Forced Labor & Migration
An estimated 12.3 million people around the world are trapped in forced labor. Laborers are often kept in their exploitative situation through debt bondage, forced to pay off an unreasonable debt to their ‘owners’. Victims of forced labor often suffer psychological assaults designed to keep them submissive.
The IOM defines migration as individuals or families moving to another country to better their material or social conditions. An irregular migrant is someone who, due to illegal entry or the expiry of their visa, lacks legal status in the transit or host country where they are migrating.
As long as cheap goods are in demand and there is little accountability in specific trade markets, labor trafficking and debt bondage will continue to exist across the globe. Fair trade campaigns can help keep these trade markets in check.
Focus on Cambodia...
Cambodia’s legacy of prolonged civil war, porous borders, undeveloped infrastructure, poverty and geographic location make it a major point of origin, destination and transit for irregular migrants. Many Cambodians voluntarily move to countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia looking for work. According to the UNIAP, 50% of Cambodians are under the age of 20, resulting in 150,000 to 175,000 people annually joining the labor market. Cambodian migrants are usually disappointed upon arrival when they realize the working conditions are bad, or that there is no work. Irregular migrants are at a significantly higher risk of being trafficked or exploited.
Focus on the United States...
In the United States, forced labor exists in legal and illegal industries that are poorly regulated and fail to comply with U.S. labor laws. Conservative estimates suggest that at least 10,000 forced laborers are working in the U.S. at any given time.
In recent years, a high incidence of forced labor has been discovered within the agricultural sector, and domestic service in U.S. homes. Every year, citizens and foreign nationals living in the U.S. bring thousands of domestic workers into the country, and many suffer abuse. Like agricultural workers, domestic workers have very few legal protections.
