by James Parks, Nov 15, 2007

Millions of workers across the world are being forced to work in conditions akin to slavery by unscrupulous employers, labor recruiting agencies and governments, according to a new report from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. And the global crisis in trafficking affects all workers, as it contributes to depressed wages and an undereducated and undertrained generation of workers. 

The International Labor Organization estimates that at any given time, 12 million men, women and children worldwide are deceived or coerced into forced and bonded labor, involuntary servitude and sexual slavery. Studies have shown that human trafficking generates more than $9.5 billion annually for international organized crime, second only to trafficking in weapons.  

Trafficking takes many human forms—men imported into Nigeria for forced labor in agriculture, Ethiopian women who voluntarily migrate abroad to find work as domestic servants but end up in involuntary servitude or forced prostitution in Europe and the Middle East, immigrant construction workers building the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad who are enslaved through debt bondage and migrant farm workers exploited in the southern United States. Immigrant workers are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. 

Although the report, The Degradation of Work—Trafficking in Persons from a Labor Perspective:  The Kenyan Experience, focuses on one country, Kenya, it finds that workers around the world are victims of the excesses of a global economic system that rewards wealth and exploits the poor. Click here to read the report.

According to the report:   

Globalization has wrought a system where work continues to be degraded and workers are more and more vulnerable to abuse. In the context of worker rights and the global economy, workers who are simply trying to find a way to support their families and make a living are often caught in the trafficking trap.  

At the Capitol Hill launch of the report on Tuesday, Neha Misra, the Solidarity Center’s trafficking coordinator, said globalization has had a direct impact on the movement of workers and the degradation of work and income distribution, increasing workers’ vulnerability to human trafficking. For example:

• Globalization has created an ever-widening wealth gap among countries and within countries, and has failed to reduce poverty in much of Africa. This pressures family members to leave their homes to make a living and sometimes to send their children away from home to work. 
• Global trade agreements with inadequate labor standards and protections contribute to the trafficking of migrant workers. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, while creating economic benefits for a number of African countries, also may have increased workers’ vulnerability to forced labor, debt bondage and other slavery-like practices.
• Globalization has led to an increased demand for and supply of imported goods such as cocoa, coffee and tea. Consumers in the United States and Europe demand these products at low costs, creating incentives for farmers, plantation owners and larger agricultural companies to hire workers at low wages. This “race to the bottom” encourages the use of child labor and may increase children’s vulnerability to human trafficking.

The Solidarity Center is a recognized leader in raising awareness of the prevalence of human trafficking for forced labor and slavery in a variety of economic sectors, including construction, agriculture, domestic work and manufacturing. It conducts anti-trafficking programs in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, East Africa and Central America. The programs include activities and initiatives that address prevention, victim protection and the rule of law.

The Solidarity Center also is part of a coalition called the Action Group to End Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery, which has worked closely with members of Congress on legislation to prevent trafficking.

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