Torture in [Pakistan] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Pakistan Street Children in [Pakistan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Pakistan] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Pakistan.htm
Pakistan is a
source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. The
country’s largest human trafficking problem is that of bonded labor, which is
concentrated in Sindh and Punjab provinces, particularly in brick kilns,
carpet-making, agriculture, fishing, mining, leather tanning, and production
of glass bangles; estimates of Pakistani victims of bonded labor, including
men, women, and children, vary widely but are likely over one million.
Parents sell their daughters into domestic servitude, prostitution, or forced
marriages, and women are traded between tribal groups to settle disputes or
as payment for debts. - U.S. State
Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Pakistan. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their
authenticity or to verify their content. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Slavery in the 21st century Alan McCombes,
Scottish Socialist Voice, November 2001 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/2001/12/slavery-in-the-21st-century/959 [accessed 21 December 2011] Bonded labour otherwise known as debt slavery is rampant in In return for the
loan, the entire family is turned into the private property of the employer.
They are forced to work long hours for pitiful wage and half of these wages
are kept by the factory owner as payment towards the loan. The loan may take a generation or more to
pay off. But until it is paid, the family are held
in slavery. Iqbal had been sold by
his mother to a carpet manufacturer at the age of four. For years he spent
twelve hours a day, seven days a week working in carpet factories for a
pittance. He eventually rebelled
against his conditions and became a major figure in the BLLF. At the age of
12 he was traveling Pakistan addressing mass meetings and leading demos of
thousands of children against industrial slavery. To this day, his murder has never been
satisfactorily explained. Contemporary Forms of Slavery in Human Rights Watch/Asia, Library of
Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-77876, ISBN 1-56432-154-1, July 1995 www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/Pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] SUMMARY - Millions of
workers in Third Anniversary of the Murder of Iqbal Masih, Pakistani Child
Activist (1983-1995) Child Labor Coalition, Washington DC, April
15, 1998 killarneyaboutchildlabour.blogspot.com/2008/11/americans-honor-iqbal-masih.html [accessed 28 August 2011] Iqbal Masih made a difference. His was the voice of a child pointing out to adults the horrible costs and injustices of child slavery. Twelve years old and one of the mightiest voices in Pakistan against child labor, Iqbal was a compelling survivor of slavery in Pakistan's carpet industry. For half of his
life, Iqbal was bonded in the hand-knotted carpet
industry. Enslaved at the age of four, for an advance of less than $16 to his
parents, he was chained to his loom, tying tiny knots for twelve hours a day,
every day. Six years later, when he confronted his boss demanding his
freedom, the debt he owed had risen to $419. Woman jailed for forcing child into sex
trade Independent Online (IOL) News, www.iol.co.za/news/world/woman-jailed-for-forcing-child-into-sex-trade-1.226224 [accessed 15 December 2010] Last week a non-governmental organisation said there was a growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation abroad. The Modar organisation said groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as $70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61710.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Although no accurate statistics on trafficking existed, the country was a
source, transit, and destination country for trafficked persons. Women and
girls were trafficked from Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3
October 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/pakistan2003.html [accessed 15 December 2010] [76] While noting
the serious efforts undertaken by the State party to prevent child
trafficking, the Committee is deeply concerned at the very high incidence of
trafficking in children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, bonded labor
and use as camel jockeys. Saeed Shah in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/21/pakistan-gang-rape-mukhtaran-mai [accessed 22 April 2011] Mai's ordeal began
after her 13-year-old brother was accused by a more powerful clan of having
sex with one of their young women. He was then sodomised
