Type of modern slavery
Forced Labor
Work extracted from a person under threat, coercion, or deception, in industries from agriculture to construction to fishing.
SlaveryMap documents 137 cases of forced labor.
Kolwezi, DR Congo
Amnesty International and Afrewatch documented children as young as seven working in dangerous cobalt mining tunnels near Kolwezi, with the mineral traced through traders to major electronics and battery manufacturers. Accused: Trading depots and mine operators purchasing cobalt from child-labor sites with no oversight.
Singapore, Singapore
Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers recruited through agencies charging excessive fees creating debt bondage. Rest days denied Accused: Licensed and unlicensed recruitment agencies.
Seattle, Washington, United States
Micronesian couple brought an 18-year-old relative to the US with promises of education, then forced her into domestic servitude and hard labor while withholding her documents. Accused: Edk Kenit and Choimina Lukas of Longview, Washington.
Tokyo, Japan
Vietnamese workers in Technical Intern Training Program placed in seafood processing instead of promised training. Excessive hours garnished wages confiscated passports Accused: Japanese company and Vietnamese broker.
Likasi, Haut-Katanga, DR Congo
Adult miners in artisanal copper-cobalt sites working under armed guard. Wages withheld movement restricted injuries untreated Accused: Armed mining militia connected to supply chain middlemen.
Kampala, Uganda
Security companies recruited Ugandans to serve as guards in Middle East. Travel documents and pay withheld Accused: Ugandan recruitment agencies with Gulf partners.
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Motel manager manipulated young woman's homelessness addiction and custody issues to compel hotel housekeeping labor and sexual compliance Accused: Georgia motel manager.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
South Asian construction workers held in labor camps. Passports confiscated wages withheld threatened with deportation extreme heat conditions Accused: Construction subcontractor.
Songkhla, Thailand
Human Rights Watch documented systemic forced labor aboard Thai fishing vessels, interviewing 248 current and former fishers, mostly from Myanmar and Cambodia, who described confiscated documents, 14+ hour days, and confinement at sea for months. Accused: Thai fishing vessel owners and captains.
Chambishi, Zambia
Human Rights Watch documented persistent labor abuses at Chinese-run copper mines, including forced 12-18 hour shifts, inadequate protective equipment, and threats against workers who refused unsafe conditions or tried to join unions. Accused: Chinese state-owned mining companies operating in Zambia's Copperbelt.
Stockton, California, United States
A couple hired workers from India through false job ads promising good wages, then forced them into unpaid domestic labor in their home, physically abusing them and threatening consequences if they tried to leave. Accused: Satish Kartan and Sharmistha Barai of Stockton, California.
Bristol, United Kingdom
Eastern European workers trafficked for cannabis cultivation in residential properties. Confined forced to tend plants under threat Accused: Albanian organized crime group.
West Palm Beach, Florida, United States
Farm labor contractor ran criminal enterprise compelling Mexican H-2A workers into forced labor across five states Accused: Owner of farm labor contracting company.
New York, New York, United States
Nail salon workers earning as little as $3/hour. Immigration documents held threatened with deportation Accused: Salon owners operating chain.
Dhaka, Bangladesh
30+ workers locked in illegal garment factory. Promised fair wages but worked 16-hour shifts under threat of violence Accused: Factory operators in informal subcontracting network.
seoul, Korea, Republic of
Disabled people sold to salt farm by the traffickers for KRW 1,500,000. The victim escaped, and the police began to investigate.
Evans, Georgia, USA, United States
A Georgia couple accused of harboring illegal aliens for commercial advantage and then laundering the proceeds was arrested November 2011 following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Criminal Investigations Division and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. An alleged scheme involving more than $400,000 earned by an Evans couple through the use of illegal immigrants brought the husband and wife before a federal judge Monday. Hugo Diaz, 43, and Blanca Miranda de Diaz, 42, of Evans, Ga., appeared in federal court after being indicted by a federal grand jury. The indictment also charges four of the illegal aliens with unlawful entry into the United States. The indictment charges Hugo and Blanca Diaz with four counts of harboring illegal aliens and one count of money laundering conspiracy. Hugo is also charged with 10 counts of money laundering. Each of these crimes carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of proceeds from Diaz's crimes, including multiple parcels of real estate in Georgia and South Carolina, as well as 10 vehicles. The indictment says the couple sheltered the immigrants, then used five Suntrust bank accounts to spend the illegally gained money. That earned them one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and nine counts of money laundering. Authorities did not say if the illegal imigrants worked for Diaz, who owns De La Fuente construction in Grovetown, according to the Better Business Bureau. One of the transactions listed in the indictment include a wire transfer to someone in Mexico with the last name Diaz De La Fuente. Other transactions include a $173,380 over-the-counter withdrawal to an Augusta law firm handling a real estate transaction and a $50,000 over-the-counter withdrawal for a pool company. The indictment includes a forfeiture list of property the U.S. government intends to seize as alleged gains from the conspiracy. Those properties listed are one on Grace Avenue, two Augusta homes on the 2900 block of Aylesbury Drive and 100 block of Clark Street, and several lots in the Green Acres subdivision on Metz Drive in North Augusta. Ten vehicles, including a 2008 Lexus sedan, several pickup trucks and 15-passenger van, are also on the forfiture list. The defendants went before U.S. Magistrate Leon Barfield, who explained through an interpreter their legal rights and the charges they faced. All the defendants pled not guilty; they will remain in federal custody pending a case resolution. The Diaz couple face up to 10 years in prison for each count of the indictment.
Claudia, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Brazil
Original source translated using googletranslate.com: 6 workers were rescued from a farm in Claudia, Mato Grosso. The workers had been hired informally for approx. 2 months, and were promised $25 per hectare of land cleared for cattle grazing. The accommodation consisted of two canvas tents and mattresses. The employer did not provide transport from the accommodation to the farm. Food was prepared in a wood stove which had been made by the workers. The workers drank water from a stream which did not pass through any filtering system. There were also no toilet facilities. It was also reported that pesticides were exposed in an open shed which was less than 30 meters from the housing.
Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brazil
Original source translated using googletranslate.com: 51 workers were released from their posts working as railway maintenance workers on the stretch of track that runs through the State Park of Serra do Mar between Bot and Santos. The workers were urgently employed, to fill a personnel gap, by a subcontractor of the overall rail company. Most of the victims were recruited from Santo Amaro (Bahia) with false promises – they were initially promised pay of $1,000 with a formal contract. They were promised a schedule of 22 days of work, followed by 8 days of rest. However, after more than two months, some workers had only received $680. The workers’ documents were retained, and their freedom was restricted. Dissatisfaction among workers increased and some managed to leave and return to Bahia. Others were transferred to accommodation in Serra do Mar, where inspectors became aware that the workers were being held as slaves. The accommodation consisted of isolated containers in the woods where workers were forced to sleep on the floor – many reported feeling cold and hungry. Before a kitchen was developed, they often received sour food from another accommodation. There were also limited bathroom facilities and hot water. Work began at 7am for 17 hours a day, 7 days a week. One worker said: “I ask for time off and said, ‘If you want, take. But outside the housing.’ I had to stay outside the housing. Not enough to eat. The only option was to continue working.’ The released workers recalled times when they had to replace de-railed cars back onto the tracks during the night (between evening and the following morning) – it took great physical effort, but they were given no breaks or food. Physical assaults were witnessed, and threats were also recorded regarding machetes and firearms.
Primavera do Leste, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Brazil
Original source translated using googletranslate.com: 12 workers were rescued from a farm in Primavera do Leste. This area belongs to an official of the Court of the State of Mato Grosso (who is also a nephew of the Congressman). The workers’ accommodation was in poor condition and did not have side walls. Some workers slept on beds which were made out of crates and lined with foam, while others slept on matresses on the floor. There were no sanitary facilities on site. Surveillance suggests that the working conditions were ‘appalling’, with poor hygiene and a poor supply of food with low nutritional food. The workers were not provided with any personal protective equipment – this was verified by an inspection on 9th Feb 2011.
Dorchester, MA, United States
The trafficker compelled two girls, a 15 year-old and a 16 year-old, into prostitution – and he collected the profits that resulted. The trafficker allegedly used his cellphone to take pictures of the two girls and then posted the images on the website, backpage.com, in an advertisement offering sex with the girls in return for a fee. The Trafficker allegedly drove the girls to hotels and motels in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk counties where they engaged in sex with johns who had arranged a meeting through the trafficker using the telephone or email. The trafficker also allegedly had sex with the 15-year-old girl several times, prosecutors alleged.
Vargem, Santa Catarina, Brazil, Brazil
Information translated using googletranslate.com: 23 workers were rescued from a tobacco farm/plantation where they worked ‘on similar terms to the slave’. 11 of the rescued workers were between the ages of 12-16. The workers were made to apply pesticides to the tobacco crop in bare feet/flip-flops, and without protective equipment. The International Labor Organization (ILO) states that such work can result in cancer and other fatal degenerative diseases – it is expressly forbidden for children under 18 years of age. There was no appropriate place for the chemicals to be stored or prepared for use. There were also no washing facilities for those who had come into contact with the chemicals. The workers had not studied, and did not have access to the ‘Pesticide Risk Management for Workers’. The adults and children were transported to work at approx. 6am each day in a ‘bucket’ that was attached to the rear of a tractor. They then worked for 19 hours at the farm. It was reported that there was one bathroom, and that they shared drinking water from the same glass. The pesticides, water and food for workers were all being transported in the same buckets. The adults were not registered, and therefore not protected by social security. They had not received any medical benefits, and had been denied rights such as paid weekly rest, adequate salary. Some of the workers were reported to have been working approx. 26 days, and other 3 or 4 days.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brazil
The Brazilian government rescued 15 workers from a factory sub-contracted by AHA, the company responsible for 90% of Zara's Brazilian production. Fourteen of the workers were Bolivians and one was from Peru. One was 14. Renato Bignami, who led the investigation, said the workers – who lived on the premises – worked 12-hour shifts in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. They were not allowed to leave the premises. One victim told the TV channel A Liga that the labour component of a pair of Zara jeans selling at $126 (£76) was $1.14, which was divided between the seven people involved in the process. The workers earned between $156 and $290 a month. The minimum wage in Brazil is $344.
