Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the U.S.

Forced Labor in the United States is a growing human rights abuse. Please view the following EXCERPT from a scholarly article: HIDDEN SLAVES: Forced Labor in the U.S. by Dr. Kevin Bales.

Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions regarding identifying victims in these forced labor situations. There are many social and cultural aspects to these types of crimes. Ask yourself when reading the material, Why is it that it is tolerated in this country? What are the social, political, cultural, economic and legal considerations?

Thank You for viewing this article. Dr. Bales has also written a book under the same title.
Dr. Ann Marie Aiesi

Author: Dr. Kevin Bales, Free the Slaves
Copyright (c) 2005 Berkeley Journal of International Law
Berkeley Journal of International Law
2005
23 Berkeley J. Int’l L. 47
LENGTH: 34003 words

ARTICLE: Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States

NAME: By Free the Slaves, Washington, D.C., and the Human Rights Center of the University of California, Berke-ley*

BIO: * This report was written (in alphabetical order) by Kevin Bales, President, Free the Slaves; Laurel E. Fletcher, Acting Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall); Eric Stover, Director of the Human Rights Center and Adjunct Professor of Pub-lic Health, University of California, Berkeley. Contributions to text were made by Steve Lize and Rachel Shigekane. Research for this report was conducted under the direction of Kevin Bales, Laurel Fletcher, and Eric Stover by Kevin Bales, Camilla Brown, Terry Coonan, Laurel Fletcher, Natalie Hill, Steve Lize, Kristin Madigan, Jacob Patton, Natasha Pinto, Rachel Shigekane, and Eric Stover. Harvey Weinstein consulted on the research design of the case studies. The Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University conducted a survey of forty-nine social ser-vice providers in the United States. Further research assistance was provided by Alexander Freeman, Abigail Lloyd, Angele Motlagh, L. Kathleen Roberts, Rebecca Tanner, Kaja Tretjak, and Charlotte J. Wiener of the International Hu-man Rights Law Clinic at U.C. Berkeley. Jolene Smith of Free the Slaves and Mark Gertz and Pippin Whitaker of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, Florida State University, provided valuable assistance to this project. The researchers gratefully acknowledge the courage of survivors to speak with us in the hope that telling their stories will help eliminate forced labor.

SUMMARY:

… Forced labor is a serious and pervasive problem in the United States. … The press and service provider surveys show that, as of December 2003, victims of forced labor came from thirty-nine countries, including the United States. … It should be noted, however, that it is very difficult to classify trafficking cases as purely forced labor or sex trafficking because in many instances when the victim is a woman or child, she is both sexually abused and forced to work. … In one case that eventually exposed such a trafficking scheme, Lakireddy Bali Reddy, the California-based sex trafficker, arranged for a man and his sister from his hometown to fraudulently pose as the parents of two teenage sisters so that the sisters would be allowed to pass through U.S. immigration. … The influence of the perpetrator may hold sway over a survivor across international boundaries and across the span of years. … Some forced labor victims have even been liberated by local law enforcement personnel, as happened in the Reddy case. … This study shows that law enforce-ment, social service providers, and legal advocates have gained most of their understanding about trafficking and forced labor on a case-by-case basis. …

TEXT:

[*47]

I. Executive Summary

Forced labor is a serious and pervasive problem in the United States. At any given time, ten thousand or more people work as forced laborers in scores of cities and towns across the country. And it is likely that the actual number is much higher, possibly reaching into the tens of thousands. Because forced labor is hidden, inhumane, widespread, and crimi-nal, sustained and coordinated efforts by U.S. law enforcement, social service providers, and the general public are needed to expose and eradicate this illicit trade.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention Concerning Forced Labor 29 defines forced labor, with exceptions, as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.” n1

[*48] This report documents the nature and scope of forced labor in the United States from January 1998 to De-cember 2003. It is the first study to examine the numbers, demographic characteristics, and origins of victims and perpe-trators of forced labor in the United States and the adequacy of the U.S. response to this growing problem since the en-actment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (Trafficking Act). The report is based on data obtained from a telephone survey of forty-nine service providers that have worked with or are experts in forced labor cases, a press survey of 131 incidents of forced labor, and eight case studies of forced labor in different regions of the United States. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Free the Slaves n2 and the Human Rights Center of the University of California, Berkeley. n3

Victims of forced labor come from numerous ethnic and racial groups. Most are “trafficked” from thirty-five or more countries and, through force, fraud, or coercion, find themselves laboring against their will in the United States. In the study, Chinese comprised the largest number of victims, followed by Mexicans and Vietnamese. Some victims were born and raised in the United States and found themselves pressed into servitude by fraudulent or deceptive means. Over the past five years, forced labor operations have been reported in at least ninety U.S. cities. These operations tend to thrive in states with large populations and sizable immigrant communities, such as California, Florida, New York, and Texas – all of which are transit routes for international travelers.

