Labour Exploitation Trafficking and Migrant Health

Given that none of the textile workers interviewed, whether migrant worker of victim of trafficking,
had a signed legal contract, their work remained informal, which was against Argentinian labour
laws. This informality meant that the workers did not receive the social protection that they would
have had if they had been formal workers, such as social insurance (pension). Apparent violations of
labour rights and laws were evident in most interviews.
Occupational risk exposures and outcomes
Multiple occupational hazards associated with the textile jobs were identified in the experiences of
migrant workers and victims of trafficking interviewed for this study.
Working schedule
Working long hours can increase many health risks and accidents because sleep deprivation can lead
to fatigue and concentration difficulties and accidents, as well as longer-term effects of exhaustion,
illness and poor mental health. 63 For all those interviewed, long working hours seemed to be the
norm. Participants reported that a typical schedule for a migrant worker was from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (12
hours), Monday through Friday, with a half day on Saturday. However, in reality most migrant workers
reported working longer hours, with the exception of those with families living outside the workshop.
Sewing machine operators, in particular, reported working as many as 16 hours a day. These long
hours were a result of the way these workers were paid – on a per-garment basis according to the
number of units produced. Aiming for a higher income, sewing machine operators usually worked for
more hours than those required by the owner of the workshop.
Compared to migrant workers, victims of trafficking reported the greatest number of working hours.
Some of them were forced to work for almost 24 hours, with the average minimum working hours
reported being 16 to 18 hours. Alba, a 47-year-old victim of trafficking, described a grueling schedule:
“I started working at 6 a.m., I had to cook (...) [and then] working on the machine (...) we had 30
minutes to eat (...) and then 15 minutes for tea (...) 30 minutes for dinner at 9 p.m. (...) after dinner
we keep working, there were others that to earn more worked all night, from midnight ‘til midnight
and they rested on Sunday or Saturday, but we did not have a break.”
While migrant workers were able to rest on weekends, this was not true for the victims of trafficking,
who worked even on Sundays. Given that they received little or nothing of their salaries, victims
of trafficking were unable to buy food, so one motivation for some to work on Sundays was to get
free food, because it was only provided to them when they were working. Victims of trafficking
reported being hungry, particularly on the weekends. Raul, a 38-year-old victim of trafficking, spoke
of staying in the workshop in order to eat: “We had Saturdays and Sundays off [but they let me] stay
on Saturdays and Sundays, since I told them I had no money (...) because going out would make us
hungry, we saw good stuff (...) we wanted to stay in the workshop, and in exchange they told me I
had to clean the workshop if I wanted to stay (...) the shower, the bathroom, everything, I had to do
all that for staying.”
Among migrant workers, those who lived and worked in the same physical space tended to work
more hours compared with those living outside the workplace with their families. Usually those
residing at the workplace wanted to use as much time there as possible to earn money, so they
worked more hours. Some men, like Pedro, a 29-year-old migrant worker, reported sleeping in the
workshop during the week in order to avoid spending time and money commuting to their home
where their wives and children lived: “Only once I lived in the workshop, but because it was very far,
the bus ticket was very expensive. But I always went because I lived with my family, they were already
here [in Argentina], and I had to go and see them sometimes. It feels different to leave them for a
week and then after a week go back home. I had to see my son, I had two children.”
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Cathy Zimmerman et al., Health and human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion: Findings from a survey of men women and
children in Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam, International Organization for Migration and London School of Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland, 2014. Available from http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/Steam_Report_Mekong.pdf.
Labour Exploitation, Trafficking and Migrant Health
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