Golden, BC, Canada
Trafficker promised jobs to men from the Congo as tree planters. Up to seven men lived in a shipping container in remote areas of Golden, BC with no toilet or washroom. They ate expired food and subjected to violence. RCMP are also in investigating the death of one worker on one of the traffickers remote work sites. 57 men weren't paid for work between March and July of last year, and are still waiting for compensation. The company already had a "horrible track record" with WorkSafeBC where there were 20 violations found. NOTE: This case is not being charged with human-trafficking. Further details below.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Haiti
Matthew Andrew Carter, the 66-year-old operator of the Morning Star Center in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, was arrested in Miami on May 8. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday to four counts of child sex tourism, or traveling in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sex with minors. Carter, a resident of Brighton, Michigan, ran the Morning Star residential center at various sites in Port-au-Prince since the mid-1990s and lived there with the boys, according to charges unsealed on 6/24/11.
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico
Police also arrested four people accused of smuggling the migrants, who are from Central and South America and Asia, Chiapas state prosecutors said in a statement. Prosecutors have also detained two officials of Mexico's National Immigration Institute for allegedly prostituting female Central American migrants in the state of Chiapas More than 500 illegal migrants have been discovered crammed into the trailers of two trucks heading from Mexico towards the US. While most of those on board were thought to be from Guatemala, there were others from Ecuador and El Salvador as well as smaller numbers from as far afield as China, Nepal and India. There were 32 women and 4 children on board, authorities said.
Spring Hill, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, Australia
The victim was asked by a school friend to move into her apartment with her boyfriend (the trafficker) after the victim had a fight with her family. When the victim moved in the couple forced the teenager into prostitution so they could pay their rent. She was told that if she didn’t do this she would be on the streets. Using a credit card the man put 2 advertisements in a Brisbane paper and then drove the girl to appointments of people who responded. In the span of the week she had 5 sexual encounters, one with a 25 yr old woman and the others with men aged between 40 and 60. She earned $4500 for the couple but received only a free room in the apartment and buckets of chicken nuggets.
Gothenburg, Sweden, Sweden
Police in Gothenburg have detained three men on suspicion of trafficking Romanian women into Sweden for sexual exploitation. The men are under suspicion for trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and aggravated pimping. The men were brought in after a raid on several locations in the greater Gothenburg area carried out by the county police’s special unit for serious organised crime. The sex crimes have mainly been carried out in the Rosenlund area of the city, which is generally associated with street prostitution. The police operation was launched as a result of lengthy surveillance investigations and according to the prosecutor there are at least ten women that have been exploited by the men. The police declined to speculate on how the investigation would develop but on Wednesday said that they do not rule out further arrests. So far this year, the police have reported 170 incidents of sex purchasing in Gothenburg.
Kansas City, 607 Westport Road in Kansas City, United States
Abrorkhodja Askarkhodjaev, 32, from Uzbekistan pleaded guilty in October to four charges. He contended his marriage to an Independence woman had been real, and not a sham engineered to win him a permanent U.S. residency card. The woman testified that she married him in exchange for $5,000 and never consummated the relationship. She later pleaded guilty to a federal marriage fraud charge. Askarkhodjaev brought more than 1,000 foreign laborers to the Kansas City area by fraudulently manipulating a complex work visa program. He and his co-conspirators negotiated contracts with some of Kansas City’s finest hotels and resorts to put those laborers to work. Watching his pennies, he larded fees for uniforms, housing and transportation onto his workers’ paychecks and had some of them working for less than $1 per hour. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith ordered that he be deported when his sentence is completed. Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/09/2863391/12-year-sentence-handed-down-in.html#ixzz1M3qqKaXJ Askarkhodjaev managed a scheme that lured foreign workers to Kansas City with promises of good jobs in hotels and other service industries. Prosecutors say more than 1,000 workers were instead treated as slaves, warned that their temporary visas could be pulled and suffered threats of harm to their families. The workers, mainly from the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, paid thousands of dollars to Giant Labor to come to the U.S. with temporary visas. But once they arrived, they lived in small, sparsely furnished apartments, had no access to their mail and were charged so many fees that they sometimes owed the company money. The enterprise illegally made more than $6 million, prosecutors said. Eleven other people were charged in the case, which prosecutors say was one of the largest labor racketeering schemes ever uncovered in the U.S. According to the indictment, Askarkhodjaev owned and operated a labor leasing company, Giant Labor Solutions, at 607 Westport Road in Kansas City. Through Giant Labor and a dozen other businesses that he associated with or controlled as part of the criminal enterprise, Askarkhodjaev secured fraudulent labor leasing contracts from clients in the hotel/resort, casino, and construction industries in Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wyoming. The criminal enterprise allegedly used illegal aliens as part of its workforce to fulfill labor contracts for housekeeping, cleaning services and other duties. Giant Labor’s workforce was predominately comprised of foreign nationals, the indictment says, who either entered the United States illegally, overstayed their visas, or did not have legal authorization to reside or work in their specific locations within the United States during their term of employment. http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/kc052709.htm
Ponneri, Tiruvallur District, India, India
According to India Times, the owner of the SLG Brick Chamber, Neela Krishna Mohan Rao, procured workers, including whole familes, from a middleman, for "advances" ranging from 3,000 to 7,000 rupees. The laborers were made to work inside the brick chamber from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m, and during the rest of the day, to form bricks and dry them under the sun before placing them in the chamber to burn. According to the India Times, the workers were housed in small huts; many were sick and malnourished; and some had scars and other evidence of torture. The workers alleged they were tortured if they attempted to flee.
Century City, California, United States
Although the FBI had been investigating Global Horizons for a number of years, when an arrest warrant was served on Orian, it appeared to come as a surprise. Although he was on a business trip to Texas when federal agents descended on his Malibu home, his wife said they handcuffed her and by her account acted aggressively without any justification. Orian denies all the allegations against him, and expressed hope that he would be released on bond by Wednesday, despite a prosecution request that he be held until the end of legal proceedings. Orian was formally charged on Sep. 1 in what federal officials described as the biggest human-trafficking case ever brought by the U.S. government. On Sep. 2, Orian "deceived and evaded federal FBI agents for approximately 24 hours by providing sporadic misleading and conflicting information concerning his location, willingness to surrender in Dallas, and failing to report," government lawyers stated in documents filed with the federal court. They further charged that Orian "flew to Hawaii on another flight to avoid contact with federal agents at the airport." Today Orian is sitting in a Honolulu jail awaiting Judge Leslie Kobayashi's decision on a government request to deny Orian's release on one million dollars bail secured on his exclusive West Moonshadows Drive home in Malibu. Susan Cushman, assistant U.S. attorney for Hawaii, has filed documents stating that Orian is a flight risk, noting that he had used 26 different aliases and four different Social Security numbers in the past. Multiple Court Cases Cushman's request to keep Orian locked up until trial also described numerous violations of the law, according to a filing delivered to the Honolulu court on Sep. 9. Cushman provided the court with a copy of a 2003 report, "Migrant Workers in Israel - A Contemporary Form of Slavery," published by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and the International Federation for Human Rights. It states that Orian, an Israeli national, took 3,000 dollars from each of 19 Chinese workers for the "privilege" of working in Israel for two years. "By the end of February Mr. Orian owed each of the workers between 2-3 months wages," the report concluded. "Instead of paying the workers, he sent ten armed guards to surprise the workers in their sleep, beat them and drive them to the airport, where they were forcibly deported." In another document filed by Cushman, U.S. Department of Labour Judge William Dorsey concluded on Nov. 30, 2006 that Global Horizons Manpower, Inc. had "willfully and fraudulently represented it had contracts with Taft Farms" in Bakersfield, California to obtain temporary work visas for more than 200 workers between Aug. 1, 2003 and Apr. 30, 2004. Dorsey found that the company had neither a contract nor jobs for the 200 workers. Unable to find them paid employment, Global Horizons fired the workers "for poor performance, when in fact, they were terminated for lack of work," Dorsey wrote in his final decision. He ordered that Orian be barred for three years from bringing guest workers into the U.S. On Sep. 7, 2007, Philipda Modrakee, a U.S. Department of Labour investigator, filed a report on 156 Global Horizons workers employed at the Maui Pineapple Farm in Hawaii. Modrakee estimated that Global Horizons owed 459,256 dollars in fines for failure to pay wages at the minimum rate and on time, for illegally deducting money from the workers' paycheques for housing, and for failing to provide them with transportation to their work sites.
Tocantins - Minas Gerais, Brazil, Brazil
381 individuals were subjected to slave-like conditions on a farm in the municipality of Caseara. Their work on the farm included fertilizing, planting and harvesting crops between March and April 2009. The workers contracts were found to be fraudulent The workers were forced to work 11 hours a day in degrading conditions – the housing was overcrowded, and there were no sanitary facilities. The workers were also in contact with chemicals without appropriate protection.