in a sugar cane field by the woman's brother, Abdul Khaliq,
and two other men. There appears to be no basis for the original accusation. A tribal council
was assembled from Khaliq's clan, which ordered
that Mai be punished for her brother's illicit sex by being raped, on the basis
of eye-for-an-eye justice. Mai was forced at gunpoint by Khaliq
into a stable, where he and other clan members raped her. She was then
paraded naked around the village. Tradition dictated that Mai commit suicide,
as the shame supposedly fell on her, but she decided to fight her tormentors. The cruelty of
Mai's case is repeated in the treatment of women across the country, with
tribal councils regularly ordering young girls to be handed over in
compensation for crimes committed by other family members, and women to be
killed for "honour". Human trafficking gang busted, girl
recovered The News International, www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=179371 [access date unavailable] The Federal
Investigation Agency (FIA) Sunday busted an international human trafficking
gang and recovered a girl sold to an Arab Sheikh for Rs2 million. The
officials of the FIA Peshawar were tipped off that a gang would smuggle a
young girl of Lala Killay
to Dubai where she had been sold to … Human trafficking victim narrates her
ordeal The News International, 01/07/2009 www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=155996 [access date unavailable] Shabana was lured with a
nice job and kidnapped along with her three daughters and one son on July 20,
2008 and taken to the ‘katcha area’ of Kashmore on the Sindh-Balochistan
border area. “A man called Rasheed Shar said I was like
his sister. He offered me a nice job in interior Sindh,” Shabana
told The News on Tuesday. “He took me to a ‘katchi
area’ near Kashmore along with my four kids —
seven-year-old Sana, four-year-old Roshi,
six-year-old Aisha, and eight-year-old Suleman.” “He kept us there for three days and then
disappeared. My elder daughter Sana became ill and I tried to escape but Rasheed’s younger brother, Shabeeb,
threatened to kill us,” she said with tears in her eyes. “Then they shifted
me to a place near the river and threatened to throw me in the water after
killing me. However, Rasheed’s son-in-law Lalu became a blessing in disguise and helped us.” After two or three
weeks, one of Rasheed’s brothers came to Shabana and said that they were dacoits. “Rasheed called us up on his brother’s cell phone, and
said he was waiting for us on the other bank of the river. He told us to get
on a boat which was waiting there. He promised he would take us back to
Karachi,” Shabana said. “After about two hours we
were shifted to the ‘katcha area’ across the river.
However, the moment we arrived there, we were surrounded by many people and I
came to know that I was being sold. I told them I was already married but I
was sold to an elderly man, Ali Mohammad Kurd. I remained with him for about
two months and was often beaten severely. In the meantime, several other
people offered to purchase me. I was sold thrice. However, on a lucky day, I
along with my kids managed to escape to Kashmore.” 'Rat people' forced to beg on Agence France-Presse AFP, afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOmE7u7DlUpw1GwT37ut9uc1xf7A [accessed 15 December 2010] Outside a Muslim
shrine in this dusty Pakistani city, a "rat woman" with a tiny head
sits on a filthy mattress and takes money from worshippers who cling to an
ancient fertility rite. Nadia, 25, is
one of hundreds of young microcephalics -- people
born with small skulls and protruding noses and ears because of a genetic
mutation -- who can be found on the streets of Gujrat,
in central Punjab province. Officials
say many of them have been sold off by their families to begging mafias, who
exploit a tradition that the "rat children" are sacred offerings to
Shah Daula, the shrine's 17th century Sufi saint. According to local
legend, infertile women who pray at Shah Daula's shrine
will be granted children, but at a terrible price. The first child will be
born microcephalic and must be given to the shrine,
or else any further children will have the same deformity. Hussain said
Nadia was just a young child when she was dumped at the shrine 20 years ago
in the dead of the night. Her parents were never traced, he says. "Some of these
children, the handicapped ones especially, are accompanied by
relatives," he told AFP. "But begging gangs also look for poor
parents who will sell them because they are a burden to feed and
shelter." Sohail
said his department had busted more than 30 gangs across the province
involved in exploiting street children,
some of which had broken the limbs of children so that they would earn more as
beggars. -
