Wal Mart sells slave goods

Forced labor fuels development, U.S. report finds

From Elise Labott
CNN State Department Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Slave labor in developing countries such as Brazil, China and India is fueling part of their huge economic growth, according to a State Department report released Wednesday.

The department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" found increased allegations of forced labor made in connection with a variety of agricultural products and manufactured goods in developing countries.

In Brazil, the report found a "trafficking phenomenon." It said thousands of trafficked and forced laborers had been found on plantations growing sugar cane for Brazil's booming production and export of the biofuel ethanol.

The report cites shrimp processed in Thailand and Bangladesh; clothing from Bangladesh, India, Jordan and Malaysia; and bricks made in India, China and Pakistan as being among the products of booming industries in which workers are subjected to forced labor, debt bondage and hazardous working conditions. Laws are not adequate to punish those responsible, it adds.

China was found to have a "significant" problem with forced labor, including forced child labor. Children as young as 12 are reportedly subject to forced labor under the guise of "work and study programs" and subject to excessively long hours, dangerous conditions, low pay and physical abuse. The report found China's growing brick industry is fraught with cover-ups of the problem.

For the fourth year in a row, China was put on a "watch list" of countries that could face sanctions if they don't improve their efforts to combat trafficking.

India was also placed on the watch list for not doing enough to solve its trafficking problem, according to the report. While commercial sexual exploitation remained a problem in India, the State Department found internal forced labor "may constitute India's largest trafficking problem." It said men, women and children are forced to work in brick kilns, rice mills, agricultural businesses and embroidery factories.

Once again, the report found U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf to have dismal records on trafficking.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman were listed as destination countries with widespread trafficking abuses. The report cites forced laborers trafficked from Asia and Africa who are subject to restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, threats, and physical and sexual abuse. The report found those countries made weak efforts to rescue the workers and prosecute the traffickers.

The other countries on the blacklist are Algeria, Myanmar, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Moldova, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Sudan and Syria.
[link to www.cnn.com]



Overview Child Laborers
by Andrew Fallone
May 2005

In the year 2003, there were 246 million child laborers in the world and this number is continuing to grow (Child Labour: The 1). Child slave labor is evident in many different countries from all across the world. Many different industries participate in using cheap child slave labor in third world countries to make larger profits. A few examples of the jobs children are forced to work on farms, in homes, in mines, as prostitutes, as street vendors, and in factories (Child Labour: The 2). Some of these factories or sweatshops they are forced to work in produce shoes, clothing, and toys. There are many infamous companies that are known for exploiting children and creating sweatshops in third world countries. Wal-Mart and Nike are some of the most notorious companies that exploit poor people third world countries. Child slave labor is becoming a more significant problem in the modern world. Approximately 22 thousand children die every year caused by labor related disasters (Child Labour: The 1). Child slave labor is found in many third world countries, for example China, Nepal, and India.
[link to ihscslnews.org]



Slave Labor in China Sparks Outrage
By Simon Elegant/Beijing


The furor in China surrounding the discovery that children and the mentally handicapped had been kidnapped and sold into slavery is showing no sign of abating. It seems increasingly likely that the controversy will mark a significant milestone in the evolution of the country's civil society. Police said they had rescued more than 500 people from forced labor in brick kilns, where they were worked 18 hours a day and beaten if they tried to escape. Some 30 arrests have been made and more are expected following a massive police rescue operation involving 35,000 officers checking 7,500 work places.

The crackdown began after some 400 parents of children who they suspected had been kidnapped published an anguished letter on the popular Internet forum Tianya Club on June 7. The letter said they had managed to rescue some 40 children before running into stiff resistance from the local authorities in the northeastern province of Shanxi, where most of the kilns were situated. The letter sparked a storm on the Internet, and by June 13 a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party expressed concern about the issue. The police action soon followed.
[link to www.time.com]

also see:

How China Hides Its Slave Labor From the Free World
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
note: See part one of series, Americans Fund Slave Labor, and part two, China's Nazi-like Genocide.
[link to archive.newsmax.com]