Labrea, Amazonas, Brazil, Brazil
The rescue operation/investigation was led by the Ministry of Labor and the Federal Police. The manager was prosecuted (he has been under investigation since 2008). The chief prosecutor reported that a group was formed to investigate this particular job site, and that their actions in this region will be intensified. The prosecution was led by the MPT: "The MPT is an autonomous body which is independent from the legislative, executive and judiciary powers. Its priorities are to promote equality of opportunity; prevent discrimination; eradicate child, slave and degrading labour; guarantee an adequate labour environment; eliminate fraudulent labour practices; protect against irregularities in public administration; protect port and waterway workers and guarantee freedom of association and collective bargaining."
Bom Retiro, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brazil
Information collected via GOOGLE TRANSLATE: Three Bolivian traffickers were arrested for employing 12 workers in ‘conditions analogous to slavery. They had three apartments in the clandestine garment centre of Sao Paulo where the Bolivian workers were forced to live and work in 17 hours shifts. Some of the workers were related to the three traffickers – and some were less than 17 year of age. They received $0.50 per garment made, which earned them a monthly salary of $150. Some of the workers were recruited in Bolivia by members of their own family with the promise of housing and a better salary.
Para, Brazil, Brazil
180 workers were found working on two ranches owned by ‘Lima Araujo Agropecuaria’, in the state of Para, Brazil. This included several adolescents. The premises had previously been raided five times in total between 1998 and 2002. The workers were forced to live in mud huts, with no water and little sanitation. It is reported that sick workers were also denied medical treatment.
Lakeland, New York, United States
The state and federal investigators intervened. The NY Labor Religion Coalition wants to meet with Dan O’Hara (NY State Fair Director) over these allegations and they want the State Labor Department to get involved. The United States Department of Labor has confronted Karageorgis who said intends to pay them; however, he does not have the funds as of now. However, when he was arrested he had three wads of cash in his pocket. The case was dismissed because Karageorgis says he will pay the workers.
Maranhao, Brasil, Brazil
yes, Inocencio Oliveira of the opposition rightist Liberal Front Party was sentenced to pay $185,000 in fines for the 53 workers found in slavelike conditions during a raid on his farm last year (2002)." http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2003-11-08/news/0311080039_1_brazil-lawmaker-slavery
Carwood Grove, SHEFFIELD, S4 7SE, UK, United Kingdom
The two men who were convicted are Polish nationals. Their names are Lukasz (age 28) and Jerzy (age 40). They are both members of a European trafficking gang. The gang members convince Polish workers that there is better work for them in the UK and that their life will improve once they have these jobs. Upon arriving with their victims they ask for an up-front sum of money to pay for ‘housing’. The workers are taken to Halcar Tavern on Carwood Grove in Sheffield, UK where they are housed in despicable conditions. The men are transported to work and back for the first week. No pay is given to the men and then once the first week is over they begin to use violence (baseball bats) to coerce the men into working further. Initially the investigations led the officers to suspect 26 victims, but that number has since changed to be over 130 polish nationals that were trafficked over a period of two years. As well, there were two other men who were arrested and still await a trial. http://7thspace.com/headlines/359712/uk_human_trafficking_gang_sentenced_to_six_years.html "The court heard that Bala would collect victims from coach stations, rail stations and airports before taking their money and driving them to the derelict Halcar Tavern, in the Burngreave area of the city. Both and Bala and Adamowicz lived in the pub alongside the workers, who were told to sleep on mattresses on the floor in conditions described as "filthy" and "stinking" by investigators." http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Two-jailed-over-jobs-scam.6572850.jp "Two other members of the gang who ran the operation from Poland have been arrested. They were caught in Britain and have been extradited to their home country to stand trial." http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Two-jailed-over-jobs-scam.6572850.jp
Novosibirsk, Russia, Russian Federation
Reports of conscripts , who are drafted for two years, being exploited for the financial gain of their commanding officers are rife. Soldiers are put to work on building sites, in fields and even in factories while people higher up the chain of command turn a blind eye for a cut of the profits.
Apulia region southern Italy, Italy
113 Polish people were liberated from a labor camp in Italy. "They were forced to work beyond their powers for no money or symbolic payment. What is more, they lived in conditions which were below minimal, social standards."
Stockholm, Sweden, Sweden
Vasiliea Alamaru, born 1987-01-64 and Elvis Carp, born 1988-02-01, both citizens of Romania, “recruited” two children of 16 and 17 years old in Guesti, Romania. The were promised work in Sweden, but instead the minors were forced to carry out crimes such as stealing at big markets. A few hours after arriving in Sweden the two boys stole a car. During their two first months in Sweden they were arrested by the police in Södertälje, Mjölby, Linköping and Solna for stealing food and electronic equipment. When stealing in Solna one of the boys was abused and bettered in the head. The boys had no money or clothes and was moved between various locations. In order to travel out of Romania with the boys, the older men had persuaded both sets of parents to sign a power of attorney. The document outlined a visiting address that they were led to believe would be the boys new home in Sweden but instead turned out to be the address of a Finnish prison. One of the convicted men had sent home 10 000 kronor (approximately 1600 US dollars), to his dependents in Romania, through Western Union.
Hamilton, ON / Niagara, Canada
Most of the alleged victims come from a small town in Hungary called Papa, where it is alleged the accused have recruiters working for them. Once recruited the men are instructed to fly to Canada, claim refugee status and then apply for social assistance through Ontario Works, claimed Sgt. Kevin Serniuk, of the Hamilton-Niagara RCMP immigration and passport section. The men were then made to work on construction sites for free, never seeing a dollar of their social assistance money. They were isolated, fed scraps and lived in the basements of about five Hamilton homes belonging to their captors, one victim alleged. “They didn’t have the opportunity to communicate with a large population here in Hamilton, and you couple that with the fact that once they were in Canada they were never really left alone to mingle with the community . . . so their opportunity to communicate with somebody else was limited,” Serniuk alleged. There was one opportunity to communicate and that was at Ontario Works, were social service claimants must meet with staff on their own, he said. It was at Ontario Works that the first alleged victim told his story last December. This led to further alleged victims – some here for as long as a year, others a day, Serniuk said. at first 10 victims were identified, later 6 more and then yesterday 3 more totaling 19 but there may be more.
Malawi's southern district of Zomba, Lake Chilwa, Malawi
Malawian fishermen on Lake Chilwa
Stevenson St. between 6th and 7th streets, United States
Just noticed today. rows and rows of sewing machines locked inside a building with no windows and door is gated inside with gray metal doors on the outside. Mostly Chinese women are working there. And just around the corner is the Appellate Court and the Federal Building.
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, India
International Justice Mission and local law enforcement teamed up to perform a raid on the Powerhouse rice mill.
Adelaide, Australia
The Fair Work Ombudsman launched its investigation after recieving information from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Workplace inspectors visited the former Mitsibishi site twice in January, three times in February and once in May and interviewed the workers, China SNAN lawyers and Mitsibishi representatives.
Thailand, Viet Nam
Savvy Businessmen promising employment to young Cambodian men in construction and on plantations then sold to Thai and Malaysian Fishing Boat Captains
Akonta, Togo, Togo
Friends of the teen-aged male victim returned home with money after working in Nigeria for a year. So they put him in touch with the local waga or child trafficker of the area. He claimed life was too hard in Togo and urged the teen to go to Nigeria to make money, promising him the equivalent of $200 for a year's hard labor in the fields. He and his younger brother knew their parents would not agree, so they climbed on a truck bound for Nigeria with 8 other boys from their village. The trip took 8 days, waiting for passengers some days along the way. The boys could afford to eat nothing but ground manioc. Gradually the truck gathered over 100 people, mostly men and boys, all headed to Shaki in the Oyo State of Nigeria. In Shaki, the boys rotated hard labor in the fields around the town, the crops changing with the seasons. They constructed a simple wooden hut to live in and slept on straw on the floor with a platic tarp over it. They worked every day from before dawn until after dark. They were given quotas of work, and if they did not meet them, their wages were docked or they were beaten or both. Under the harsh conditions the victim's brother died. After that the victim escaped and found a way home. He now has the same financial difficulties as before. He counsels local teens not to seek work in Nigeria and some have listened.
Hudson CO, United States
Moises and Maria Rodriguez, were agricultural contractors who brought illegal immigrants to America and forced them to live as virtual prisoners as they worked off their debts. In this case there were 5 men who were contracted out to a local organic farm. The men were held in debt bondage - Rodriguez contended that each man owed him money for smuggling them into the U.S. - he put the price somewhere between $1,100 and $1,300. He charged them $100 a month for rent, $96 a month for a transportation fee, and money for bathroom cleaning - even though most of the toilets didn't work and the one that did was filthy. He charged them Social Security taxes but didn't turn that money over to the federal government. In addition they lived in fear of retribution should they flee and their housing was awful.
Atlanta, GA, United States
The following news story from the AJC provides the story, Atlanta News 4:10 p.m. Thursday, March Man arrested on sex trafficking charges By Kristi E. Swartz The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Federal agents have arrested a 25-year-old Louisiana man accused of taking minors from Atlanta to Birmingham for prostitution. More Atlanta/Fulton news » * Rainy Sunday on the way * Civil rights icon in hospital * Murder-suicide possible cause of deaths of former state Sen. Schaefer and husband * Four indicted on tuition reimbursement scheme * Atlanta/South Fulton * North Fulton Dmarcus Antwain Ward, 25, of Minden, La., was indicted on charges of sex trafficking of minors and transporting them for the purposes of prostitution, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Ward was indicted last week before a federal grand jury in Atlanta. Ward is accused of taking two minors to Birmingham and back to Atlanta – between Sept. 2009 and Nov. 7, 2009 – to have them engage in prostitution in both cities, according to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “We are committed to aggressively prosecuting anyone who exploits children through sex trafficking,” Yates said Thursday. The sex trafficking charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The transportation charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Each count also carries a fine of up to $250,000. The FBI has formed the Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force in efforts to stop human trafficking in the area.