Forced labor is prevalent in five sectors of the U.S. economy: prostitution and sex services (46%), domestic service (27%), agriculture (10%), sweatshop/factory (5%), and restaurant and hotel work (4%). Forced labor persists in these sectors because of low wages, lack of regulation and monitoring of working [*49] conditions, and a high demand for cheap labor. These conditions enable unscrupulous employers and criminal networks to gain virtually complete control over workers’ lives.

HIDDEN SLAVES

The U.S. government has been a leader in recognizing and combating forced labor worldwide. The Trafficking Act embodies an aggressive, proactive approach to the problem of human trafficking and forced labor that:

. criminalizes procuring and subjecting another human being to peonage, involuntary sex trafficking, slavery, involun-tary servitude, or forced labor;

. provides social services and legal benefits to survivors of these crimes, including authorization to remain in the country;

. provides funding to support protection programs for survivors in the United States as well as abroad; and

. includes provisions to monitor and eliminate trafficking in countries outside the United States.

Despite these considerable advancements, the Trafficking Act has some notable shortcomings. The act conditions im-migration relief and social services on prosecutorial cooperation and thus creates the perception that survivors are pri-marily instruments of law enforcement rather than individuals who are, in and of themselves, deserving of protection and restoration of their human rights.

Furthermore, more proactive measures need to be taken to train law enforcement officers, particularly at the local level, to identify victims and forced labor operations; improve cooperation and information sharing on forced labor be-tween federal and state agencies; revise procedures for the handling of survivors; and provide survivors with protection, benefits, and compensation.

By and large, victims of forced labor are reluctant to report abuse to law enforcement personnel because they fear retribution from their traffickers. Many victims also have an inherent fear of police based on their past experiences with corrupt authorities in their home countries and communities. To overcome these obstacles, there is an urgent need to train law enforcement personnel at all levels to recognize and assist trafficking victims.

Trafficking is defined almost exclusively as a federal crime to be handled by federal authorities. This limited man-date has hindered coordination between federal and state law enforcement agencies and, in turn, has allowed perpetra-tors of forced labor to go undetected. Moreover, federal law enforcement personnel are often unable to protect survivors and their families from traffickers because authorities lack the necessary legal tools, assistance, and funds to provide them with secure and safe refuge. Taken together, these obstacles can impede a survivor’s willingness to cooperate in criminal investigations.

Forced labor survivors are at significant risk of developing health-related problems. Most survivors come from im-poverished areas of the world where access to adequate health care is limited or nonexistent. Because forced labor vic-tims often circumvent formal medical screenings for migrants, many arrive in the United States without proper immuni-zations and bearing communicable diseases. Once trafficked migrants reach their destination in the United States, they continue to face a variety of health risks as they begin working in dangerous and unregulated work environments. Those who work in the sex trade are especially [*50] at risk of contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases. Perpe-trators of forced labor frequently use violence or the withholding of food as a means of “breaking,” controlling, and punishing their workers.

Victims of forced labor often suffer psychological assaults designed to keep them submissive. Cut off from contact with the outside world, they can lose their sense of personal efficacy and control, attributes that mental health profes-sionals have long considered essential to good mental and physical health. In such situations, many forced labor victims become increasingly dependent on their captors, if merely to survive. While little is known about the specific psycho-logical sequelae of forced labor, survivors often report feelings of depression, recurring nightmares, and panic attacks.

While the Trafficking Act has greatly amplified the federal government’s role in investigating and prosecuting forced labor cases in the United States, the job of providing basic social and legal services to survivors has fallen squarely on the shoulders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and social service agencies. Yet fewer than half of these agencies are able to meet these needs. Social service agencies report that finding appropriate housing for survivors has been one of their greatest challenges. Housing that is safe and secure can protect survivors from their former cap-tors. Yet housing of any kind can be costly for social service agencies. Much would be gained if these agencies were provided with greater financial support so that they could provide survivors of forced labor with safe and adequate housing and other basic legal and social services.

