Re: Slave labour in Brazil

[Diane Monaco <diane.monaco@xxxxxxxxx>]

Of course, ?bonded? labor practices are nothing new, we?re only seeing
newer versions emerging as our borders open with increasing
globalization.  Using the ?fear of deportation? to exploit the labor
illegal immigrants from neighboring countries is a bonded labor practice
where the impossible to pay back loaned amount is zero and the interest
on the loaned amount is your life.  I suppose that it is a
progressive step for the ILO to say these newer debt bondage practices
are "analogous to slavery." 

The ?fear of deportation? AND the ?fear of social stigmatization? are the
forces behind another kind of ?bonded? labor slavery  -- sex
slavery.  The ILO report did call these newly defined slavery
practices the result of ?lawlessness? in the country (?interior?
Brazil).  Bush also just last week urged tough new law ?enforcement?
against human trafficking as he says, "Human life is the gift of our
creator and it should never be for sale"? 

?meanwhile in the US?


Experts: Vt. sex slavery fits U.S. pattern

By WILSON RING
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Friday, July 23, 2004 · Last updated 4:27 a.m. PT

ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. -- The regulars at the Park Place Tavern weren't
surprised when police raided what is being described as an Asian brothel
in a small house across their shared driveway. But they were surprised
when news reports linked the now-closed Tokyo Spa and two other health
clubs in the area to what police say is an international prostitution
ring that smuggled Asian women into the United States and made them sex
slaves.

"We joked about it here all the time," said Sandy Maloney, who
lives in an apartment complex out back.

Maloney said she watched as older men driving expensive out-of-state
sport utility vehicles visited the Tokyo Spa at all hours.

Experts in sexual slavery say the Vermont case fits the pattern of a
problem that is reaching into the smallest corners of the country.
"Modern-day slavery is the fastest growing criminal industry in the
world," said Derek Ellerman, co-executive director of the
Washington-based Polaris Project, a grass-roots anti-trafficking
organization.

"They have done a very good job of spreading into suburban and even
rural areas," Ellerman said. "It's a market-driven criminal
industry. Wherever there is demand for commercial sex the traffickers
will spread to those areas."

There's an eviction notice on the door of the light gray two-story
clapboard house that operated as the Tokyo Spa for about a year. The city
of Burlington is moving to evict the tenants from another of the spas. At
the third, the building owner insists all the activity inside was
legal.

Police, though, contend the clubs were offering sexual services along
with massages. During the raids earlier this month, authorities arrested
eight women - five Korean and three Chinese - on federal immigration
charges. All except two have been released, said Essex police Lt. Gary L.
Taylor. No state criminal charges have been filed.

Taylor refused to discuss the ongoing investigation but knew of no other
organized prostitution in Vermont's history.

"It's the first time I am aware of," Taylor said.
I
n court documents, police say the women who worked at the spas never
left. Even groceries were brought to the house.

One Korean woman told investigators she had been smuggled into the United
States and had only recently arrived at the Tokyo Spa.

Court documents filed by police to get search warrants for the three
businesses outline what authorities say could be a link to international
organized crime and sexual slavery. Similar operations, according to the
papers, are being investigated by federal authorities in New York City,
New Jersey and Maine.

"The way these massage parlors or spas or health clubs work, they
are really fronts for prostitution," said Linda M. Hughes of the
University of Rhode Island.

Hughes, who has studied international sex trafficking for 15 years, said
many of the women have been smuggled into the United States and are being
held "by some sort of forced fraud or coercion."
Typically, sex rings offer to bring women into the United States for a
fee. Once in the United States, the women are forced to repay the cost of
their passage by working as prostitutes.

The women will give most of the money they make to the brothel owner.
They are charged for rent and expenses. They can be fined for rule
infractions, Hughes said.

"There are all sorts of things they do to prevent these women from
getting out," Hughes said. "That may mean these women have been
enslaved for 20 years."

The women are then rotated between the brothels as part of a network that
has, in some cases, operated nationwide.

Asian women aren't the only ones enslaved. The Vermont case appears to be
a Korean network, Ellerman said. And traffickers bring women to the
United States from around the world.
Law enforcement has a new tool for fighting the international
trafficking. The federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention
Act of 2000 defines women who were forced into prostitution as victims
rather than criminals, Hughes said. The statute also offers a range of
social benefits and services, including a visa to stay in the United
States, for victims who agree to cooperate with the authorities.

Ellerman said the effort to get the public to recognize sexual slavery as
a problem is still in its infancy.

"It's much like domestic violence was 30 years ago. It took years to
mainstream," Ellerman said. "We're at that beginning stage
right now."










At 01:04 AM 7/23/2004 +0100, you wrote:
> The Hindu
>
> Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004
>
> Slave labour in Brazil
>
> By Paul Brown
>
> An unpublished report for the ILO says that despite
> the best efforts of the
> Brazilian Government, slave labour continues in the
> country's interior.
>
> AN ESTIMATED 25,000 people are working as slave
> labourers in Brazil clearing
> the Amazon jungle for ranchers, or producing pig iron
> in the forest using
> charcoal smelters, according to a new study.
>
> An unpublished report for the Geneva-based
> International Labour Organisation
> concludes that despite the best efforts of the
> Government of President Luiz
> Ignacio Lula da Silva to free slaves and prosecute
> offenders, the level of
> lawlessness in the country's interior means that the
> practice continues.
>
> The report also uncovers a new area of labour
> "analogous to slavery," where
> men, women and children who are illegal immigrants
> from Bolivia, Peru and
> Paraguay are working in sweatshops in Sao Paulo.