged contractors to deter human trafficking to the war zone by shunning recruiters that charged excessive fees. The guidelines also defined "minimum acceptable" living spaces — 50 square feet per person — and required companies to fulfill the pledges they made to employees in contracts. A U.S. military spokesman for the Multi-National Force-Iraq referred questions to KBR, a Texas-based former subsidiary of Halliburton. The spokesman said that the American military wasn't aware of the warehouses until McClatchy and the Times of London began asking questions about it on Monday. Some of the men who've been living in the warehouses said that KBR representatives visited the site two weeks ago. They said Najlaa held their passports until the KBR inspection, which Najlaa officials denied. Seizing passports is a violation of the U.S. military's 2006 instructions to contractors. KBR didn't answer direct questions about the warehouses but issued a two-paragraph statement. "When KBR becomes aware of potential violations of international laws regarding trafficking in persons, we work, within our authority, to remediate the problem and report the matter to proper authorities. KBR then works with authorities to rectify the matter," it said. Reached in Kuwait, Najlaa chief executive Marwan Rizk said the company recruited the laborers for contracts it expected to begin servicing, but the work didn't materialize. He didn't specify which contracts fell through or why they were delayed. The company offers a number of services in Iraq, including catering at U.S. military bases. "We had some obstacles with the services we were contracted to do," Rizk said. "These obstacles were not forecasted." He said it's the company's practice to begin paying its employees once they start their jobs, though Najlaa credits them from the time they arrive in Iraq.
United States US
Two people have been arrested for allegedly withholding pay from two of their employees and threatening them with deportation. The FBI took Young Jo Kwon and his wife, Jessie Kwon, into custody Tuesday and charged them with five counts of theft and forgery. The Kwons are accused of forcing two South Korean immigrant employees to work without pay while they were the owners of Osaka Sushi in Denver. They allegedly threatened two of their employees with the revocation of their "sponsorship," which the Kwons claimed would result in the deportation of the employees' families. One of the informed the FBI that Young Jo Kwon claimed ties to the Korean mafia, and Kwon allegedly told Choi "he knew how to hurt someone who did not obey."
Paraguay PY
A group of homeless children were recruited to work at a shopping mall to help the customers carry their bags and to also clean the bathrooms, the floors, and parking lots of the mall. They were promised compensation from the shopping mall but what they got were only the tips from some of the costumers. The children were afraid of saying something to the owners because they knew that they could lose even the tips from the customers. However, a small group of courageous kids protested for their salary. The owners immediately fired the protesters, cleared them out of the area, and did not pay them for their work. They made sure to tell everyone that letting the children receive a tip and stay in the mall during the day is more than enough.
United States US
From Chattanooga Times Free Press, July 28, 2008: One of the most recent cases in Chattanooga occurred July 11, when two people were victims of an apparent “coyote” ransom scam, according to Chattanooga police and U.S. Immigration and Custom officials. The victims told police they paid a man to transport them from Valdosta, Ga., to Oklahoma City to search for work. Once they arrived in Oklahoma, they were kidnapped and told their families would have to pay $15,000 for their freedom. They escaped from the kidnapper’s car in Chattanooga, they told police. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/jul/28/chattanooga-smuggling-related-crimes-increase-spre/ http://www.wdef.com/news/human_trafficking_with_ties_to_chattanooga/07/2008
United States US
Kil Soo Lee, former owner of a Daewoosa American Somoa factory, forced over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese people to work in his garment factory. The victims were recruited from China and state-owned labor companies in Vietnam. Each worker paid fees ranging from $5,000 to $8,000 to be brought the U.S. and for their job in the factory. Lee and his co-workers threatened the victims with deportation if they spoke against their poor working conditions and minimal pay. In March of 1999, workers complained about their situation to local residents in an attempt to get more food. Lee responded by arresting and deporting some of the victims, depriving the rest of food, and physically beating the workers so they continued working. A woman lost an eye due to one of these beatings. The victims continued to work in the factory until November 2000. When the victims were recruited to come work in the factory they were promised $408 per month in wages, as well as free food and housing. They were not given any of these things, and Lee took their travel documents. The clothes made in the factory were commonly sold in Sears and JcPenny stores.
Ghana GH
No, the country of Ghana is aware of the situation but we don't prosecute the slave master unless they break their social contract with us...which is to purchase no other slave children.
United States US
Ramon Maldonado (age 49) of Olympia, Washington is the former owner of Ramon's Flooring and Carpet Installation, Inc., of Lacey, Washington. After his arrest, his business changed its name to JC Flooring. In June, 2005, Maldonado offered to employ a man (we'll call him J.G.) in his flooring business. J.G. is a Mexican National who was living in Apatzingan, Michoacan, Mexico. Ramon Maldonado provided money to J.G. to pay his smuggling fees. Once J.G. arrived in the US, Maldonado required him to repay his smuggling fees by working for his flooring company. Maldonado told J.G. that he could be arrested and deported because he was in the country illegally if he tried to leave. J.G. lived in the garage of Maldonado's home while working 14-17 hours a day installing carpet and providing manual labor to the flooring company.