Birger Jarls Torg 16, Riddarholmen, Stockholm (court house), Sweden
Two 25 yrs old men from Romania lured two 16 year old children from Gugesti, a village in Romania to come to Sweden where they would get good jobs. In order to legally get the boys out of the nation, the parents signed a consent form. The form requires an address where the children will be living. The traffickers provided a fraudulent address (in fact, the address is to a prison in Finland!). As soon as the boys arrived in Sweden they were forced to steal to provide money for the men. They stole a car, food and telephones during their first two months. At least of the boys was beaten.
Hawaii, United States
News story below: http://www.khon2.com/mostpopular/story/Owners-of-Aloun-Farm-Indicted-on-Human/F0B-S_6AlU6b95Op_qDHBg.cspx * o Developing Stories o Earthquake in Haiti o First Video o Hawaii News o Wake Up 2day o National News o World Report o Business News o Government News o Education News o Health News o Entertainment News o Action Line o Product Recalls o News Tips o Slideshows o Most Popular o Odd News Side Navigation * News o 2010 Winter Olympics NEW! o Developing Stories o Earthquake in Haiti o Hawaii News o Wake Up 2day o World Report * KHON2 Alerts o Mobile Local News o SMS Alerts o Weather Alerts o Email Alerts * Marketplace o Contests o Find a Job o Lifestyle Guides o Travel Deals * Features o Akamai Living o Be Green 2 o Elderhood Project o In Sickness & In Health o Lokahi Project * Only on KHON2 o Action Line o Dollars and Sense o Hawaii's Most Wanted o Hawaii's Kitchen o Love Your Pet o Navy News o Ron's Resolution NEW! o Supergeeks * Community o Community Calendar o KHON2 on Facebook o KHON2 on Twitter o Site Comments o User Content * Games o Jeopardy! o Mahjong o Fruity Flip Flop o Thunder Alley o Connect Four * Programming o FOX on Demand o CW o Wheel Of Fortune o Oprah o Dr. Phil o Regis and Kelly * Inside KHON2 o News Tips o Talent Profiles o Employment o Order a News Story o Advertise on KHON2 o Contact KHON2 o KHON2 on KSSK o FCC Compliance Owners of Aloun Farm Indicted on Human Trafficking Charges Last Update: 8/28/2009 12:19 pm Print Story | ShareThis Set Text Size Small Set Text Size Medium Set Text Size Large Set Text Size X-Large The Justice Department announced the indictment of three men charged in human trafficking conspiracy for exploiting Thai farm workers in Hawaii. Alec Souphone Sou and Mike Mankone Sou, owners of Aloun Farm in Hawaii, and Thai labor recruiter William Khoo were charged yesterday for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and visa fraud. The charges arise from the defendants' alleged scheme to coerce the labor and services of Thai nationals brought by the defendants to Hawaii to work under the federal agricultural guest worker program. Both Sou defendants are also charged with conspiring to commit document servitude. If convicted, Alec and Mike Sou each face maximum sentences of 15 years in prison and Khoo faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. According to the indictment, Alec Sou, Mike Sou and William Khoo conspired and devised a scheme to obtain the labor of 44 Thai nationals by enticing them to come to Aloun Farm in Hawaii with false promises of lucrative jobs, and then maintaining their labor at the farm through threats of serious economic harm. They arranged for the Thai workers to pay high recruitment fees, which were financed by debts secured with the workers' family property and homes. The indictment claims significant portions of these fees went to the defendants. After arrival at Aloun Farm, the Sou defendants confiscated the Thai nationals' passports and failed to honor the employment conracts. The Sou defendants maintained the Thai nationals' labor by threatening to send them back to Thailand, where they would face serious economic harms created by the debts. The indictment charges that the defendants engaged in a visa fraud conspiracy by making false representations in documents filed to obtain employment-based visas. The case of being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Fort smith, Arkansas, United States
The girl told police she got involved when another minor female, who said she was being prostituted by the trafficker, told her she could make up to $100 for each man she had sex with, a police report states. One teenage girl told investigators she was given gas money to drive Trotter and another underage girl to different locations where they were paid to have sex, while yet another teenage girl told police the trafficker took her to a residence one night where she was paid to have sex with five men. One teenage girl interviewed by police denied being prostituted by the trafficker, instead, her "job" was to hand out condoms to the men to "protect the girls." The trafficker admitted introducing the girls to men who paid them for sex, but denied taking any money the girls were paid for sexual acts when she was interviewed by investigators, a police report states. The girls were threatened when they tried to stop being prostituted, and the trafficker took 1/2 of all money earned.
St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
A 28-year-old St. Paul man, Byronte Juwann Reed (also known as Santana) pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Paul to transporting a girl from Minnesota to Illinois for the purpose of committing commercial sex acts. In his plea agreement, Reed admitted meeting the victim, who was younger than 18, in June of 2008 and recruiting her to commit sexual acts in exchange for money. From June of 2008 through July of 2008, the girl lived with Reed and others so she could participate in the commercial sex trade. In addition, Reed admitted transporting the girl from Minneapolis to Chicago, Illinois, in order for her to engage in commercial sex. Reed also admitted that physical force was used to ensure that the victim would participate in the sexual activity.
Idaho, United States
Rachele Bromley was arrested in May after posting a Craigslist advertisement for erotic massage involving her 16-year-old daughter. The advertisement did not openly solicit sexual favors, but ultimately resulted in a sexual-battery-of-a-minor conviction for a 40-year-old Nampa man and former Canyon County sheriff's deputy named Aaron Hundersmarck.
Mexico City, Mexico, Mexico
Mexico City's attorney gerneral, Miguel Angel Mancera reports that the victims ranged from 14 to 70 years old. Some were tortured, some victims also suffered sexual abuse, some had serious wounds, some even had fractures. All of the victims were suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition. Some were taken to a hospital. The captives, some of whom speak only indigenous languages and no Spanish, were locked in the building, which had bars on the windows and a fence outside, he said. They made handbags and clothespins and were not paid. Their only daily meal consisted of chicken legs and rotten vegetables, Mancera said. "The vast majority of the food we found was spoiled," he said. Video of the inside of the building showed filthy and crowded living conditions. The men and women worked 8 a.m. to midnight and were given only a half-hour food break. They were not allowed to go to the bathroom, and many soiled themselves, officials said.
Trang Province in southern Thailand, Thailand
In October, police in Thailand, as well as human rights activists in Mahachai, raided two of the brokers houses, rescuing 18 detained fishermen. Many other men were found locked up in cabins on a ship. These men were forced work on fishing boats for many months without pay–many of them were forbidden to even go onto shore. Some were even killed, or thrown overboard, if they questioned authority. Most of the victims were ethnic Mon, from eastern Burma. Many of the 51 men were from the Irrawaddy delta, Pegu, Mon State and Tenassirm Division. Authorities have arrested several of the traffickers, however many of them escaped. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17331
Berrien, Cass, Kent, Newaygo, Ottawa, Oceana, Muskegon and Van Buren, Michigan, United States
The U.S. Department of Labor levied fines totaling more than $36,000 against eight growers in Michigan for violations of migrant housing and child labor laws — including an allegation of a 6-year-old picking blueberries — and retailers have already discontinued doing business with some of the companies. Two blueberry growers, Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Co., South Haven, and Jawor Bros., Ravenna, were assessed penalties of $2,584 for child labor violations after the investigation allegedly found children under 12, including a six-year-old, picking in the fields.
Borken, Germany, Germany
Following more than a year-long investigation, the German Federal Police have busted an international ring involved in smuggling Sri Lankan Tamil people into European countries, with the connivance of certain French and British authorities. Police, during simultaneous raids on 37 places from early morning last Wednesday in Germany and elsewhere abroad, arrested 16 suspected German, French and British nationals of Sri Lankan origin, diplomatic sources said. According to these sources, a special team from the German Federal Police has been investigating the activity of a German-based Sri Lankan Tamils smuggling ring under cover since August 2008, on the orders of the public prosecutor in Osnabrück. Out of the 16 suspects arrested, four are from Germany and more arrests will follow, according to German Police. Among the arrested is the leader of the smuggling ring. He is a 44-year-old Tamil known among the diaspora as an ardent supporter of the LTTE,” sources added. The report also stated that the suspect was residing in a small town called Borken in the Federal State North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) where there is a large concentration of Sri Lankan Tamils domiciled in Germany. Warrants have been issued for the arrest of two more Tamils in Germany – from Rhine and Lingen.
KORAL, Pakistan, Pakistan
"Muhammad, 68, has a large family, yet no matter how hard they toil in the scorching sun and dirt of Pakistan's Punjab province, he cannot keep up with the medical bills, food costs and other expenses. "I start work before dawn and stop when the sun disappears... only to wait for another day to make bricks I pledged to make against the loan I took," said Muhammad, who initially borrowed 200,000 rupees (2,422 dollars) two years ago. He is among perhaps several million Pakistanis under bonded labour: poor families who accept cash advances from landlords, but in return are expected to work, often for no wages, from morning till nightfall. Human beings treated like commodities, the bonded labourer can then be sold on to another employer in what activists decry as modern-day slavery." To read entire article, go to: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h1KDhC0DgpukA33WQQPLaTJFaB4A
Marange Diamond Fields, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
The accused trafficker is the Security Defense Forces of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe National Army has assumed control of the controversial Chiadzwa diamond fields in Manicaland. Senior army officers are said to be engaged in the illegal mining of diamonds in the area. Witnesses say the soldiers regularly conscript both children and adults as forced labour to mine diamonds illegally in the controversial Marange diamond fields. Many of those forced to work on the diamonds fields have reported being beaten up and tortured by the soldiers.
