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Labor Trafficking in the U.S.

By Emelia DeMarzo

What is Labor Trafficking?

  • Labor trafficking, or forced labor, is a form of modern day slavery in which individuals perform work through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
  • Key characteristic of labor trafficking is that people profit from the control and exploitation of others.

Fears of Victims

How to End Labor Trafficking

Statistics

Factories

  • Immigration reform is needed for guest worker programs because tying a worker’s immigration status to a specific employer is one of the most powerful forms of control used against labor trafficking victims across industries.
  • Enact state laws to ensure all companies certify a lack of slavery or forced labor in their supply chains.
  • By supporting fair pay for workers and basing our purchasing choices on the fair treatment of those who make our products, consumers have the power to reduce the demand for labor trafficking
  • Examine and strengthen state and federal labor laws to ensure back wage and overtime regulations are the same for foreign national and US workers, and to increase domestic worker rights under labor law.
  • A oversight process with the goal of protecting workers from abuse is also needed

• Victims are often kept isolated to prevent them from getting help. Their activities are restricted and are typically watched, escorted or guarded by associates of traffickers. Traffickers may “coach” them to answer questions with a cover story about being a student or tourist.

• Victims may be blackmailed by traffickers using the victims’ status as an undocumented alien or their participation in an “illegal” industry. By threatening to report them to law enforcement or immigration officials, traffickers keep victims compliant.

• People who are trafficked often come from unstable and economically devastated places as traffickers frequently identify vulnerable populations characterized by oppression, high rates of illiteracy, little social mobility and few economic opportunities.

  • Labor trafficking in manufacturing has been known to occur in the garment industry and in food processing plants in the United States.
  • Victims, both men and women, have been forced to work 10-12 hour days, 6-7 days per week with little or no break time.
  • People may be trafficked into garment industry jobs such as sewing, assembling, pressing, or packing apparel. Others may be forced to work in food processing operations that include slaughtering, preserving, canning and packing goods for distribution.
  • Immigrant workers, both documented and undocumented, are often recruited into these industries. Some documented immigrants include H-2B visa holders who arrive in the U.S. to perform non-agricultural labor or temporary services.

Total Cases: 3,634

Total Victims: 7,137

-since 2007

2014- 818 cases reported

Federal reports estimate that 14,500 to 17,500 victims are trafficked into the United States annually.

141 cases in California

67 casein Florida

63 cases Texas

49 cases Virginia

44 cases New York

*Phoenix, Arizona

466 Female workers

416 Male workers

684 Adult workers

143 Minors workers

557 Immigrant workers

127 US Citizens workers

Forms of Labor Trafficking

General Industries

Organizations

Domestic Workers:

Agriculture

  • Polaris Project
  • Vineyard USA
  • Safe Horizon
  • National Human Trafficking Resource Center

  • Domestic workers perform work within their employers’ households, and provide services such as cooking, cleaning, child-care, elder care, gardening and other household work. Domestic workers may or may not live in their employer’s homes. Victims of domestic servitude commonly work 10 to 16 hours a day for little to no pay.
  • Domestic workers may be U.S. citizens, undocumented immigrants, or foreign nationals with specific visas types. Victims of domestic servitude in the U.S. are most often foreign national women with or without documentation living in the home of their employer. Men and boys may also be victims, but these cases are less common.

Bonded Labor- a form of coercion in the use of bond in order to keep and individual under control. Also known as debt bondage.

Involuntary Servitude- people become trapped in involuntary servitude when they believe an attempted escape from their conditions would result in serious physical harm or the use of legal coercion, such as the threat of deportation.

Domestic Servitude- domestic workers may be trapped in servitude through the use of force or coercion, such as physical (including sexual) or emotional abuse. Children are particularly vulnerable to domestic servitude which occurs in private homes, and is often unregulated by public authorities.

  • Immigrant workers, both documented and undocumented, are often recruited into these industries. Some documented immigrants include H-2B visa holders who arrive in the U.S. to perform non-agricultural labor or temporary service.
  • Farm workers in general are particularly vulnerable. A number of factors allow this:
  • Agricultural wages are stagnant and working conditions are poor;
  • Monitoring of work conditions is scant. Agriculture is one of the most profitable sectors of the formal

Victims

  • Agriculture
  • Construction Sights
  • Landscaping
  • Bars & Clubs
  • Domestic Work
  • Factories
  • Hospitality Industry
  • Restaurants & Food Service
  • Clothing
  • Nail Salons
  • Fishing
  • Immigrants- mainly from Mexico, Vietnam and China
  • Children
  • Teenagers
  • Men and Women
  • U.S. citizens

http://www.kpho.com/story/27055220/study-shows-prevalence-of-human-trafficking-in-phoenix

Catholic Social Teaching

Victim Vulnerabilities

"The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offense against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights.... Such situations are an affront to fundamental values which are shared by all cultures and peoples, values rooted in the very nature of the human person. "

-Pope John Paul II

Rights And Responsibilities

  • The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency.
  • High rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict, and cultural acceptance of the practice in their country.
  • Victims often hear about a job opportunity from someone they know in their home country. They then meet with a recruiter who is often from an employment agency seeking workers for U.S. employers.
  • The pitch made by recruiters: Employment in America would offer them a unique opportunity at a better life for both themselves and their families- this is a universal lie.

The Sacredness and Dignity of Human Life

  • The Catholic Church which "for­bids acts or enterprises that, for any reason, lead to the enslavement of human beings to their being bought, sold, and exchanged like merchandise, in disregard for their personal dignity."
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