Email this page

News & Updates

Experts in Washington, DC Discuss Labor Trafficking

Activists, US government representatives and scholars gathered in Washington to discuss human trafficking, not sex-trafficking, which is the most talked-about aspect of the industry, but the more prevalent one: forced labor.

The United States says hundreds of thousands of people around the world are victimized by human traffickers each year. It is more common in some nations than others, but panelists said not even the United States has conquered the problem.

A representative for the group Human Rights Watch opened the one-day conference with a narrated slide show explaining the plight of Asian women who migrate illegally from poor nations such as Indonesia, Burma, and Laos to wealthier nations like Thailand and Malaysia to find work.

Nisha Varia, whose job puts her in contact with these women, said many get trapped in their jobs because their employers threaten to deport them if they complain about the conditions, such as long hours, forced confinement, and even physical or sexual abuse.

Varia said forced laborers need more protection. She said she wished she could use the United States as an example of a place where human trafficking doesn't exist. But despite increased efforts by the Bush administration to fight the problem, it still exists in north America -- partly because of the healthy job market in the United States.

Andrea Bertone, director of the U.S.-funded HumanTrafficking.org, also concentrates on human trafficking in Asia. She said migrant workers are often viewed as second-class citizens, as evidenced by a recent poll of employers in Thailand. "About half of them do not believe that migrants should have the same rights as Thai workers. They don't believe that they should have freedom of expression, they don't believe they should be able to form unions. This kind of research, I think, starts to open windows for us to understand why there is labor exploitation," she said.

The activists on the panels suggested solutions such as better worker protection laws and job creation in poor countries where the workers migrate from.

Adapted from: "Experts: Human Trafficking Increasing Every Year." voanews.com. 9 February 2007.