We recommend that the U.S. government undertake the following measures to combat forced labor in the United States:

1. Start a broad-based awareness-raising campaign about human trafficking and forced labor in the United States with special attention to reaching immigrant communities. Private citizens should be informed about the characteristics of forced labor operations and how to identify potential victims. Further, increased public awareness about the demand for goods and services provided by forced labor can foster public pressure on employers and manufacturers to eradicate conditions that generate market vulnerabilities to the use of forced labor.

2. Improve the institutional capacity of law enforcement personnel at the local, state, and federal level to respond to forced labor and trafficking. The U.S. government should increase training and coordination of officials involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of perpetrators. In addition, more resources should be devoted to enable service agencies to aid existing clients and to conduct outreach that might result in identifying more victims.

3. Ensure better legal protections and monitoring of workers in sectors such as agriculture, domestic labor, garment manufacturing, and food service that are particularly vulnerable to forced labor and trafficking. The U.S. government should promote accountability in sectors, especially agriculture and garment manufacturing, which use subcontracting systems that violate labor laws and practices.

[*51] 4. Correct aspects of migration policy that provide incentives for unscrupulous employers to use forced la-bor. The U.S. government should eliminate the visa requirement that requires each worker to remain with one particular employer. This would help reduce the vulnerability of low-wage workers to exploitation.

5. Strengthen protection and rehabilitation programs for survivors. To address short-term needs of survivors, the U.S. government should create incentives for survivors to come forward and cooperate with law enforcement personnel. This includes developing mechanisms to protect victims and family members vulnerable to retaliation and threats by traffickers in home countries. U.S. authorities should also review eligibility requirements for immigration relief, as well as their administration, to ensure that they are consistent with the goal of supporting and protecting survivors. Increased public and private support to social service agencies is necessary to provide adequate, safe housing to survivors upon liberation from captivity. Once survivors feel safe and secure, they are more likely to aid law enforcement personnel in the prosecution of suspected traffickers.

II.

Introduction

Migrant-Camp Operators Face Forced Labor Charges

The New York Times, June 21, 2002

Takoma Park Couple Enslaved Woman

The Washington Post, June 10, 2003

Slavery in Florida’s Citrus Groves

The Miami Herald, Nov. 21, 2002

“Coyotes” Offer Evil Deal: Hondurans Forced into Prostitution

The Washington Times, July 23, 2002

For most Americans, the occasional newspaper headline is the only indication that forced labor exists in the United States. Each year, forced labor generates millions of dollars for criminals who prey on the most vulnerable – the poor, the uneducated, and the impoverished immigrant seeking a better life. Held as captives, victims of forced labor toil in slave-like conditions for months and even years with little or no contact with the outside world. Those who survive en-slavement face enormous challenges as they struggle to regain control over their shattered lives. Forced labor is a seri-ous and pervasive problem in the United States for four reasons: it is hidden, it is inhumane, it is widespread, and it is criminal.

Forced Labor Is Hidden

Each year thousands of men, women, and children are trafficked into the United States and forced to work without pay in deplorable conditions. Most of them are rarely seen in public places. Hidden from view, they toil in sweatshops, brothels, farms, and private homes. To prevent them from escaping, their [*52] captors confiscate their identification documents, forbid them from leaving their workplaces or contacting their families, threaten them with arrest and depor-tation, and restrict their access to the surrounding community.

Forced Labor Is Inhumane

Victims of forced labor have been tortured, raped, assaulted, and murdered. They have been held in absolute control by their captors and stripped of their dignity. Some have been subjected to forced abortion, dangerous working conditions, poor nutrition, and humiliation. Some have died during their enslavement. Others have been physically or psychologi-cally scarred for life. Once freed, many will suffer from a host of health-related problems, including repetitive stress injury, chronic back pain, visual and respiratory illnesses, sexually transmitted diseases, and depression.

Forced Labor Is Widespread

Forced labor exists in ninety cities across the United States. It is practiced in a wide range of industrial sectors, includ-ing domestic service, the sex industry, food service, factory production, and agriculture. In the last five years alone, the press has reported 131 cases of forced labor in the United States involving 19,254 men, women, and children from a wide range of ethnic and racial groups. n4 Although many victims are immigrants, some are U.S. residents or citizens.

