lost & found

From Change.org, written by Amanda Kloer

It hasn't been a banner spring for professional athletics in France. First, their football (soccer) team was caught visiting clubs where underage girls were forced into prostitution. And now, one of their professional rugby superstars has been arrested to keeping a Tunisian man in his home as a personal slave. Is there something in the French Gatorade that makes professional athletes think participating in human trafficking is okay?

Finau Maka, who has played rugby for Toulouse for the past eight years, is best known for his aggressive, effective style of play and trademark afro. But this week, the native Tonagan-turned-French-transplant was arrested after police raided his home to find a young Tunisian man living there. The Tunisian man claimed he was forced to serve Maka and his family against his will, and had been brought into France without any documents. Police also received reports that the man was kept in the home and not allowed to leave, treated with disrespect, and forced to perform numerous household tasks. Police are currently investigating his claims.

Ironically, the raid took place just hours after Maka's team won the Heineken Cup Final in Paris and were celebrating a victory. But instead of joining his teammates, Maka was being questioned by the police on slavery charges. It's hard to tell from the limited information that has been released about this case whether or not the Tunisian man was really being trafficked by the Maka family, but several of the symptoms of trafficking were present.

Professional athletes have been accused of a lot of criminal and immoral behavior, from rape to corruption to assault. But this is the first time I've heard a professional athlete accused of keeping a personal slave in his home. And I really, really hope its the last.

From Change.org, written by Amanda Kloer 5/15/10

Do you think it's possible that slavery in the Thai fishing industry can impact the price of your home in California? What about whether children forced into domestic servitude in Malaysia affect the U.S. job market? The fact is that forced labor anywhere in the world can affect your bottom line, right here in the U.S. And here's why.

First, let's look at how forced labor costs anyone money. The main cost of forced labor comes in the form of "opportunity cost," or the lost opportunity for that worker to have made a higher wage. The vast majority of victims of forced labor are paid less than minimum wage, and human trafficking victims are often paid nothing. Let's say a forced laborer, Thang, is paid $3.00 an hour for his work as opposed to $6.00, the minimum wage where he lives. That extra three dollars he is being denied ads up, and it means Thang can buy fewer clothes, eat less food, and generally consume less of everything. And when there are over six million Thangs, like there are in Asia, that opportunity cost really ads up. In fact, according to the International Labor Organization, it adds up to over $90 billion. Now that's some expensive forced labor.

But opportunity cost isn't the only reason forced labor and human trafficking are expensive. Forced labor victims rarely have health care, so when they have medical emergencies that they are allowed to treat, they drive up medical costs. Areas with rampant exploitation of workers may also have high rates of other crimes, leading to a greater cost in law enforcement. And, of course, there is the human cost to consider. Can you place a value on the life that forced labor is destroying?

But how does poor Thang's predicament, all the way over in Asia, affect your wallet? The global economy is so intertwined that, as the last two years of recession have shown, it's hard for financial troubles in one part of the world not to affect other parts of the world. Thang and his fellow forced laborers keep the Asian economy sluggish, because they aren't being given the full amount of wage they should be. Thus, they are not spending into and bolstering the economy. This prevents Asian companies from expanding, markets from increasing, and stocks from booming. And the Asian stock market affects the American stock market, which in turn (as has become painfully obvious lately) affects just about every aspect of life in the U.S. Your job, your home, and even the price of bread at the supermarket is much more closely connected to Thang than to Kevin Bacon. We truly live in a global village. It's just a global village where some of the villagers are slaves.

Yes, forced labor has a high human cost, but it also has a high practical, hard, financial cost. It is in our self-interest to end forced labor, even halfway around the world.

From Change.org, written by Angela Longerbeam

Dear Kohl’s,

Over the last several years, I have fallen in love with you. In 2009, particularly, the clothes, shoes, and other home items I purchased -- armed with sales info and in-store coupons -- cemented my adoration. Add to the fantastic selection of products your charitable work, specifically in the form of Kohl’s Cares for Kids, through which the niftiest books are sold to benefit health and education programs in the U.S., and you have yourself a fan. Check Facebook: It’s true.

But then I read about your induction into the Sweatshop Hall of Shame. The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) placed you on the 2010 roster for inaction regarding unsafe labor conditions at your Turkish linen supplier, Menderes Tekstil. Four people died at this factory. Who knows what other atrocities are going on there daily? You certainly don’t, because, in spite of efforts by the ILRF and other groups to reach out and assist with a review and cleanup of labor practices at Menderes Tesktil, you haven’t done a thing.

Incidentally, I discovered this information approximately two weeks after purchasing bed sheets in your online store. I was not pleased. The sheets are “dirty” in my mind, and needless to say, I have trouble sleeping on them at night.

A company that claims to care about customers and kids, while supporting dangerous factory conditions for the workers -– the people -– in its supply chain, is inconsistent, at best. At worst, it is exploitive, irresponsible and weak for looking the other way. You tell us to “expect great things,” Kohl’s, and I really do. Tackle the situation at Menderes Tekstil and show consumers you care about a cleaner supply chain.

Most sincerely,

Angela Longerbeam

Join me in telling Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell to combine forces with ILRF in reviewing, addressing and ultimately eliminating unsafe, unfair conditions for workers at Menderes Teskstil.

(CNN) -- Mexican authorities have freed 107 indigenous people who officials say were being held as slave laborers in a Mexico City factory disguised as a drug rehabilitation center.