htsc HRCP terms 2007 ‘multi-crisis year’ Daily Times, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\30\story_30-3-2008_pg7_36 [accessed 15 December 2010] HRCP Director IA Rehman told reporters at the launch of the organisation’s annual report – ‘State of Human Rights in
2007’ – at the Lahore Press Club that many reports had been received from
various parts of Balochistan in 2007, claiming that
parents or children had been left with no option but to sell their kidneys in
order to feed their families, due to the ongoing crisis of armed conflict
there. Organ trafficking: a fast-expanding black
market ISH Janes, 05
March 2008 www.janes.com/news/publicsafety/jid/jid080305_1_n.shtml [accessed 15 December 2010] UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportID=76109 [accessed 10 September 2011] While boys in
impoverished parts of rural Pakistan, particularly towns in the southern
Punjab, are more likely to be trafficked overseas, girls are trafficked more
often within the country, and sometimes sold into what amounts to little more
than sexual slavery, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). HRCP has reported
that in most cases, they are given away for amounts of money ranging from
US$1,300 to $5,000 by impoverished parents, sometimes in
"marriage"; and sometimes to agents who promise lucrative jobs as
domestic servants in large cities. Many of these
girls, according to child rights groups, end up as sex workers. Some are no
older than 10 at the time of the "sale". "Hundreds of
girls are trafficked within the country each year. There are markets in the
North West Frontier Province where these victims are sold like cattle,"
I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, said. - htcp Woman jailed for forcing child into sex
trade Independent Online (IOL) News, www.iol.co.za/news/world/woman-jailed-for-forcing-child-into-sex-trade-1.226224 [accessed 15 December 2010] Last week a non-governmental organisation said there was a growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation abroad. The Modar organisation said groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as $70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12. International day to eliminate violence
against women on 25th Nadia Usman,
Daily Times, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\11\24\story_24-11-2007_pg7_49 [accessed 15 December 2010] According to the
data compiled by Madadgaar Helpline, 4,624 women
were victimised in SPARC condemns human trafficking The News, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] Some tribal elders
from Balochistan also attended the meeting in which
the girl’s family was told to give her as per their customs. This trading,
which in many cases is done under the name of loan settling, is contingent
upon the power, might and money of the lenders, who provide loans to the
needy and later impose heavy interest in order to get away with their
innocent minor daughters. “Child trafficking can be facilitated by local
practices and customs because of the economic problems a family faces that
forces them to sell their daughters to marriage. Horrific fate awaits children spurned by
society Aroosa Masroor
Khan, The News, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] “Saddar is the hub of street children from all areas of
Karachi,” says Aqsa Zainab of Azad Foundation,
adding that child abusers are mostly found near shrines where ‘langar’ is distributed or near railway stations where
they arrive from other cities. It is from here the young boys are kidnapped
and sold as commercial sex workers. – htsccp Govt committed to
eliminate problems of human trafficking: Shaukat
Aziz The News, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] The Prime Minister was
informed that there has been a significant increase in the arrest of human
traffickers and smugglers. Whereas only 300 human smugglers were arrested in
2004. The number of arrested smugglers
increased to 874 in 2006 while the number of deportees has been decreased. UN report regarding Pak Tribune, [accessed 15 December 2010] Meanwhile, Federal
Health Minister Nasser Khan told Upper House a particular lobby is working
against Pak one of the key sources of women
trafficking in world: UN report Bureau Report, Zee News, September 12, 2006 www.zeenews.com/news322023.html [accessed 15 December 2010] A UN report has
described Pakistani minister for community
involvement in eliminating human trafficking Xinhua News Agency, June 20 2006 english.people.com.cn/200606/20/eng20060620_275489.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Pakistani Interior
Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao
on Monday stressed the need for involvement of the whole community in the
efforts to eliminate human trafficking.