United States US
Timothy Bradley and Kathleen O’Del recruited four men from Jamaica to come to the U.S. to work for Bradley’s tree cutting business. After arrival, the victims were threatened verbally and physically to work, their passports were taken, and they were not allowed to go places freely. The victims were forced to work for the Bradley Tree Service during the spring and summer of 2000 and 2001. Bradeley ordered his dog to attack one of the men when he attempted to escape. The victims were forced to live in a tool shed and a trailer in the couple’s backyard, and were charged $50 rent each week. When one of the victims was injured on the job he was denied medical care.
Papua New Guinea PG
Rimbunan Hijau, a logging company, was accused on paying its workers "slavery rates" because they the company was paying less than it cost for workers to eat at the canteen run by the company, which was the only way of getting meals.
United States US
In response to the Devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina Signal International contracted with a recruiting firm run by Sachin Dewan. Dewan to bring 500 Indian construction workers on H2-B ten month visa. Signal and Dewan required the men to pay up to $20,000 to secure a position and visa. The skilled welders and construction workers were brought to the US under false pretense believing they were receiving permanent residency for their work. Many of the men were forced to live in cramped quarters with 20 other men and required to pay 1,050 for food and shelter.
United States US
Million Express Manpower Inc. recruited 22 Thai workers from Bangkok to work in the agriculture industry in the United States promising them H2A Visas, three years worth of work, and travel/living expenses. The recruiters required each worker to pay up to $11,000 in fees and confiscated their passports and tickets as collateral for payment. Upon arriving in the United State they were forced to work on Howell Farms in North Carolina until they were relocated to New Orleans. In New Orleans they worked on renovating hotels destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The trafficking victims were forced to live in the dilapidated hotels while they were renovating them.
United States US
Husband and wife, Mary Yue Chueng and Hong Wei Yang, were owners of the Kimtex Factory which employed approximately 20 Chinese immigrants. In January of 2000, Cheung and Yang started to skim from their workers' ages. They stopped paying their employees altogether in May of 2000 and eventually closed and abandoned the factory in July. They were able to get away with this at the time by showing inspectors fake time records, hiding unpaid wages.
United States US
Close to 500 guestworkers from India were trafficked to the US through the H-2B program to work in Signal International's shipyards after Hurricane Katrina, lured by false promises of lawful permanent residency. Recruiters held their passports and visas, coerced them into paying extraordinary fees and threatened them with serious harm; in the US they were required to live in Signal's guarded, overcrowded labor camps.
Italy IT
Italian authorities arrested three men who ran a circus in which a Bulgarian family was lured into debt peonage through an intermediary. Though the family was promised nearly $750 USD per week, they received less than $200 for the family of four. The family is originally from Bulgaria and were brought in to Italy to serve in the circus. The family was subject to 15-20 workdays in which a 19-yr-old woman was forced to swim in extremely cold water with pirahnas and her 16-yr-old sister was in an act where she was covered with snakes and spiders. Both girls received wounds and medical issues from their treatment. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "ROME — Police have arrested three Italians and shut down their circus on allegations that they forced Bulgarian teenage sisters to perform in tanks full of piranhas and snakes, news reports said Wednesday. Italian dailies Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica said a 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank filled with freezing water to keep the piranhas lethargic, while her 16-year-old sister was covered with snakes and tarantulas. The reports said that three suspects run a circus near Naples in southern Italy. Police acted on a tip from a spectator and moved to arrest the three Sunday night, the reports said. La Repubblica said the three are accused of holding the Bulgarians in slavery, kidnapping and human trafficking. The sisters are part of a family that was employed in the circus. According to the reports, the family lived in a truck infested with cockroaches and was forced to work 15-20 hours a day for $155 a week instead of the agreed $747. The difference was going to a Bulgarian intermediary, the reports said. A spectator tipped off the police after seeing the show, in which the 19-year-old girl tried to escape from the piranha tank "trembling with terror" as her head was held down by Ingrassia. Her 16-year-old sister was bitten by snakes that she was forced to drape on her body, and she had injuries to her stomach where the snakes had wound themselves too tightly around her. The circus owners had rubbed ointment on snake bites on her legs but had refused to take her to a doctor. Police said the Bulgarian family had lived in the back of a cockroach-infested lorry used for animal transport. The only meat they had been given since January consisted of leftovers from the circus owners' Easter lunch last weekend. Reports said the older girl had a tumor on her ear for which she had twice been operated in Bulgaria. Doctors had told her never to get water in her ears, especially cold water. However the water tank in which she was forced to swim with eight piranhas was kept at a temperature just above freezing in order to make the piranhas lethargic. The Bulgarian family has now been taken to "safe premises," police said. Police said the raid on the circus followed an undercover operation in which plain clothes officers took their families with them as cover and filmed the show as evidence. They said the arrested men appeared surprised but made no attempt to justify their behavior. Corriere della Sera said the incident appeared to be "something out of the 19th century" but showed that slavery was still "very much a reality" in modern Italy. La Stampa said the treatment of the Bulgarians was "unfortunately not an isolated incident" of illegal immigrant labor, with many East European women brought to Italy as street prostitutes."