Forced Labor Is Criminal

Forced labor is universally condemned and outlawed. Its practice in the United States violates a host of laws, including prohibitions on indentured servitude, money laundering, and tax evasion. Yet criminals find it a highly profitable and lucrative enterprise. Their workers are forced to be docile, and when problems arise, “employers” know they can rein workers in with threats and physical violence. Criminals also have learned that the odds are good that they will never be held accountable in a court of law.

The Study

The United States is at a critical juncture in its struggle to end forced labor. In 2000, the U.S. government enacted new laws to hold perpetrators of forced labor accountable and to assist survivors freed from captivity. Since then, both prosecutions of suspected wrongdoers and the number of social and legal service providers assisting survivors have in-creased exponentially. As efforts to stamp out forced labor gather speed, there is a need to evaluate the record to date and to propose new measures that will further strengthen the eradication of this egregious practice. To this end, Free the Slaves and the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, with the assistance of the Center for the Advancement [*53] of Human Rights at Florida State University, conducted a study of the nature and scope of forced labor in the United States to assess efforts of the government and NGOs to address the problem and recommend meas-ures to improve the U.S. response to forced labor.

The research team employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. To gain an un-derstanding of the numbers, demographic characteristics, and origins of those in forced labor in the United States, we conducted:

. a survey of newspaper articles reporting incidents of forced labor between January 1998 and December 2003; n5

. a telephone survey of forty-nine service providers that have worked with or are knowledgeable about forced labor cases; n6

. a review of reports published by the U.S. government regarding the number of forced labor cases it has investi-gated and prosecuted.

To gain knowledge regarding the experience of survivors of forced labor and the adequacy of the United States re-sponse, we also conducted:

. a review of the U.S. and international laws regarding forced labor;

. interviews with key informants, including government officials, service providers, and advocates, who have ex-tensive experience with forced labor;

. eight case studies of forced labor in different regions of the United States that illustrate how the problem has af-fected a wide range of economic and demographic sectors. n7

Of the eight case studies selected for study, one involved forced prostitution, two involved servitude of domestic work-ers, two involved agricultural workers, two involved factory workers, and one involved children who had been sexually abused and forced to work in the restaurant and service industries. In conducting the case studies, researchers often en-countered difficulty gaining access to survivors. Some service providers and advocates were unwilling to convey our request for participation in this study to their clients, citing the need to [*54] protect them from contact with individu-als who were not directly involved in their cases. This access barrier to survivors may impede success of further re-search regarding the effects of forced labor on survivors and may influence how well clients are served by the current U.S. response. Despite this challenge, researchers interviewed six survivors.

The Case against Kil-Soo Lee: Sweatshop Workers in American Samoa

Kil-Soo Lee, a Korean businessman, recruited women primarily from China and Vietnam to work in his garment fac-tory on the island of American Samoa from 1998 until the factory closed in late 2000. Kil-Soo Lee used employment contract fees and penalties to trap the workers into remaining with the company. He kept workers locked in the factory compound, withheld food as punishment, and authorized violent retaliation for resistance on the part of the workers. In February 2003, Kil-Soo Lee was convicted of criminal charges of involuntary servitude, extortion, and money launder-ing.

The Case against Lakireddy Bali Reddy: Sexual Exploitation in California

Lakireddy Bali Reddy, a local businessman, sexually exploited several young girls from his native village in India. Un-covered in January 2000, his sex and labor exploitation ring spanned fifteen years and operated in India and California. He repeatedly raped and sexually abused his victims and forced them to work in his businesses in Berkeley, California, including a well-established Indian restaurant. Reddy pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to immigration fraud and illegal sexual activity and agreed to pay $ 2 million in restitution to several of his victims.

The Case against Victoria Island Farms/JB Farm Labor Contractor: Exploitative Farm Labor in California

California asparagus harvesters, numbering in the hundreds, were forced to harvest the high-priced vegetable in sub-standard conditions for virtually no pay on the property of Victoria Islands, an internationally known asparagus grower, during the 2000 growing season. Hired by JB Farm Labor Contractor, the workers, recruited mostly from Mexico, were powerless to stop the huge deductions for transportation and other “debts” the employer deducted from their weekly paychecks. Some escaped during the season. Some of the workers filed a civil case against JB Farm Labor Contractor and Victoria Island Farms that resulted in the defendants’ paying the workers the wages owed them.