"We believe that most effective way of eliminating human
trafficking is by empowering people at risk," he said, adding that
"empowerment of people is possible through education, employment and
provision of security," Crackdown on human trafficking At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] Human trafficking allegations involve Swiss
diplomatic missions in Pakistan Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC News,
May 19, 2006 www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/05/19/swiss05192006.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Switzerland shut
the visa section at its Islamabad embassy earlier this month, following a
Pakistani investigation into the illegal issuing of Swiss visas that has
led to a number of arrests. Swiss Envoys in IdslamOnline.net, slashnews.co.uk/news/2006/05/09/3551/Swiss-Envoys-in-Pakistan-Embroiled-in-Human-Trafficking [accessed 15 December 2010] The issue came to
the surface after local media started highlighting the plight of Pakistani
visa applicants who complained of sexual harassment by Swiss embassy
officials. FIA has curbed human trafficking Javed Afridi,
Daily Times, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\05\07\story_7-5-2006_pg7_21 [accessed 15 December 2010] The Federal
Investigation Agency’s (FIA) work over the last year and a half has brought
down human trafficking by “200 percent” over the period, Sherpao
told reporters at Indo-Pak girls forced into prostitution Hindustan Times, Asian News International, fleshploitation.blogspot.com/2006/02/young-indo-pak-girls-sold-into-mid.html [accessed 15 December 2010] In a startling case
of organised women trafficking that has come to
light, Pakistani and Indian girls aged between 11 and 13 are being smuggled
to the Quake Orphans Being Sold into Prostitution The Australian News, 10/30/2005 www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=50943 [accessed 15 December 2010] Aisha loves the
clothes her new guardian has bought for her, what she doesn't realize is this
woman just bought her for $1500 and intends to make her into a prostitute.
Other children in the area are being bought up by pimps who will pay twice
that. Slavery Survives, Despite Universal
Abolition Ron Synovitz,
Radio Free Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1060833.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Nadeem has spent most of
his life hunched over a carpet loom in US Report Lauds Pak Steps Against Human
Trafficking At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] The US State
Department has praised Girls In At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10 September 2011] At least 54 Iranian
girls and young women, between the ages of 16 and 25, are sold on the streets
of Forced Marriage - Pakistanis Order
Betrothal of 2-Year-Old Khalid Tanveer,
Associated Press AP, www.redorbit.com/news/general/129736/pakistanis_order_betrothal_of_2yearold/ [accessed 7 May 2012] A tribal council in
In
2002, another village council near Man Sells Two Minor Daughters The Dawn Media Group, Sukkur,
Aug 25, 2004 archives.dawn.com/2004/08/25/local43.htm [accessed 10 September 2011] A
man allegedly sold his two minor daughters in the Allah Warrayo
Mallah village, near Bozdar
Wada, Khairpur, on Tuesday morning. Seven-year-old Fauzia and five-year-old Aasia
were sold by their father , Lal
Bux alias Laloo Shaikh, for Rs80,000 and an acre of agricultural land. She
said their father without their consent had engaged them to Sikiladho and Allah Warrayo,
both sons of Sono Pasayo.
She said when they resisted this decision, their
father started beating them after which she came to the house of her uncle. Judge Orders Inquiry Into Qurban Ali Khushik, Dadu, April 6, 2004 archives.dawn.com/2004/04/07/local33.htm [accessed 2 September 2012] A
judge directed police to conduct an inquiry into the sale of a seven-year-old
girl to a 35-year-old man for marriage.
His wife complained that he had sold the girl for Rs18,000 to a resident of Mazdoorabad
Mohalla in Dadu for
marriage but the girl managed to escape. Girl Rescued From Gamblers The Dawn Media Group, Okara,
Jul 21, 2004 archives.dawn.com/2004/07/21/local34.htm [accessed 10 September 2011] Reports
said Allah Ditta of 20/GD lost Rs160,000 in gambling a month ago. After
some time when Allah Ditta could not pay the
amount, the winners sought custody of his daughter Child camel jockeys find hope Lucy Williamson, BBC News, newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4236123.stm [accessed 15 December 2010] Children from Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sudan are still being smuggled to the United Arab Emirates to
work as camel jockeys, despite a law passed two years ago banning their
use. It is not uncommon for child
jockeys to fall off and be injured while racing, and their illegal status
means race track owners are often reluctant to take them to hospital. Instead, says Ansar
Burney, the boys often arrive with broken hands or broken legs. And many, he
says, have been sodomized. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/pakistan [accessed 27 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 15 December 2010] Library of Congress Call Number DS376.9
.P376 1995 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pktoc.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Andrew Bushell, www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/02161800.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] Servitude exists in
many forms in www.paralumun.com/issuespak.htm [access date unavailable] Women are being
sold like animals in Pakistani markets.