Rubavu District, Western Province, Rwanda, Rwanda
A 36 year old female resident of a suburb of Kigali was arrested while trying to smuggle five children into Uganda without travel documents. She was trying to take them into Uganda through the DR Congo. She was a member of the same church as the children, and met them there. The trafficker will be prosecuted in court.
Northern Sudan, Sudan
Arab-Dinka Peace Committees assisted by an Organization called CSI intervened on their behalf. They were transported by truck to Southern Sudan by the Government of Sudan's Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC). They were delivered to registration centers at Gok Machar and Warawar. Futher information: http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=1462
Ramotswa, Botswana
The Sunday Standard turned up information that the company Zheng Ming, which operated a sweatshop in Ramotswa, was part of an international trade in modern day slavery. Industrial Court Judge, Elijah Legwaila, would later rule that “it appears that Chinese nationals pay large sums of money to recruitment agencies who send them abroad with all sorts of promises...by the time such people land at any destination they have neither the money nor the bargaining power to protect their rights."
Kapolei, HI 96707, United States
The owners of one of the state's largest fruit and vegetable farms were indicted late Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and visa fraud. Alec and Mike Sou of Aloun Farms Hawaii and a thai labor recruiter were charged with human trafficking conspiracy. Aloun Farms Hawaii is the state's second-largest fruit and vegetable farm, employing an estimated 200 people. But the Justice Department says some of the company's labor practices are illegal. The Sou brothers and Thai labor recruiter William Khoo are accused of devising a scheme to hire 44 Thai nationals by enticing them to come to Hawaii with false promises of lucrative jobs. According to the indictment, they maintained their labor through threats of serious economic harm. Other workers at the farm today shared details they were aware of. "This happened about a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week and a half, had couple of immigrant cards that just expired," said Donovan Tangonan, a delivery driver for the company. "Instead of letting them get to renew them - they just detained them right there." According to the indictment, the trio organized for the Thai workers to pay high recruitment fees which were financed by debts secured with the workers' family properties and homes. The indictment also charges the defendants engaged in visa fraud conspiracy and that the Sous confiscated passports and failed to honor employment contracts. Both brothers declined to comment. Workers say they aren't aware of any other problems. "Pretty much everybody here is all legal, other than that we just had a little mishap with those two people," said Tangonan. Aloun Farms annual gross sales are estimated at $8 million. If convicted, Alec and Mike Sou each face maximum sentences of 15 years in prison and Khoo faces a maximum of 10 years. This case is being investigated by the F-B-I and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement. http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/Aloun-Farm-Owners-Face-Human-Trafficking/ArIJ-vhsZ0K_KF5ohngGeQ.cspx
Libreville, Gabon, Gabon
A 15 year old girl's poor mother in Benin gave her to an aunt, but the aunt gave her to a slavemaster who took her to Libreville, Gabon and forced her to sell ice water on the streets. She was not allowed to keep any of the proceeds, and if she failed to sell enough, she was beaten with an electric cable.
Abeokuta, Nigeria, Nigeria
A five year old boy from Benin was seized as he walked home from school in his home town near the Nigerian border. He was blindfolded and shoved into a waiting car, then taken by various motorbikes and busses. Eventually he joined other children aged 5 to 15 at Abeokuta, forced to dig up granite every day for his master. Working 12 to 16 hours a day, he was paid the equivalent of 38 cents a week. All the children were malnourished. In all there were seven child slave camps discovered in the Nigerian states of Ogun, Oyo, and Osun. More information: http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Benin.htm
Abeokuta, Nigeria, Nigeria
A group of 74 Beninese children ranging from 4 to 17 years old were trafficked to Nigeria and worked in the rock quarries at Abeokuta. For more information: http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Benin.htm
Abeokuta, Nigeria, Nigeria
A group of 116 Beninese children were trafficed from Benin and forced to work in the rock quarries at Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Religh, North Carolina, United States
7 farms and 17 farmers were charged http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/us-department-of-labor-uncovers,921927.shtml
Elmvale, ON, Canada
A Taiwanese woman, known in Canada by three different names, worked for a Filipino recruitment agency. She met the 11 men when they arrived in Toronto. She told them the employer had backed out of the deal (a lie) and they would have to relocate to a different job site. Together with a man pretending to be a lawyer, she confiscated their passports and visas, and they delivered the men to a business man in an abandoned farmhouse north of Toronto. The twice bankrupt "lawyer" denies he received money from the business man for delivering the 11 workers. Both the "lawyer" and the woman had previous arrest warrants in the Philippines for illegal recruitment and fraud. The man seems to have been involved in human trafficking before. A week after the Elmvale release, the business man who kept the 11 men enrolled the "lawyer" to recruit 191 workers for him, but this time the business man did not receive the legal visas (LMO's) The workers, threatened with deportation, by the man who "bought" them. Http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/Article/488074 http://canadaimmigration.typepad.com/canada_immigration/2008/09/08/index.html
West Africa, Ghana, Ghana
as a result of the investagation 54 child slaves, 7 different nationalities, ages varied from 11- 16 and worked 12 hour days with no pay or education.
Johnston County, NC, United States
A recruiter from Million Express Manpower, a former labor contracting company out of Mount Olive, NC, lured 30 Thai men to work in Johnston County, North Carolina with a promise of earning $16,000 a year for 3 years. The recruiter charged a fee of $11,000 for each man to "secure" their job abroad. Once they arrived, the labor contractor confiscated their passports and visas. "After about a week living in a motel in Benson, they were moved to a small storage building in Dunn, behind the home of Seo Homsombath, a native of Laos who is president of Million Express." "Homsombath at first contained the men by telling them that, without passports, police would arrest them if they left the property. Later, he showed them a gun, according to both Asanok and the lawsuit. A relative or employee was always at the house to guard them, Asanok said."(Asanok is one of the Thai workers who sued Million Express) "Homsombath delivered food, but it often wasn't enough for all 30 men, Asanok said. They had no kitchen, so they cooked outside on a portable gas burner. By mid-October the farm work ran out, and Homsombath took the workers to New Orleans, the lawsuit says. They spent a few weeks in a condemned hotel, badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, without electricity or clean water. During the day, the lawsuit says, they demolished parts of the hotel they lived in. Asanok said he spent his days tearing down walls and hauling piles of destroyed carpet out of the hotel." "The Thai workers, including Asanok, say they were never paid for their work in New Orleans. Some were so broke, the suit says, that they trapped and ate pigeons." "Thai Workers Sue North Carolina Contractor" - http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/601 "Workers: Promise became Prison" - http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/551923.html "Low Pay and Broken Promises Greet Guest Workers" - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/us/28labor.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Low%20Pay%20and%20Broken%20Promises%20Greet%20Guest%20Workers%20&st=cse This case is also mentioned in Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter's book, "The Slave Next Door"
Ngombe 'B' Zone Makindye Ssabagabo subcounty Kampala, Uganda, Uganda
From the Story in the Monitor: "Police bust human trafficking racket Andrew Bagala Kampala Six Sri Lankan nationals were last week rescued from the hands of suspected human traffickers, who were purpoting to get them jobs. Police sources, who preferred anonymity because they aren’t authorised to talk to the press on behalf of the Force, identified the six as Mr Nadarasa Jegatheeswaran, Mr Muras Abdul Mohamed, Mr Ratnam Jeevtharan Velupillal, Mr Kiritharan Suntharalingam, Mr Rajathuran Makesvaran and Mr Sebastian Christopher. They were rescued from an unfinished building in Ngombe ‘B’ Zone, Makindye Ssabagabo Sub-county. “They have been living in a terrible situation because they didn’t even have beds, they were sleeping on mats,” a CID source said yesterday. The two suspected traffickers, who are on the run, are believed to be of Asian origin. But investigations reveal that they were collaborating with some Ugandans to execute their plans. This is the fourth time in two years the Police have rescued victims of Asian origin from traffickers in the country."
Houston Texas, United States
Unknown at this time as the ranch where the slavery occurred has not been located.
Gantsi, Botswana
The little I know, I got from this article: http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=1&aid=1&dir=2007/June/Tuesday12 I really just wanted to get this town put on the map, as the article discusses it as an area adjacent to farms where there is most likely to be occurrence of child labour, that is linked to child trafficking in Botswana.
Serowe, Botswana, Botswana
The little I know, I got from this article: http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=1&aid=1&dir=2007/June/Tuesday12 I really just wanted to get this town put on the map, as the article discusses it as an area adjacent to farms where there is most likely to be occurrence of child labour, that is linked to child trafficking in Botswana.
Hollywood, California, United States
Benny and Nissan Pirian (owners of Celebrity Carwash, Five Star Carwash and Hollywood Carwash) and Manuel Rayes (owner of Vermont Hand wash) are up against a maximum of 80 years in prison, over $136,000 in fines each and 176 counts of criminal misconduct, witness intimidation, grand theft, brandishing a deadly weapon (used bat and machete after workers joined union), failure to pay wages (they often paid less than half of minimum wage), hiring minors, operating without workers' compensation insurance, denying workers meal and rest breaks, giving the works recycled water and failure to comply with wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission. Many workers also suffered numerous cuts and burns from the dangerous machinery and chemicals used in the carwashes.
Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom
Complaints by seven workers in Angus led to the investigation. In Angus and elsewhere, investigators found more than 15 breaches of regulation in such as areas as transportation, accommodation and minimum wage requirements against Polish workers who were employed picking daffodils. After this investigation, Timberland Recruitment Ltd had their license revoked by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), a UK agency which "regulates those who supply labour or use workers to provide services in agriculture, forestry, horticulture, shellfish gathering and food processing and packaging." (http://www.gla.gov.uk/index.asp?id=42) Among other things, the GLA found a letter to the workers stating that they may not leave before the end of the contract without paying a fine to the company, and including threats to their families at home should they not pay, that workers had had deductions from their wages for transportation, housing, and the use of the company's water-proof clothing in bad weather, that workers were regularly receiving below minimum wage, and that they lived in sub-standard, cramped conditions which exhibited fire and health hazards.
