Forced labor occurs when individuals are forced against their will to provide work or service through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. This crime is done both in the U.S. and in other countries. As of 2016, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said that there were 24.9 million people around the world who were forced to work. Most victims aren’t able to get help for a number of reasons. For example, they might not speak the same language or might not be able to leave the building to get help if their movements are limited and watched by their boss.
Contents
Who is Affected?
Traffickers who use people as slaves don’t care who they hurt. The same goes for employers: People of any age, race, religion, gender identity, or country can be victims. They could also be from any social class. But some people may be more likely to be driven to work than others because of certain risk factors. These things are:
- Status of entry is uncertain
- Problems with language
- Poverty and not having enough money for food, a place to live, and safety
- Effects on the mind of a current or past trauma
- Having no friends, family, or society to help you out.
- People with physical or mental problems
Traffickers often target people who are weak or helpless, like children, people without legal immigration status, people with debts, and people who live alone, are poor, or are crippled, to name a few. People from the United States, other countries, men, women, and children can all be made to work.
What Does it Look Like?
Indicators of forced labor often combine and connect with each other. Some signs might not be as obvious as others. For example, the person could get into debt during the hiring process, which would be made worse if their company took unplanned money out of their pay. The worker can’t pay back their debt as quickly as they had hoped, and they get deeper into debt because they were lied to and their wages were taken away.
Does a person seem to be watched when they talk to or connect with other people? Do they live in dangerous, overcrowded, or cruel places that their employers have set up for them? Are they physically or culturally separate? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, it could mean that you are being forced to work.
There could be signs of forced labor at any point during the hiring and hiring process. Forced labor could start when the worker is being recruited. This could be done to force the worker to take the job, trick the worker into taking an abusive job, or create a debt bondage situation by charging recruitment fees that are almost impossible for the workers to pay back.
Once the person is hired, the boss can also force, cheat, or pressure them to do work that wasn’t agreed upon at the time of hiring. A worker may agree to do a job, then find that the conditions are not what was expected or what was agreed upon. However, the worker may not be able to leave the job because their boss won’t let them.
On the ILO’s website, you can find a list of ways to tell if someone is being pushed to work.
Forced Labor in the United States
Even though forced labor is a problem around the world, it does happen in the United States. Even though our country was founded on freedom and our Constitution guarantees it, forced work exists and still happens today. People who are pushed to work in the United States can be U.S. citizens or people from almost any other part of the world. This is true whether they came to the country legally or not.
Even though many people think that most people who are forced to work in the U.S. are here illegally, a study by the National Institute of Justice showed that 71% of those who are forced to work in the U.S. came here legally on H-2A or H-2B visas.The results of a recent investigation into a large-scale labor trafficking ring in South Georgia are in line with these numbers. All 26 of the farmworkers who were saved on November 17, 2021, were from Latin America and came to Georgia legally.
Forced Labor In Industry
Law enforcement in the United States has uncovered forced labor in a variety of industries.
Domestic Labor Trafficking by Sector (2020)
*Data provided by National Human Trafficking Hotline
| Domestic Labor Trafficking Sector | Percent |
|---|---|
| Domestic Work | 19% |
| Agriculture | 7.80% |
| Construction | 6% |
| Illicit Activities | 5% |
| Traveling Sales Crews | 6% |
| Other (Restaurant/Food Service, Hospitality, etc.) | 56% |
Goods Produced with Forced Labor Destined for U.S. Markets
As of June 23, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor had 155 items from 77 countries that were made with forced labor, including child labor, done by people who were not their own parents. Gold, bricks, and sugarcane were the goods for which the most countries used forced labor. Bricks, cotton, and clothes were the goods for which the most countries used child labor.
Goods made with forced labor that are sold in the U.S. hurt genuine trade and competition. U.S. law makes it illegal to bring things into the country that were mined, made, or made in part with forced labor. People who break this law may face criminal and/or civil consequences. A lack of transparency in global supply chains that are long and complicated or a lack of attention to the problem of forced labor can put workers’ lives in danger and hurt both customers and businesses.
Most of the things that are made with forced labor are raw materials or small parts that are used in the early stages of a company’s supply chain. In a textile supply chain, for example, workers at the beginning of a product’s life are most likely to be exploited or pushed to work:
Raw Material Sourcing: The first harvesting and preparation of raw materials is often done by hand and can be dangerous because workers can be exposed to harsh chemicals. These sellers are often called “Tier 3” suppliers. Most Tier 3 suppliers are small businesses that aren’t controlled. In the textile supply chain, the farm that sells cotton to the textile mill is the Tier 3 seller.
Components and sub-assemblies: “Tier 2” suppliers make parts and sub-assemblies, and they often get the materials they need from a number of “Tier 3” sources.In the supply line for textiles, Tier 2 would be the mill itself. Unfortunately, not all Tier 2 sellers do their research to make sure that none of their lower-level suppliers use forced labor. At this point, there can also be forced labor.
Final assembly/finished product: The “Tier 1” provider puts all the parts and sub-assemblies together to make the final product. Some Tier 1 suppliers only work with one store or brand, while others, like many in the textile supply chain, make final products for more than one retailer. For many products, the last step of putting them together takes a lot of manual labor.At this time, there is less chance that forced labor will be used, but it is still possible.
The U.S. has a law that says it can’t import things made with forced labor, and it can use both criminal and civil penalties to stop this from happening. You can find out more about child labor and forced labor in the supply chain by using the “Comply Chain” application from the Department of Labor.
This application helps companies and industry groups build strong social compliance systems for their global production. DOL also has a separate mobile app called Sweat and Toil that puts 1,000 pages of study about child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking in the palm of your hand. In September 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) released the Better Trade Tool, an interactive web-based visualization tool that links studies on child labor and forced labor with U.S. import trade data, such as US Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes. This new compliance and accountability tool gives users the power to make supply chain transparency and strategic sourcing goals move forward.
Stay tuned to our website Usacharged.com for more related updates.