The trade is being encouraged by corrupt officials and politicians in
the Sindh province of the country.
Anti human practices are taking place in markets of Thar and other parts of Sindh under protection of
influential politicians. The buyers of
these unfortunate women fix their prices after examining and scanning their
bodies. They humiliate and sexually
harass these women in public. Slavery in the 21st century Alan McCombes,
Scottish Socialist Voice, November 2001 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/2001/12/slavery-in-the-21st-century/959 [accessed 21 December 2011] Bonded labour otherwise known as debt slavery is rampant in In return for the
loan, the entire family is turned into the private property of the employer.
They are forced to work long hours for pitiful wage and half of these wages
are kept by the factory owner as payment towards the loan. The loan may take a generation or more to
pay off. But until it is paid, the family are held
in slavery. Iqbal had been sold by
his mother to a carpet manufacturer at the age of four. For years he spent
twelve hours a day, seven days a week working in carpet factories for a
pittance. He eventually rebelled
against his conditions and became a major figure in the BLLF. At the age of
12 he was traveling Pakistan addressing mass meetings and leading demos of
thousands of children against industrial slavery. To this day, his murder has never been
satisfactorily explained. Modern Day Slavery Fact Sheet Meg, Anti-Slavery, Sep 29, 2004 www.angelfire.com/psy/150/Slave_abolish.htm [accessed 2 September 2012] The most common
form of slavery is debt bondage, in which a human being becomes collateral
against a loan. With a massive population boom in regions of staggering
poverty, some families have nothing to pledge for a loan but their own labor.
With inflated interest rates, debts are often inherited, ensnaring
generations. 15 to 20 million slaves are in debt bondage in Bangladesh,
India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Facts & Figures A Rapid Assessment of Bonded Labour in the
Carpet Industry of At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10 September 2011] PAKISTAN - • Young children
whose parents take money in advance for their work on carpet looms are
victims of the “peshgi” or debt-bondage system in Pakistan.
They are paid half the wages of older workers and are not allowed to leave
the premises until the debt is fully paid. Older workers sexually abuse these
children. (A Rapid Assessment of
Bonded Labour in the Carpet Industry of Pakistan, International Labour
Office, March 2004). Nike Shoes and Child Labor in TED Case Studies www1.american.edu/TED/nike.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] NIKE AS A HELPER OR
EXPLOITER TO IIIRD WORLD - A columnist 'Stephen Chapman'
from Libertarian newspaper argues that "But why is it
unconscionable for a poor country to allow child labor? Pakistan has a
per-capita income of $1,900 per year - meaning that the typical person
subsists on barely $5 per day. Is it a a revelation - or a crime - that some parents willingly
send their children off to work in a factory to survive? Is it cruel for Nike
to give them the chance?" (source:
http://www.raincity.com/~williamf/words96.html) Stephen argues that
the best way to end child-labor is to buy more of the products that children
produce. This would increase their demand, and as they will produce more,
they will earn more, hence giving themselves chane
to rise above poverty level and thus also benefiting the families of the
children and as well as the nation. However, the issue
is not that simple. Increasing the demand of the products produced by child
labor means encouraging more child labor, encouraging more birth rates, more
slavery, increasing sweatshops and discouraging education - as parents of the
children working in factories would want them to work more and earn more. If
this happened to be the case, then more and more children will be bought and
sold on the black market, leading no end to this problem. By encouraging more
child labor, you are not only taking away those innocent years from them but
also the right to be educated and the right to be free. Saudi Religious Leader Calls for Slavery's
Legalization Daniel Pipes, Lion's Den (Daniel Pipes
Blog), November 7, 2003 www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/11/saudi-religious-leader-calls-for-slaverys [accessed 15 December 2010] Muslims, in contrast, still think the old way. Slavery still exists in a host of majority-Muslim countries (especially Sudan and Mauritania, also Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) and it is a taboo subject. To enable pious Muslims to avoid interest, an Islamic financial industry worth an estimated $150 billion has developed. The challenge ahead
is clear: Muslims must emulate their fellow monotheists by modernizing their
religion with regard to slavery, interest and much else. No more fighting
jihad to impose Muslim rule. No more endorsement of suicide terrorism. No
more second-class citizenship for non-Muslims. In Owais Tohid,
www.csmonitor.com/2003/1215/p08s01-wosc.html [accessed 15 December 2010] "Once the hari [peasant] is caught in debt then he and his family
becomes virtual prisoners of the feudal lord," says Nasreen
Pathan with Pakistan-based Human Rights Commission.