East Ridge, Tennessee, United States
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
Kete Krachi Ghana, Ghana
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.
Rome, Italy, Italy
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."
Baghdad, Iraq, Iraq
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.
Xishaungbanna, Yunnan province, China, Thailand
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.
Tafuna, American Samoa, American Samoa
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.
New York City, New York, United States
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.
willemstad, curacao, Curaçao
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
Athens, Greece, Greece
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.
Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
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.
Algiers, Louisiana, United States
The workers were trafficked by the Company Audubon Pointe, a New Orleans apartment complex affected by Katrina. Audubon Pointe housed the non documented workers in their unfinished apartments while they renovated other apartments. The workers were frequently unpaid or paid very late. When the workers complained, management threatened to evict them and call the police. These threats forced the workers to continue work without pay.
Lacey, Washington, United States
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.
Castlewood, Colorado, United States
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."
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
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.
Hawaii, United States
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.
Litchfield, New Hampshire, United States
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.
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
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.
Waipahu, Hawaii, United States
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.
Costa del Este, Paraguay, Paraguay
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.
Brazil, Brazil
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.
Amman, Jordan, Jordan
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.
orem, utah, United States
Jose Hernan Moreno-Sevilla and Alejandro M. Meza prosecutors say Jose Hernan Moreno-Sevilla and Alejandro M. Meza were paid to help a Peruvian man and others obtain illegal visas. The Peruvian man and at least two others were "loaded into a rented truck" in Arizona and brought to Orem to work for Hernan's construction company, court papers show. Each worker reportedly paid more than $10,000 for the move. While living with Hernan, each man worked up to 14 hours daily, over a six day week, earning just $9,500 annually. According to court papers Hernan kept all but $1,000 in wages and told the men they owed him the funds to cover costs related to their "smuggling, housing and transporting." Sources: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705301763/Utah-to-crack-down-on-human-trafficking.html http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2374359
jieshou, China
Chinese law enforcement cracked down on the practice and promised more investigation into forced labor throughout the country.
new delhi, india, India
Sub contractors of the large multinational corporation GAP were discovered forcing children as young as 10 years old to work 16 hour days, making garments for the GAP Christmas sale. Children were rounded up in villages when the traffickers promised parents payment that would allow them to quit work in the fields if they would sell their sons to go to the city to work, where they would "receive educations and learn to become men." Children that cried or showed any sign of slowing down in their work were beaten with rubber pipes and had oily rags shoved in their mouths.
Macau, China, China
A Chinese woman coerced three of her friends to come to Macau with her from mainland China, putting them in a slave-labor position and cheating them out of $9,000 in the process.
Bliss Corner, Massachusetts, United States
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.
Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States
There was a 3:00 am raid of the Signal International Shipyard worker's trailers by the Signal Security Guards telling everyone they would be deported. A brave worker made a frantic phone call to the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice because of the incident. Some workers were held hostage in the TV room of the shipyard while all the workers struggled with the idea of suicide rather than returning in debt to their families and facing Indian Aid Debt.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Not Sure.
Immokalee, FL, United States
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.
Valle de santiago-Jaral del Progreso, Valle de Santiago, Guanajato, Mexico, Mexico
KBL Group International recruited foreigners of Chinese origin to work in a factory to make sweaters with the promise of high pay and hourly rates. In truth, KBL would charge workers for travel expenses, rent and food causing each to be in debt. Workers has to work 14 hours a day, six days a week without sick days or holidays. They were not allowed to marry or females to get pregnant. The only day off were Sundays, where they were allowed short alloted time out of the factory with other workers and escorted for surveillance. All identification and documents were taken from their possession and were threatened with deportation. They were also punished with high fines for tardiness by the minute and for not buying the food KBL provided. KBL also had Mexican employees were were not allowed to communicate with the Chinese workers.
Dubai, UAE, United Arab Emirates
The UAE's huge construction boom of recent years has been fuelled largely by south Asian migrant construction workers, who work in the grimmest of circumstances. Human Rights Watch estimated in 2006 that at least half a million migrants are paid a little over £100 a month for their work in a country where the average per capita monthly income is close to £1,300. There is no indication that their circumstances have improved since. Migrants can end up working 12 hours a day or longer, six days a week, in fierce heat. In 2005, the Indian Consulate registered 971 deaths of its own nationals, at which point it was told to stop counting. Suicide among the men is rife, with 100 or more of them dying by their own hands in 2007. Such conditions come as a grim surprise for newcomers lured by agencies with promises of lavish pay, only to find their passports confiscated, wages slashed and huge debts owed. And they form a sharp contrast to the lives of the wealthy western ex-pats in finance, IT and tourism – 50,000 to 150,000 of them, on vast tax-free salaries. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sacked-by-text-the-indian-workers-who-built-dubai-1831651.html
Montana, United States
Leo Salazar Express Forestry, Inc., Rick Thomas and Sandy Thomas Guest Worker H-2B Visa A delegation of seven individuals, including an Express Forestry manager, confronted the wife and sister of Hugo Martin Recinos, lead plaintiff in the case, seeking contact information for him. They attempted to bribe his wife, Maria, by offering more than $6,600 in return for his withdrawal from the case.
Taipei City, Taiwan, Province of China
A woman surnamed Kuo was the head of a labor brokerage company and Tsai sold her foreign women for NT$300,000 each. Kuo's company then "seized its victims' passports and forced them to sign contracts selling themselves to the company." This company is part of a criminal ring lead by a Chinese-Vietnamese in Ho Chih Min City.
Hawaii, United States
U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway on June 22 also ordered the South Korean businessman to pay $1.8 million in restitution to about 300 Vietnamese and Chinese nationals who were lured to the U.S. archipelago in the South Pacific to earn what they thought would be a steady stream of dollars. But instead of stitching clothing for U.S. manufacturers and retailers in humane conditions at the factory, the workers endured abuse, threats, lack of food and pay, confinement, sexual advances and unsanitary and stifling-hot dorms. The Vietnamese workers paid up to $8,000 per person to Vietnamese government labor export offices for the opportunity and documents to work at Lee's factory, which operated from 1998 to 2001. Yesterday, the Lynnwood resident said he is concerned about 90 workers who suffered abuse at the garment factory but who were later sent back to Vietnam. Many, he said, have lost their homes to loan sharks who lent them money at high interest rates to go abroad. The loan sharks, he added, also are harassing the repatriated workers for money owed. "I was thinking more about the victims in Vietnam," he said. "I knew (Lee) was going to jail. He deserved to go to jail. The length of time didn't concern me that much."
Kpalime, Togo, Togo
A local recruiter called a "navi" (meaning "aunt" or "big sister" in the Kotokoli language) came to see the victim, she was receptive. Her father had died and her mother and stepfather had left her and her sister on their own. The victim knew a Muslim girl must have a dowry in or to marry and knew that many girls went to Nigeria to make money. The recruiter offered just what she wanted--a chance to travel to Nigeria with her to make money to save up for her dowry. The recruiter even offered to pay for the trip. She told no one, but one day got into the recruiter's truck with 50 other Kotokoli girls on their way to Nigeria. The trip took three days. Finally they arrived in Shaki, in the north of Oyo State. They were told to line up so that their future employers could select their workers. A Nigerian woman selected the victim and she was taken to live and work with other girls. A piece of cloth on a mud floor was her only bed. The girls did housework and cooked dishes which they sold on the street. After a time the employer began prostituting them at night as well as working them all day. She was only 11 years old when she was first forced into prostitution. Sometimes they had to go to work so immediately that there was no time for them even to eat. After 2 years the victim discovered she was pregnant. She told the man she thought might be the father, and he paid for her to abort the child by taking herbs. After the abortion, she escaped from that house and looked for work elsewhere. She escaped the prostitution but still had no decent place to sleep and worked all day with no pay. Then her first employer found out where she was and began to threaten her. She'd been at the second place for 8 months when she escaped from there, too. She found another woman who spoke her language, and the woman arranged for a man to drive her back to Togo. The trip took five days. She had virtually no money, so the driver paid for her food along the way. AT the Benin-Togo border she was forced to walk across in order to avoid the authorities, and she was attacked and beaten by thieves hoping she might have something worth taking. She didn't. When she arrived home, the driver told her family they owed him the equivalent of $60. The family told him they would try to save it up and pay him. They are still working on it.
Beijing, China, China
Bin, along with other prisoners, was forced to make a host of goods sold in the west as a slave laborer in Chinese prisons. These included quite a few popular Christmas items such as lights and holiday clothing. Bin was forced to make lights. He noted that many of the prisoners who were not sentenced to death ended up at labor camps like this having been raped and beaten at other camps/prisons. Those individuals came to the labor camp with a host of health issues including blood-related and sexually-transmitted diseases. From his own words: "Every day, prisoners were supposed to tie copper wires tightly around a plastic tank in a fixed shape and then connect all the bulbs together. The prisoners' hands were usually bleeding. Needless to say, their diseased skin and sexually-transmitted diseases were left on the light bulbs." Note: All of the above information is a synopsis of the passages related to this slave in the book "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. Book published 2008 by Cornell University Press.
