AMA
Critiques Forced Labor in the US
By Hazem I. Kira
CA
This report about forced labor
in the United States is issued by the American
Muslim Alliance (AMA) as part of its ‘Expanding
the American Muslim Agenda’ Series.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines
forced labor as “all work or service which
is exacted from any person under the menace of
any penalty for which the said person has not
offered himself [herself].”
Is it conceivable that helpless and vulnerable
workers are subjected to forced labor in the United
States? Unfortunately, yes. Hidden Slaves: Forced
Labor in the United States, a report issued by
the UC Berkeley Human Right Center (HRC), documents
this finding.
“Forced labor is prevalent in five sectors
of the US economy: prostitution and sex services
(46 per cent), domestic services (27 per cent),
agriculture (10 per cent), sweatshop/factory (5
per cent), and restaurant and hotel work (4 per
cent).”
HRC estimates that the actual number of forced
labor victims in the United States reaches “into
the tens of thousands.” The US government
has come to the assistance of only approximately
450 of these, over the past three years, the report
says. Victims are said to suffer constant psychological
assaults intended to keep them obedient, and they
come from predominantly impoverished areas of
the world.
The HRC’s data indicates forced labor operations
exist in at least 90 US cities from January 1998
to December 2003. Victims were held in forced
labor ranged from a few weeks to more than twenty
years, with the majority of cases lasting between
two and five years.
According to the findings, “forced labor
operations are concentrated in the states of California,
Florida, New York, and Texas—all of which
are transit routes for international travelers.”
Forced labor occurred in cities and states with
large populations and sizable immigrant communities.
It is important to understand that victims of
this nefarious activity come from “numerous
ethnic and racial groups.” Chinese workers
are the largest group of victims followed by Mexicans
and Vietnamese, the report said. Most are brought
in from 35 or more countries, and some are American
citizens.
Not surprisingly, the perpetrators and victims
are generally of the same nationality or ethnicity.
Forced labor persists in these sectors “because
of low wages, lack of regulation and monitoring
of working conditions, and a high demand for cheap
labor,” the report said. Such economic conditions
enable criminal networks and unprincipled employers
to control workers' lives.
In 1995 an uncovered sweatshop operated by a Chinese-Thai
family in El Monte, California, spurred a fervent
national debate on the issue of forced labor.
In the El Monte sweatshop, 72 workers, most of
them women, were “held” and forced
to sew garments behind a compound laced with razor
wire fences.
The national discussion eventually spurred Congress
to pass The Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Protection Act of 2000 (Trafficking Act). Previous
legislation, as interpreted by US courts, only
prevented the use of physical force or threats
and not psychological coercion or trickery to
hold victims in bondage. This limitation in the
application of the law was eliminated with the
passage of the Trafficking Act of 2000.
The 2000 Trafficking Act embodies a strong, hands-on
approach to the problem of human trafficking and
forced labor. As a result hundreds of perpetrators
have been arrested, and victims protected. Nonetheless,
the HRC report finds that because most victims
are undocumented workers or illegal aliens, “law
enforcement often regards them as criminals rather
than victims ensnared in an illicit trade.”
Ironically, “treating forced labor victims
as criminals only makes it easier for an ‘employer’
to get away with the crime because prosecutions
rarely succeed without cooperative eyewitnesses.”
The Trafficking Act allows immigration relief
and social services on condition of prosecutorial
cooperation and thus creates the perception that
survivors are primarily instruments of law enforcement
rather than individuals who are, in and of themselves,
deserving of protection and restoration of their
human rights.
By and large, victims of forced labor are reluctant
to report abuse to law enforcement personnel because
they fear retribution from their employers. To
overcome these obstacles, the HRC report states
there is “an urgent need to train law enforcement
personnel at all levels to recognize and assist
trafficking victims.”
Because trafficking is generally defined as a
federal crime to be handled by federal authorities,
the HRC believes that the lack of coordination
between federal and state law enforcement allows
forced labored perpetrators to go undetected.
In a move that indicates the expansion of immigrant
Muslim horizons and action agenda, the American
Muslim community is beginning to work with policymakers
and advocates in an effort to end the scourge
of forced labor. Muslims are talking more openly
on this issue and other issues of common good.
The challenge is to not only raise awareness of
this terrible problem but to get the relevant
agencies to take the necessary measures to eradicate
it. The AMA plans to gets the “AMA Youth
Think Tank” involved with developing position
papers and policy recommendations on this issue.
“We must remain alive to what the distinguished
American Muslim thinker Dr. Hathout has been saying
for years: ‘Any issue that pertains to human
happiness and benefit is a Muslim issue,’
“ AMA Chair Dr. Agha Saeed said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