"Peasants are illiterate and cannot keep account,
and the interest on the loan increases on the whims and wishes of feudal
lords and their men." People are either
born into bondage, sold into it by family members, or enter through loans
they cannot repay. "I was born on
the fields, married there, but did not want to die there," says Sanwal Kohli, who was released
three years ago by the human rights activists during a police-led raid.
Showing scars on his back and legs, he says, "They used to beat us up
for slightest mistakes and kept us chained at nights. Armed men guarded the
fields so nobody would run away." IOM launches initiative to combat human
trafficking UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=23869 [accessed 20 February 2011] In 2002, police
recovered 11 infants - the oldest barely 18 months - from a middle-class Killing for carpets -- slavery and death in
www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Life_Death_ThirdWorld/Carpets.html [accessed 15 December 2010] "Oriental"
carpets are valued throughout the world. They are found in the homes of the
well-to-do, on the floors of corporate boardrooms, and in marbled palaces of
sheiks and kings. They come from Asia and the Middle East -- Iran, Kashmir,
China, and the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union. They are
also made in Pakistan, in factories in which children as young as four years
of age, often chained to their looms, squat shoulders hunched, for 14 hours a
day, six days a week, making beautifully intricate carpets by tying thousands
of knots with fingers gnarled and callused from years of back-breaking
labor. In Pakistan, between 500,000
and 1,000,000 children between the ages of four and fourteen work full-time
as carpet weavers. Stop Child Slave Auctions in Andrew Bushell,
" At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] [scroll down to
BACKGROUND INFORMATION] As the war in They are then sold
again in bustling slave auctions to the highest bidder. The boys are used as
domestic or manual laborers; some are shipped to the Persian Gulf, where they
are used as camel jockeys. The price for the girls is euphemized as a dowry.
But they never marry; instead, the girls are used for sex - in a brothel, as
a concubine, or in a harem. Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation - Coalition Against Trafficking in Women www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] Auctions of girls
are arranged for three kinds of buyers: rich visiting Arabs (sheiks,
businessmen, visitors, state-financed medical and university students), the
rich local gentry, and rural farmers. (CATW - Asia Pacific "Trafficking
in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific". The Enslavement of Dalit and Indigenous
Communities in UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights, February 2001 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] SUMMARY: This paper
describes the gross and continuing violation of the rights of millions of
people in India, Pakistan and Nepal, who are trapped in debt bondage and
forced to work to repay loans. Their designation as persons belonging outside
the Hindu caste system is a major determining factor of their enslavement. Evidence from all three countries shows
that the vast majority (80%-98%) of bonded labourers
are from communities designated as “untouchable”, to whom certain occupations
are assigned, or from indigenous communities.
In the same way that caste status is inherited, so debts are passed on
to the succeeding generations. Modern Slavery - Human bondage in Africa,
Asia, and the Dominican Republic Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, infoplease, April 18,
2001 www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html [accessed 15 December 2010] SHACKLED LABORERS IN
In a 1992 law
passed by the Pakistani government, landlords are barred from offering loans
in exchange for work or to hold workers hostage to their debts. The Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan has freed approximately 7,500 bonded laborers
since 1995. By the commission's
estimates, there are still roughly 50,000 bonded laborers in southern Singh.