Twenty-three suspects were arrested in Thursday's raid, said Miguel Angel Mancera, Mexico City's attorney general. Two more were arrested Friday morning, officials said.

The victims ranged from 14 to 70 years old, and some were tortured, Mancera told CNN affiliate TV Azteca. Some victims also suffered sexual abuse, he said.

"They were beaten," he said. "Several have wounds, serious wounds. We even have some of the victims with fractures."

All of the victims were suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition, he said. Some were taken to a hospital.

The captives, some of whom speak only indigenous languages and no Spanish, were locked in the building, which had bars on the windows and a fence outside, he said.

They made handbags and clothespins and were not paid. Their only daily meal consisted of chicken legs and rotten vegetables, Mancera said.

"The vast majority of the food we found was spoiled," he said.

Video of the inside of the building showed filthy and crowded living conditions.

The men and women worked 8 a.m. to midnight and were given only a half-hour food break. They were not allowed to go to the bathroom, and many soiled themselves, officials said.

The attorney general labeled it "cruel and inhuman treatment." The victims, he said, were abused mentally and physically, "with all sorts of pressure."

Most of the victims were nabbed off the street by some of the suspects under the guise of giving them treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction, the attorney general said.

"They take them by force, and they take them with the argument that they need to be rehabilitated, that they are addicts," Mancera said.

A few of the victims were brought there by family members who thought their loved ones would receive addiction treatment.

The facility has a sign in front identifying it as Hospital Santo Tomas, Los Eligidos de Dios, which means "St. Thomas Hospital, Those Chosen by God."

Up to 300 people may have been incarcerated at the facility in recent months, Mancera said. Officials believe that thousands more could have suffered the same fate in the eight years the hospital has been open.

Some of the victims were released at the end of six months, when they were too ill or infirm to continue working, and new recruits were brought in.

Authorities now are looking at other treatment facilities.

"I am sure this will lead to other investigations and perhaps action by other authorities," Mancera said.

The investigation into Hospital Santo Tomas started in September, when a man was abducted while unloading a truck at a commercial establishment. Officials got a break in the case when one of the men held at the hospital escaped and told authorities what was happening at the facility.

Among those arrested Thursday were the facility administrator, Jose Antonio Villa Ramos, and the man accused of leading the abductions, Javier Rosales Garcia, known as "El Tato," Mancera said.

Political analyst and TV commentator Ana Maria Salazar described the case as "quite shocking," even by Mexican standards.


A recent study, she said, found that human trafficking gangs kidnap about 10,000 people a year in Mexico. Many of those victims, Salazar said, are from remote parts of the country or are migrants trying to cross Mexico to get to the United States.

The study's tally may be high, she said, but even 5,000 victims a year would be "a very high number of kidnappings."

"There's much more going on that we don't see," Salazar said. "This gives you a sense that there's a lot of stuff going on in Mexico."

Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, said the abductions are another sign of the nation's serious problems.

"Mexican society is becoming increasing aware of the multiple faces of organized crime and its impact on citizens' everyday lives," he said. "We're all focused on the drug cartels and drugs, and there's a lot of this stuff that goes on."

Forced labor is a global issue, with an estimated 12.3 million people forced into such situations, said Joanna Ewart-James of the organization Anti-Slavery International. Forced labor can be found in both the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

Many of the people forced into slave labor are poor and dispossessed, Ewart-James said. Indigenous people, such as the victims in Mexico, are a common target.

"We know indigenous people are particularly discriminated against," she said. "It's much easier to exploit them."

Latin America accounts for the second largest number of forced laborers in the world, after Asia, the United Nations International Labour Organization said in its 2009 report on the issue.

"Those most at risk are migrant workers in sweatshops, agriculture and domestic service," the agency said. "The main form of forced labor is through debt bondage, involving informal and unlicensed intermediaries who pay advances to entice workers and then reap profits through inflated charges.

"Forced labor in Latin America is closely linked to patterns of inequality and discrimination, especially against indigenous peoples."

About 80 percent of forced laborers work for private companies. The remaining 20 percent work for state enterprises such as are found in China, North Korea and Myanmar, she said.

"Many of them make the goods and products that we buy," Ewart-James said.

Watch how slave labor affects food prices

Most garments and other domestic goods made by forced laborers, she said, are manufactured in six nations: China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Jordan and Argentina.

Ewart-James said Anti-Slavery International, which is based in London, England, defines forced labor as "work or service that is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for which the worker does not offer himself or herself voluntarily."

Those conditions even exist in the United States, says the International Labour Organization.

"Slaves are all around us, hidden in plain sight: the dishwasher in the kitchen of the neighborhood restaurant, the kids on the corner selling cheap trinkets, the man sweeping the floor of the local department store," the U.N. agency says in a recent book, "The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today."

The case in Mexico does not fit the typical mold, Ewart-James said.

"It's unusual that people in forced labor are found like that in Mexico: with bars and chains," she said. "We associate that with historical slavery."

Some governments, such as in Brazil, are taking a tough stance against slave labor. A special government task force established there in 1995 says it freed 4,634 workers last year in 133 raids on large farms and businesses that rely on workers driven to take those jobs by hunger and the empty promises of labor recruiters.

Brazil's Special Mobile Inspection Group consists of labor inspectors, federal police and attorneys from the federal labor prosecution branch. The group often raids workplaces looking for abuses and laborers held against their will.

Thursday's raid in Mexico was led by the Mexico City attorney general's anti-kidnapping division.