American Samoa AS
Kil Loo See opened a garment factory, Daewoosa Samoa, Ltd., in Tafuna and recruited 313 workers from Vietnam and China. The factory produced clothes for Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, J.C. Penny and others. The workers signed three-year contracts that promised minimum wage. Kil Loo See, however, rarely paid the workers, threatened them with violence and deportation, withheld food and even beat them. Also, if they broke their contract and returned home early, they would face fines and their entire family would be blacklisted. The workers were in significant debt because they had to pay recruitment fees that were usually around $5,000. One worker lost her eye and another lost his hearing in his left ear after being beaten by a security guard under Kil Loo See's orders and most workers lost 18-25 pounds at the factory.
United States US
In 2004 Lueleni Fetongi Maka brought seven Tongan men to Hawaii, promising them a better life. He then housed them in poor conditions and forced them to work in his landscaping business. Maka maintained control of the victims through beatings and threatening deportation. At times the beatings were so severe they could not work because of their injuries. The victims worked sunrise to sunset trimming trees and building rock walls. Maka paid victims between $100 and $200, if at all.
Curaçao CW
The Curacao Drydock Co. hired at least 100 Cuban workers to repair cruise ships and tankers at its dock in Willemstad. Court records show that instead of paying the men, the Curacao company applied their $6.90/hour value to the Cuban government's multi-million dollar debt with the company. Company officials seized the Cuban workers' passports and forced them to labor as many as 112 hours a week fixing ships. The workers were rarely allowed to leave the shipyard complex and only in groups with a guard watching over them. They typically worked 15 days in a row, and sometimes 45 days in a row. Fidel Castro's nephew, Manuel Bequer, was a senior manager of the shipyard during the time of the enslavement. Three of the survivors, Alberto Justo Rodríguez, Fernando Alonso Hernández and Luis Alberto Casanova Toledo sued the Curacao Drydock Company in US federal court in Miami. Their Miami-based lawyer, Seth Miles, reports: "They faced the worst choice you can imagine: to continue being slaves not knowing if they would live or die because they were being treated so badly, or to try to escape, knowing that even if they were successful it would be horrific for their families in Cuba." Alonso Hernandez claims he was enslaved in hard labor for ten years. No information available on the length of servitude for the other 99 plus slaves. Documents reviewed by the Miami Herald offer a rare glimpse into the employment terms typically kept secret between the Cuban government and the firms with which it does business. The documents appear to offer proof that the Cuban government's joint ventures abroad frequently involve forced labor. For more info, see: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/734004.html http://www.mcclatchydc.com/117/story/44550.html
Thailand TH
Three traffickers - referred to in China as "snakeheads" - tried to sneak 124 people out of China in early December 2008. The "snakeheads" had overseas backing according to the Chinese police (as reported by the Xinhua News Agency). They brought their victims to Yunnan with promises of jobs. In reality, they planned to traffick them into Myanmar with the collaboration of Burmese casino operators where they would be forced to construct roads. Numerous casinos run by drug lords and ethnic rebels operate on the Myanmar side of the long border with China. The victims were from poor families from villages near Chaoyang and Dandong in the Liaoning province - close to the main border between China and Korea.
Jordan JO
The workers went on strike and management took more of the same, above acts to even more oppressive extremes to break the strikers. The strikers appealed to the Jordanian Ministry of Labor and finally was able to get help. After a few months, and after years of abuse, the owner was forced to surrender his factory to the Jordanian Ministry of Labor. An agreement with the Ministry and owners was signed. Part of the agreement, signed on June 6, 2007, called for the new owner of the Cotton Craft Factory to pay every worker months of back wages along with social security payments deducted from the workers' wages by law to be returned to the workers when they leave the factory. The total amount of money due the workers is approximately 460 JD ($648.80). One hundred and thirty-five foreign guest workers at the Cotton Craft factory in Jordan--who were routinely cheated of their overtime pay--have received hundreds of dollars in back wages legally due them. Needless to say, these poor guest workers who never expected to win are not only overjoyed but inspired to continue their struggle for justice.
United States US
Francesco Insolia, the plant manager, Dilia Costa, the payroll manager and Gloria Melo, the office manager of Michael Bianco, Inc. were arrested for forcing illegal immigrants, mostly from Guatemala and El Salvador, to work in harsh conditions for long periods of time without proper payment.
Brazil BR
The company has denied abusing workers. It was slapped with a $1.1 million fine and its directors charged with "submitting workers to conditions analogous to slavery." If found guilty, they could be sentenced to up to 15 years in jail.
United States US
Not Sure.
United States US
Cesar Navarrete and Geovanni Navarrete beat, threatened, and restrained Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, forcing them to work as agricultural laborers. The farms were located in Flordia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The victims were underpaid, and continually mounted escalating debts, and were physically threatened if they tried to leave before their debt had been paid off. At the time of investigation, the family was holding 15 workers on the property. The Navarretes initially brought the workers to the U.S. to work picking the produce in their fields.