3071-The political economy of new slavery

David Ould 59
A completely different area of trafficking involves the offering of
employment to people from poor areas which involves them being taken
long distances away from their homes to work. When they arrive they
find that the types of work and the conditions of work are very different
from those contracted. Two areas which have much concerned Anti-
Slavery International in the past few years have been the employment of
Haitian migrants in the sugar cane plantations (bateyes) of the Dominican
Republic (DR) and the contracting of young men in north-east
Brazil for work in the development regions of Amazonia and Rondonia.
The exploitation of Haitians in the DR sugar industry is a long-running
scandal and, although the outright selling of men and children from
Haiti was ended in the 1980s, the current recruitment and employment
practices are often a form of trafficking. Haitian and DR contractors
meet migrants on either side of the Haiti – DR border and offer them
work in the DR. Often they will be told that the jobs are not in the sugar
cane plantations, which are known to be awful places. Once they have
accepted and signed a contract however, the Haitians are taken to the
plantations and the contractors receive their fees. The contracts tie them
into work on the plantations at very low wages and often the wages are
reduced by such measures as under-weighing of cane cut, forcing them
to shop in company stores where the prices are higher and payment by
tokens which can only be exchanged in one store. Living and working
conditions are also terrible and the DR army ensures that the workers
abide by their contracts. In the last two years there have been signs of
improvement in the bateyes but problems are still reported.
Similar problems are seen in Brazil. Landowners in Pará and other
states in Amazonia need to find many workers to undertake forest clearance.
Contractors are sent to the poor areas of Bahia and similar towns
to find new employees. Young men are offered contracts at rates that
would be reasonable in their home towns, but they are misled as to
the arduous nature of the work and the conditions under which they
will be working. They are then loaded into trucks and driven hundreds
of miles to isolated estates in Pará. On arrival they are told that they
must pay for the cost of travel and even the hire of tools. The work
is hard, the conditions terrible and living quarters are usually minimal.
In addition, the only food has to be purchased from the company store
where prices are much higher than expected. The workers soon fall into
debt and if they want to leave are told that they can only do so if they
repay all their debt to the company store. Armed guards patrol the
estates and workers who try to escape are beaten and even shot. When
contracts finish, the workers are paid off and sent to the nearest small