|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ARGENTINA:
Slave Labour
Alive and Well
Marcela
Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) -
"They exploit us and threaten to
hand us over to the police. When
I was single I could claim my
rights, but now with three
children I have to accept the
humiliation and submit to
slavery," said José Orellana, a
Bolivian immigrant who was able
to escape with his family from a
clandestine textile factory in
Buenos Aires.
Parque Avellaneda is a
neighbourhood on the west side
of the Argentine capital. In
this district alone, there are
approximately 40 small
sweatshops, according to
investigators. The textile
factories, which operate in what
are ostensibly private homes,
produce clothes for top-line
labels like Montagne or Lácar.
The workers are Bolivian
immigrants who are drawn to this
country by the promise of a good
income and a place to live. But
soon after they arrive, many of
them discover a hell on earth:
their entire family locked into
a small room, facing constant
threats, and receiving their pay
in dribs and drabs.
When Orellana started working,
the factory owner, Juan Carlos
Salazar - who is also Bolivian -
promised to pay him per garment
produced. "We reckoned that I
would earn $1,500 pesos a month.
But when payday rolled around,
Salazar would say he didn't have
the money, or that he'd better
keep it for me until the end of
the year so I wouldn't spend it
all," Orellana told IPS.
The boss would give him 20 pesos
(6.50 dollars) as an "advance".
The food included in the
contract was for "employees"
only. "In order for my children
(aged five, seven and eight) to
eat, we had to go hungry
ourselves," said Orellana.
The single room provided for the
family of five was "a disaster."
"There were cables on the floor
and running up the walls, and
three sewing machines in use day
and night, right next to our
beds," he added.
According to records at the
Durand and Álvarez public
hospitals, there are many
undocumented immigrants in the
neighbourhood who have been
admitted with tuberculosis and
lung ailments caused by the dust
they inhale in the workshops, or
in their living quarters where
the sewing machines operate
around the clock.
Orellana recalls that the
bathroom was shared with 20
other people, and that they were
almost never allowed to go out
into the street. He could only
take his children to school, but
not all the foreigners were
permitted to do this. They
couldn't take their children to
the hospital, either, when they
fell sick.
"Parties" were organised by the
boss at the weekends, and the
wine flowed freely so that the
workers would forget their
troubles and not ask for
permission to go out. "You had
to argue a lot to be able to go
out, and eventually we would be
allowed to do so, but they would
be angry with us for a whole
week afterwards," he recounted.
A few months ago, Orellana and
his family managed to escape.
With the support of a community
organisation and the backing of
the city ombudsperson's office,
the immigrant brought charges
against his former boss in
October. But the factory owner
was only held in remand for 15
days, until a judge ruled that
there was no merit to the
complaint. The verdict has been
appealed, however, and the
investigation continues.
Buenos Aires ombudsperson Alicia
Pierini told IPS that the trial
involving Orellana and others is
a test case, and that her office
is investigating several other
cases as well. The charges
against Salazar are trafficking
of persons, forced labour, and
violation of the law on
home-based work.
"We are not interested so much
in winning a particular case, as
in discovering how the whole
illegal economic system that
enslaves so many people works,"
the defence lawyer declared.
Dec 2, the International Day for
the Abolition of Slavery,
commemorates the date in 1949
when the United Nations General
Assembly adopted the Convention
for the Suppression of the
Traffic in Persons and of the
Exploitation of the Prostitution
of Others, one of several
international instruments aimed
at combating modern-day slave
labour.
Argentina ratified the U.N.
Convention Against Transnational
Organised Crime and its three
protocols on the trafficking in
persons, smuggling of migrants,
and illicit manufacturing of and
trafficking in firearms, parts
and ammunition, which went into
effect in 2003.
The Buenos Aires ombudsperson's
office estimates that around
150,000 people have fallen
victim to this new form of
slavery. In addition to the
sweatshops operating in Buenos
Aires, there are others in
districts on the outskirts of
the capital like Avellaneda,
Lomas de Zamora, Lanús and
Laferrere.
According to Pierini, most of
the victims are undocumented
Bolivians smuggled into the
country by bus, although smaller
numbers of Peruvians,
Paraguayans and Argentines are
also submitted to forced labour
as well.
"The Argentines and Paraguayans
mostly work in factories
producing footwear, but under
similar conditions: earning
extremely meagre pay in
sweatshops operating in
residential buildings as part of
a black-market trading network.
But it's worse in the garment
business, because whole families
are locked up," she pointed out.
Pierini preferred not to comment
on whether there is a lack of
political will to eradicate this
form of exploitation. "I can't
rule out the possibility, but we
need to continue to investigate
without preconceptions, and see
what we discover," she said.
If the charges can be made to
stick, it will be the first case
involving human trafficking for
labour exploitation, rather than
forced prostitution, in the
country. (Earlier cases have
involved sexual exploitation).
"So far no labour exploitation
charges have been proven,"
Eugenio Freixas, the head of the
public prosecutor's office's
department of assistance to
crime victims, said when he was
informed of Orellana's case.
Freixas' department is in charge
of enforcing the Convention for
the Suppression of the Traffic
in Persons.
Argentina has not yet passed a
federal law clamping down on
trafficking in persons, as
stipulated by the Convention and
its protocols, said Freixas,
whose department presented a
bill to that effect in Congress.
Salazar, meanwhile, has
threatened Orellana and the
other Bolivians who were able to
escape from his factory.
"They take advantage of us
because they know that we
Bolivians are submissive and
hard-working," said Orellana,
expressing the marginalisation
to which immigrant communities
like Bolivians and Peruvians are
subjected in Argentina.
After leaving the nightmare
behind, Orellana opened a small
bakery in the La Alameda
community soup kitchen, and with
his income he was able to rent a
"decent" room with a bathroom
for his family. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