Beijing, China, China
Jennifer was interned at a women's prison in China for a long period of time. Like many in the laojing system, she was forced to work horrendous hours making a number of products. These ranged from sweaters to a very detailed description of work related to a stuffed rabbit. Some of the other items were disposable syringes, toys, and chopsticks. The women also did miscellaneous labor tasks such as ditch digging and stores transport and storage. Especially with wares like the rabbit, the women would work from 5AM to 2 or 3 AM the next morning. Assembling and stitching a single stuffed rabbit could take nearly 10 hours to complete. If the women fell behind, there were consequences. Note: All of the above information is a synopsis of the passages related to this slave in the book "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. Book published 2008 by Cornell University Press.
Irbid, Jordan, Jordan
The Al Shahaed Apparel and Textile company, which supplies garments for Walmart and Kohls, trafficked 115 workers from Bangladesh to work in its factory. The workers were recruited through a contractor in Bangladesh, called Golden View International. In order to pay for their expensive three year contracts of 90,000 to 200,000 taka, or $1,327 to $2,950, the workers had to borrow money where the interest rate is 5% per month. The workers were promised to earn at least $120 a month and that food, lodging, and health care would be free, none of which turned out to be true. Upon arrival their passports were confiscated. If the workers left the factory without their proper identification, they ran the risk of being caught by the police and deported. The workers worked between 38-72 hours per week, where paid 2 cents per hour. The minimum shift was `15 hours with sometimes only 3 hours between shifts. The factory owner hired gang members to terrorize the workers by beating them if they were not concentrating on their work. All 115 Bangladeshi guest workers were housed in one small four room building, located in an isolated area, about five miles from the Al Hassan Industrial Estate. There was no heating and water was available only every third day. 115 men had to share only 6 toilets. The food was insufficient, the portions were poor, and often made the workers sick. There was no public transportation and the workers would have to walk five miles to make a phone call home to their families in Bangladesh.
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
While living in Juventino, Mexico, Olivia Zepeda recruited four workers to work for her three sons’ roofing business, Golden Roofing LLC. The workers signed four-year work contracts with the brothers. They took a bus to a border town in July 2006, and a smuggler took them across the border. In Austin, Texas, the victims met up with two of the brothers (Juan and Jenaro Gutierrez) who drove them to St. Louis. The smuggler was allegedly paid $4,000 per worker. After arriving in St. Louis, the victims were abused, threatened, and their activities were restricted. Their smuggling debt kept increasing every time they asked about it.
Palatka, FL, United States
Ron Evans recruited workers from homeless shelters in New Orleans, Tampa, and Miami, among other cities, promising them good jobs and housing. The victims then came to Evans’ labor camps in Palatka, FL and Newton Grove, NC. Evans then deducted money for rent, food, crack cocaine, and alcohol from the workers’ pay. In Palatka, the camp was surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. Ron Evans worked for the grower Frank Johns, who in 2004 served as Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (a lobbying organization within the Florida agricultural industry).
Hudson, CO, United States
A federal judge in Denver recently awarded the men $7.8 million in what immigration experts described as the largest judgment of its kind in the country. That ruling came after the contractors offered no defense to charges that they deducted smuggling fees, rent and cleaning charges from the workers' paychecks and used the threat of violence to make sure the men complied. A GRAND-JURY INDICTMENT In the fall of 2004, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began surveillance on the camp. They documented dozens of men living there in cramped, filthy conditions. But they also saw the men coming and going in their own cars, and talking on telephones. A grand jury indicted Moises and Maria Rodriguez and their son, Javier Rodriguez, on charges of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. Federal authorities seized the property and more than $128,000 in cash. When they searched the two mobile homes near the barracks, they found two pistols and ammunition. In 2006, Moises and Maria Rodriguez each served nearly a year in jail and were then deported to Mexico. Javier Rodriguez - an American citizen - also pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to home detention. Family members who answered the door at his apartment in Brighton last week said he did not want to be interviewed for this story. While the workers told investigators they were being mistreated and were being held against their will - at least psychologically - federal prosecutors did not pursue charges of involuntary servitude against the Rodriguezes. The reason was simple: The surveillance tapes showed the workers coming and going, and it would have been difficult to convince a jury that they couldn't have escaped. "We have a higher burden of proof in the criminal matter than in the civil matter, and we would have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt," said Jeffrey Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver.
Beijing, China, China
Ying was immprisoned in China for her involvement with the Falun Gong organization, currently recognized as a terrorist/subversive group in the country. Ying was incarcerated at both the Tuanhe Prisoner Dispatch Center where she was forced to labor packaging "large quantities of chopsticks" and cosmetics. She was then transferred to the Xin'an Female Labor Camp where she wass forced to make a number of different products ranging from sweaters to stuffed animals to slippers. Inmates were forced to work, Ying said, from early morning until midnight or later. Ying was forced to room with more than a dozen people in a cell about twelve sq. meters in size and with only 8 bunks. They were forced to eat, drink, sleep and use the toilet in the room. She also noted that as a form of punishment, female prisoners were often forced outside in the winter naked until they lost consciousness from the cold. All of the above information is from "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Dr. Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd - Cornell University Press - 2008.
Palmetto, Georgia, United States
In August 2004, the three owners were arrested for conspiracy, fraud, harboring aliens, and other crimes. The three were not originally indicted with the August 2004 charges because a violation in the trafficking act came into play. In November 2005 DuPreez pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy and harboring aliens and faced a maximum of fifteen years at the time of sentencing in March 2006, but has since become a fugitive. Also Johannes DuPreez was ordered to pay $363,579.40 restitution to the IRS and an additional $50,000 fine. Franciszka DuPreez was ordered to pay $182,036 to the IRS. Another defendant was sentenced to eight months home confinement and fined $2,000.
Brentwood, New York, United States
Mariluz Zavala pleaded guilty (November 5, 2004)of forced labor; conspiring to recruit, harbor, transport, house undocumented workers; engaging in extortionate credit transactions and transferring false alien registration cards of 69 Peruvians. Zavala and Jose Ibanez (co-defendent/husband) sheltered these immigrants into one house with squalid & cramped living conditions, 13 of who were minors, and used the earned money of the workers to pay for the mortgage of their three houses. They forced the victims to pay $6,000 to $13,000 for their smuggling fees.
Coram, New York, United States
Mariluz Zavala pleaded guilty (November 5, 2004)of forced labor; conspiring to recruit, harbor, transport, house undocumented workers; engaging in extortionate credit transactions and transferring false alien registration cards of 69 Peruvians. Zavala and Jose Ibanez (co-defendent/husband) sheltered these immigrants into one house with squalid & cramped living conditions, 13 of who were minors, and used the earned money of the workers to pay for the mortgage of their three houses. They forced the victims to pay $6,000 to $13,000 for their smuggling fees.
North Amityville, New York, United States
Mariluz Zavala pleaded guilty (November 5, 2004)of forced labor; conspiring to recruit, harbor, transport, house undocumented workers; engaging in extortionate credit transactions and transferring false alien registration cards of 69 Peruvians. Zavala and Jose Ibanez (co-defendent/husband) sheltered these immigrants into one house with squalid & cramped living conditions, 13 of who were minors, and used the earned money of the workers to pay for the mortgage of their three houses. They forced the victims to pay $6,000 to $13,000 for their smuggling fees.
Oahu, HI, United States
Lee, the owner of the Daewoosa garment factory, was convicted on February 21, 2003 of numerous federal criminal violations, including involuntary servitude, extortion and money laundering. Lee was charged in 2001, in the U.S. District Court in Hawaii, with illegally confining and using as forced labor over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese garment workers.
Guangdong Province, China, China
Sam Lu, a former graduate student at Georgia State University, worked as a tax auditor in China. Because he handed in a letter expressing support for the Falun Gong organization, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Guangdong Province in China. Sam was forced to make toys and other products for 15 hours per day. Sam and other prisoners lived in a 300x300 cell where they also made the goods, ate and went to the restroom. He said that inmates were beaten with a wire whip if they could not keep up with expected production levels. All of the above information is from "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Dr. Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd - Cornell University Press - 2008.
Los Angeles, United States
The victim was able to convince her employer/captor to allow her to go to church. On her way she asked the man walking next to her to use his phone and called the police. The FBI was already investigating the shop and were able to convince the victim to cooperate with them in prosecuting the trafficker. With her testimony and evidence of involuntary labor witnessed around the shop, such as small storage room the victim and her co-worker were forced to sleep in, the trafficker received six months of house arrest.