The Case against R&A Harvesting: Forced Farm Labor in Florida

Florida citrus pickers endured abuse by R&A Harvesting, a farm labor contractor, between January 2000 and June 2001. The company used threats of violence to force as many as 700 Mexican and Guatemalan workers to labor for little or no pay. After R&A Harvesting employees attacked a van driver suspected [*55] of assisting the workers, the Coali-tion of Immokalee Workers, a local community organization, pressured prosecutors to investigate the allegations of forced labor. The owners of R&A Harvesting, the three Ramos brothers and a cousin, were tried and convicted of forced labor charges in 2002.

The Case against the Cadena Family: Forced Prostitution in Florida and South Carolina

Based in Mexico, Cadena family members lured young girls and women to come to the United States ostensibly to work as waitresses and domestic workers. Between August 1996 and February 1998, the Cadena family brought be-tween twenty-five and forty unsuspecting victims to Florida and South Carolina and forced them to work as prostitutes to service primarily Mexican migrant farm workers. In March 1998, several Cadena family members and their associ-ates were brought to justice, receiving criminal sentences ranging from two to fifteen years imprisonment.

The Case against Supawan Veerapool: Enslavement of a Domestic Service Worker in California

In 1989, a Thai woman by the name of Supawan Veerapool, the common law wife of Thailand’s ambassador to Swe-den, brought a domestic worker to Los Angeles to provide household support in her home. On arrival in the United States, Veerapool confiscated the domestic worker’s passport and then forced her to work twenty-hour days, six days a week until she escaped in 1998. Convicted on criminal charges in 1999, Veerapool was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The Case against the John Pickle Company: Forced Labor in a Factory in Oklahoma

In 2001, the Al-Samit International agency recruited qualified skilled workers in India by promising them good jobs in a factory that manufactured pressure valves in the state of Oklahoma. On arrival, the John Pickle Company forced the workers to surrender their travel documents, live in the factory, and work twelve to sixteen hours a day, six days a week, for well below the legal minimum wage. By February 2002, all of the approximately fifty workers had managed to es-cape. They later filed a civil suit against their former employer. Subsequently, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency charged with investigating and filing cases of employment discrimination, filed a sepa-rate civil action against the John Pickle Company.

The Case against the Satia Family: Forced Domestic Servitude in Washington, D.C.

The Satias, two Cameroonian sisters and their husbands, recruited young Cameroonian girls, aged fourteen and seven-teen, to work as domestics in their Washington, D.C. homes. They recruited the girls with the promise of studying [*56] in the United States in exchange for providing childcare and domestic help. Once in the United States, the Satias confined the domestic servants to their homes and forced them to work in excess of fourteen hours a day without remu-neration and under threat of violence and deportation. The younger survivor escaped in 1999 after two years of captiv-ity. A year later, the older survivor fled, after having endured five years of exploitation. In 2001, the Satia sisters and their husbands were charged with forced labor. Found guilty, they received criminal sentences ranging from five to nine years and were ordered to pay their victims over $ 100,000 in restitution.

The rest of this report consists of six sections. Section 3 provides background and analysis of the causes and extent of forced labor in the United States. It reviews the literature and research on the structure of labor markets and their re-lationship to maintaining forced labor. It also examines data collected on forced labor to determine geographic and demographic patterns, as well as the occurrence of forced labor in particular economic sectors. Section 4 reviews the legal history of prohibitions against forced labor in the United States and at the international level. Section 5 examines the way in which U.S. laws are enforced against traffickers and used to assist survivors of forced labor. Section 6 dis-cusses the impacts of trafficking and forced labor on the health of survivors. Section 7 sets out the numerous challenges that social and legal service providers face in their efforts to meet the needs of survivors. Finally, Section 8 presents our conclusions and recommendations to strengthen the U.S. response to forced labor.

III.

Ending Forced Labor in the United States

Forced labor exists in the United States because factors in the U.S. economy, the legal system, and immigration policy support it. Forced labor is a problem that is driven by a growing “informal economy” in the United States. The Interna-tional Labor Organization (ILO) defines an informal economy as “all remunerative work – both self-employment and wage employment – that is not recognised, regulated, or protected by existing legal or regulatory frameworks and non-remunerative work undertaken in an income-producing enterprise.” n8 Forced labor exists in both legal and illegal in-dustries that are poorly regulated and fail to comply with U.S. labor laws. “Employers” in such industries are often criminal entrepreneurs for whom forced labor may be one of a number of illegal activities. Over time, such employers have found that forced labor can support a lucrative business through the ready availability of free labor, better and more varied transport, new methods of secure communications, and the increased permeability of borders.

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