Many of those freed now reside in the city of Hyderabad in makeshift camps.
Most are afraid to return to their homeland,
however, for fear they will be recaptured and enslaved again. Bonded Child Labour in Child Workers in At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] Sakina* is 12 years old
and works with her family as a bonded labourer for
a landlord in Umerkot district in I pluck cotton and chillies, harvest wheat
and other crops and do whatever is asked by the landlord...They beat me and
keep us hungry. They say they will not give us food if we do not work... I
can't leave or my parents will be beaten and where will I go?" The New Slavery: An Interview with Kevin
Bales The Sun, October 2001 news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=02/04/25/4221208 [accessed 15 December 2010] Bales: Debt bondage is the most common form of
slavery in the world today, particularly in Jensen: So if you’re a debt-bonded slave, you’re
not working to pay back the loan? Bales: No, because you and all of your labor
have become collateral. The money to pay back the loan has to come from
somewhere else. That’s the way it is with most debt bondage. In some debt bondage,
the work is supposedly paying back what’s been borrowed, but in reality it’s
almost impossible to pay back the debt. I’ve met families in India who’ve
been bonded for four generations on one debt: Great-grandfather borrowed
thirty dollars, and Great-grandson is still working to pay it off. In a
sense, this resembles chattel slavery, because it’s passed down through
generations, except the rationale for the slavery is the debt. Modern Day Slavery Around The World home.earthlink.net/~ynot/slave1.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Slavery takes
different forms in different lands. In Pakistan and India there is debt
bondage. Poor people are tricked with promises of good jobs, but they are
isolated and must deal with their employer in every way. The food they buy
and other required things are sold only by their employers, with very high
prices. The workers are forced to stay and work until the debt is paid off.
But the deck is stacked so the debt keeps getting bigger. The
"employee" is a slave for life. And, even beyond
life. The children are kept working until the debt is paid, which never
happens. Generations are forced to work without ever seeing a day of
freedom. Like other slaveries, force
is used to keep the worker in his place. Beatings, threats and killings are
commonplace. Bonded Labour in United Nations Economic and Social Council
Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination
and protection of Minorities, Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery,
At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] However, in 1999 we
are obliged to conclude that, despite temporary progress following the
Supreme Court's judgment, debt bondage remains both widespread and virtually
unchallenged by the Government of Pakistan. Indeed, it is both remarkable and
tragic how little government officials have been willing to do to enforce the
country's laws and to bring an end to debt bondage, and how willingly they
appear to tolerate its persistence. Third Anniversary of the Murder of Iqbal Masih, Pakistani Child
Activist (1983-1995) Child Labor Coalition, killarneyaboutchildlabour.blogspot.com/2008/11/americans-honor-iqbal-masih.html [accessed 28 August 2011] Iqbal Masih made a difference. His was the voice of a child pointing out to adults the horrible costs and injustices of child slavery. Twelve years old and one of the mightiest voices in Pakistan against child labor, Iqbal was a compelling survivor of slavery in Pakistan's carpet industry. For half of his
life, Iqbal was bonded in the hand-knotted carpet
industry. Enslaved at the age of four, for an advance of less than $16 to his
parents, he was chained to his loom, tying tiny knots for twelve hours a day,
every day. Six years later, when he confronted his boss demanding his
freedom, the debt he owed had risen to $419. Contemporary Forms of Slavery in Human Rights Watch/Asia, Library of
Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-77876, ISBN 1-56432-154-1, July 1995 www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/Pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] SUMMARY - Millions of
workers in Child Labour Persists Around The World:
More Than 13 Percent Of Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour Organisation (ILO)
News, www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_008058/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 9 September 2011] "Today's child
worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in
grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious
circle", says ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne. Among the countries
with a high percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force
are: Mali, 54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya,
41.3; Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1; Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24;
Côte d'Ivoire, 20.5; Pakistan, 17.7;
Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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