lake placid, florida, United States
There are three main traffickers. Juan Ramos (age 34) and Ramiro Ramos (age 42) (brothers) and Jose Ramos (age 45), their cousin. They ran a company named R&A Harvesting, Inc. that brought undocumented workers from Arizona to Florida to work in the fields picking oranges. Many of the workers were from Mexico and Central America. They employed up to 700 workers and told them that they had to pay off their transportation debt which was $1,000. The Ramos brothers were known among the workers as "El Diablo" (the Devil) and "El Nino" (tropical storm). They told the workers that ifany of them tried to escape, they would look for, find, kick beat and kill them. They were housed in sub-standard barracks and often times six workers lived in one room. $30 was deducted weekly for their lodging. The workers were not paid minimum wage, rather they received tokens for each orange bin they filled. They were also encouraged to shop at a grocery store that was more expensive than the rest, which was conveniently owned by Ramiro Ramos' wife. They worked a minimum of ten hours a day and never had a day off. Only 16 of their 680 workers had valid Social Security numbers and their I-9 forms were forged. This event is also linked to a murder that was committed on April 20th 1997. The Highlands County, Florida, Sheriff's Office received a 911 call saying that something strange had happened out in the migrant-worker ghetto. When the police got there they found a man laying face down in a pool of blood, after being shot in the back of the head execution style. The person who called 911 identified a vehicle and the police found the same vehicle at the Ramos's house. After searching the car they found a .45 caliber bullet and brought in the Ramos brothers and their cousin in for questioning. They were released. Several weeks later they found out from several migrant workers that the Ramos brothers use violence to make sure none of the workers run away without paying off their debt. The man who had been shot was a van driver that was fleeing with some workers. The Ramos brothers killed him. The police got a search warrant and searched the Ramos' house and found a Savage 7-millimeter rifle, a Marlin .22 rifle, an AK-47, a semiautomatic rifle, a Browning 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol and a Remington 700 7-millimeter Magnum rifle. Both brothers were then arrested but released 5 days later on 20,000 bail. Weapon charges were never brought and labor charges were dropped. This just goes to show the extensive history of oppression and violence that the Ramos family placed upon migrant workers and all those that helped the workers.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
John Pickle Company (owned by John Pickle Jr,), an Oklahoma-based oil industry parts manufacturer, recruited 52 Indian workers to work in the Tulsa factory, but were imprisoned, exploited, and abused. The skilled workers (high-tech welders, fitters, electricians, engineers, and cooks) were recruited through a travel agency located in Mumbai called AL Samit International, to which they paid a very expensive recruitment fee. The owner of the company John Pickle Jr. even flew to India to meet with and interview the workers. The foreign workers were promised that they would work under similar conditions as Americans, that they would receive free room and board, medical expenses and insurance paid, and that if their performance was satisfactory they would be hired permanently, they would obtain their green cards and they would be able to bring their families over from India. They traveled to the United States under the B1/B2 visa for “training,” with open dates. Upon arrival the men’s identification and immigration documents were confiscated by Mrs. Pickle. The workers lived in factory dormitories and were subjected to fraud and deceit, inadequate pay, sub-standard living conditions, false imprisonment, lockdowns with armed guard, phone tapping, food rationing, restrictions on freedom to worship, degrading job assignments, ethnic slurs, intimidation, and non-payment of wages earned. The victims were paid between $1.00 and $3.17 per hour while the other workers were paid $14.00 for the same work. The forced labor included janitorial work, replacing septic tanks, performing kitchen duties, and yard work for JPC officers. The company was charged due to the violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, and 42 U.S.C. Section 81, because the treatment was based on national origin of the foreign workers. In 2006 the company was accused by federal attorneys of hiding assets in avoidance of paying the $1.3 million verdict to the victims.
Fancher, NY, United States
Maria Garcia, a farm labor contractor, conspired with five others (Jose J. Garcia, Jose I. Garcia, Elias Botello, Rogelio Espinoza, and Sylvia Munoz Rubio) to recruit undocumented Mexican males from Arizona to move to New York to work in labor camps. Garcia used guards to monitor the workers’ action, and physically and verbally threatened victims with threats of arrest and deportation. The camps, located in Orleans and Genesee counties in Western New York, were crowded and unsanitary. Garcia deducted heavily from the victims’ earnings, leaving them with essentially nothing. They were told they had to say until they had paid off charges for transportation, food, housing, and other miscellaneous costs.
Holt, California, United States
There was an enforcement in July, 2002. The case was settled by Victoria Island Farm, LLP and JB Farm Labor Contractor. Victoria Island Farm, LLP paid $546,969 and JB Labor Contractor paid $100,000. This settlement amount included money for restitution, interest, attorney's fees and costs and penalties. The suit charged JB and Victoria Island with numerous labor law violations. According to the suit, workers were not told the terms of their employment and are intimidated by armed guards on the property. Most of the 500 workers in the camps were unauthorized migrants from Mexico who harvest asparagus from mid-February to late May. One worker reported earning $120 weekly, and having $55 weekly deducted for living in the camp and $10 daily for meals. Victoria Island Farm also agreed to spend another 260,000 to clean up the camps and make conditions more livable.
Immokalee, Florida, United States
From the Palm Beach Post: "Jose Antonio Martinez and Francisco Martinez got sick of working 10 hours to make $15 after being promised $150 per day. Almost all their money in early 1999 went to their labor contractors for rent, food and their $750 smuggling fees. After picking tomatoes all day, they weren't allowed to leave the roach-infested trailer they shared with 22 other workers west of Immokalee. "You were locked up... you couldn't stick your head out," Francisco said. The floor had holes through which they saw snakes, and their mattresses were on the floor. The cousins escaped and eventually reported the contractors to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), which contacted the U.S. Department of Justice."
Shanghai, China, China
Of sorts. The victim, Shenqi, was incarcerated first at the Shanghai Municipal Prison for political crimes in 1983. By 1994, he was working at the 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion Shanghai Reeducation-through-Labor (Laojiao) Camp in Dafeng County, Jiangsu Province. In cooperation with a state-run knitting mill, he was forced along with other inmates to manufacture clothing for as long as 20 hours per day. Eventually, Shengqi moved to a different labor camp in which he made Christmas lights for export from the Haiman Lamp Company. Direct quote from Shenqi's personal testimony: "On laojiao farms, inmates were often beaten and cursed. The government cadres cuffed and kicked them at will. Those laojiao inmates trusted to supervise other inmates beat and cursed them even more." All of the above information is from "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Dr. Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd - Cornell University Press - 2008.
Fort Pierce, FL, United States
Michael Allen Lee, an African-American labor contractor, was the leader of the "Lee Operation." Lee and his conspirators, William Oscar Smith, and Billy C. Rankin recruited homeless and drug dependent African-American men from around Fort Pierce, Florida, as agricultural farm workers. In exchange for picking oranges, the workers were given loans extended by Lee, for rent, food, cigarettes, and crack cocaine. The workers were paid only about thirty-five to fifty dollars a week, thirty of which went to Lee for their rented space on his floor. After incurring debts that they were unable to repay, the workers became indebted to Lee. Along with their indebtedness, Lee used force and the threat of force to keep the men working for him against their will.
El Monte, California, United States
From the Los Angeles Times: "Most of them said they came from impoverished farming families and had headed to the metropolis of Bangkok to find sewing jobs. There, they met labor contractors who promised them good jobs in America and monthly pay of $1,000 – nearly 10 times what some were earning in Thailand. They were told they would work 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with weekends off to see the glamorous sights of Los Angeles. But the reality was vastly different. Buppha Chaemchoi, 37, said she was shocked to arrive in El Monte and realize that she would sleep crammed in one bedroom on the floor with nine others. The windows had been boarded up, she said, allowing virtually no sunlight. Her captors told her that if she tried to escape, brutal U.S. police would shave her head and stamp her scalp with marks of disgrace, she said. “It made me worry and want to stay inside and just wait for my three-year contract to end,” Chaemchoi said. Chuai Ngan, 47, who came to the U.S. in 1993, said she also was intimidated with threats that her family would be harmed and their home in Thailand burned down if she attempted to leave. Not all captives were willing to accept their fate, however. Win Chuai Ngan, the 51-year-old husband of Sukanya, was the first to escape from El Monte. As one of the few male laborers, he said, he was allowed to go outside to take out the trash and help move sewing machines and other heavy supplies into the complex. One day, he said, he saw a Thai newspaper in the trash, surreptitiously tore out the phone number for a Thai temple and kept it hidden in his pocket. In November 1992, he made his move – jumping over the fence in the middle of the night. He ran to a taxi stand and asked to be taken to the temple. “I was so scared the owner would see me and kill me,” Win Chuai Ngan said. He said he told his story to Thai authorities and newspapers in Los Angeles, and gave them an address label for the El Monte complex that he had torn from the newspaper. But he said he did not report it to U.S. law enforcement officials because he was scared they would deport him. A few others also escaped, and community advocates eventually helped get the information to authorities. On Aug. 2, a multiagency task force led by the California Department of Industrial Relations raided the complex. Some of the women were cowed by their captors’ earlier descriptions of U.S. police and refused to open the door, which authorities hacked open with an ax. Others said they were overjoyed at their liberation. “I was so happy,” said Clinton, who had been held captive since April 1994. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going home!’ ” In the end, most of the workers decided to stay after Su and others successfully fought to win legal status for them. The workers annually celebrate Aug. 13 as their first full day of freedom, since that’s when all of them were allowed to leave immigration detention facilities. Clinton and the Chuai Ngans said that whatever travails they endured here, their American journeys have been well worth taking."
Camarillo, California, United States
Mauro Casares Edwin M. Ives, Dolly Ives, Griffith-Ives Co., former ranch employees Parmjit Singh, Rony havive, Alvaro Ruiz, Najuum Issac, Pedro and David Pinzon "The violations Ed has admitted making . . . were commonplace in agriculture during the 1980s," the report says. "His sins were the sins of an entire industry." He recruited Zapotec and Mixtec laborers from the rural mountaintops of southern Mexico, smuggling them into the country and allegedly imprisoning them behind locked gates and high fences at his 50-acre Somis compound and forced the to work for 1$ an hour Prosecutors charge that Ives enslaved hundreds of workers at his compound between 1984 and 1990, first by forbidding them to leave until smuggling fees were paid and then by threatening to turn them in to immigration agents if they fled. More than 100 workers have testified or declared in statements that they lived in slave-like conditions at Ives' Somis ranch. Though slavery charges were dropped in a plea bargain last year, prosecutors have continued to argue that Ives virtually imprisoned laborers recruited from rural Mexican villages during the 1980s, forcing them to work for sub-minimum wages and to buy the necessities of life at inflated prices from a company store. charged with enslaving more than 100 undocumented workers from Mexico and forcing them to work long hours at menial wages. Lured by promises of good pay, the Mexicans were smuggled into the United States, then were kept at a 50-acre ranch until they could pay off a $435 smuggling fee, according to a federal grand jury indictment issued Tuesday they worked from 3:30AM to 8:00 PM