Linked to education for migrant workers, Beth Herzfeld from the Anti-Slavery International in London describes their education and campaign work on bonded labour.

We all thought slavery had been abolished, but at least 20 million people are still enslaved in the world today through bonded labour.

Although this is the most widespread form of slavery today, it is also the least known.  Most people become bonded when their labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan, or for money given in advance.  Usually they are forced by necessity or are tricked into taking a loan in order to pay for such basic needs as food, medicine and for social obligations -- the costs of a wedding or a funeral.  A loan for as little as 30 Pounds in some countries can take a lifetime to repay. Bonded labourers are typically forced to work long hours regardless of their age or health, sometimes for seven days a week, 365 days a year. They receive food and shelter as “payment”, but might never be able to pay off the loan.

Entire families in Nepal, India and Pakistan can be affected by this brutal system, with the debt being handed down through generations.  Once the loan is taken, bonded labourers are deprived of their rights to negotiate terms and conditions of work.  They have to pay high rates of interest on these loans, and because they do not even receive a minimum wage, the cycle of interest and debt keeps them enslaved.

Trapped in this cycle, bonded labourers find it almost impossible to pay off their debts.  Poverty, long hours of hard labour, poor diet and lack of access to health services mean they frequently become ill.  Time off work because of sickness and medical treatment only increases the level of debt and perpetuates the cycle of debt bondage. 

The current combination of mass migration from poverty and the global demand for sources of cheap, expendable labour has expanded this system beyond India, Pakistan and Nepal where it has existed for centuries. Girls in Benin are sold as maids in Gabon and eastern European women are bonded into prostitution in western Europe.  Even though bonded labour is illegal in most countries, it is expanding.  

In some cases people may not even be aware that a loan has been made.  In Brazil, for example, agricultural workers are recruited from areas of high unemployment to work in distant estates.  Although they are promised food and transportation, they are not told that the expense of transporting them will be deducted from their salaries.  Their debts increase because, in many cases, the estates are isolated and they are dependent on the ‘company store’ for provisions which are sold at inflated prices.

Migrant domestic workers

In Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States, the enslaving of migrant domestic workers affects both young girls and grown women from the world's poor.  They work within their national borders or travel abroad to richer nations. They enter this work with the expectation that their and their family's lives will be materially better than if they stayed at home and found work locally. 

Although some manage to secure good jobs, millions unsuspectingly enter lives of servitude characterised by abuse, exploitation, violence, and physical and mental torture.  Many work between 10 to 15 hours a day with no or very limited time off for little or no pay.

Because they work in the home, they have no contact with the outside world. There is no possibility for them to negotiate their working conditions, such as hours of work, time off, pay and any other areas of work protected by labour legislation. They are at the complete mercy of their employer.

In many countries, such as in the Gulf States, they are excluded from labour laws altogether because they are regarded as members of the household rather than as independent workers. 

In Britain most migrant domestics come from Sri Lanka, India, and Nigeria.  But the largest number come from the Philippines, usually brought in by temporary residents. 

The experience of Alice illustrates how many are tricked into debt bondage. Recruited from Manila for work in Kuwait, Alice was eventually taken by her employers to work for them in London.

Despite Alice’s qualification as a civil engineer in Manila, the pay was not enough to support her and her family.  She answered an advert recruiting engineers to Kuwait offering 215 Pounds per month -- six times her Philippine salary.  Against her expected salary her family borrowed money so she could pay the agency's fee, half of which was due before leaving Manila.  Upon arriving in Kuwait City she found that there were no civil engineering posts, only jobs for maids at a salary considerably less than she was promised.  With no money to pay the agency or to pay for the flight back home, she had no choice but to sign a contract to work as a domestic. 

Her day began at 5:30am and only ended once all of the adults had gone to bed, which was regularly after 2am.  She had no time off, not even to go to church or to write letters home.

After two and a half years in Kuwait Alice was taken to London.  Following an attack in which her employer tried to rape her she fled. It was the first time she had been out of the house.

With no money or passport it is difficult for such women to escape.  They are kept isolated from people beyond the household and are frequently locked indoors.  Even if they do escape, many do not have money and are unfamiliar with the area.  Furthermore, they have no papers because the employer keeps their passports.  

Individuals in bonded labour are routinely threatened with and subjected to physical and sexual violence.  They are kept under various forms of surveillance, sometimes by using armed guards.  Even though few cases involve keeping them in chains, the constraints are just as binding.  Their lives are under the complete control of those whom they owe money to, to the extent that employers who use bonded labour sometimes sell the debts – and thereby the people – on to others.  In Rawalpindi, Pakistan, brick kiln workers tell of being sold more than ten times.

International Instruments

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which applies to all members of the United Nations, prohibits the practice of slavery in all of its forms.  The UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, which most countries have ratified, and the International Labour Convention No. 29 Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, form the key international instruments banning bonded labour.  But the lack of political will to enforce these laws and develop or implement domestic legislation perpetuates bonded labour.

Poverty and limited access to education are key to this system’s continuation.   Without land or the benefits of education, the need for cash for daily survival forces people to sell their labour in exchange for a lump sum or loan.

Crucial to eliminating this form of slavery is the implementation of existing international and domestic legislation which prohibit bonded labour in addition to the creation of alternative sources of income, and credit for those in bonded labour. 

By working with inter-governmental bodies such as the United Nations, Anti-Slavery International focuses international attention on governments that have not taken adequate steps to eliminate slavery in their country.

In June this year, the United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery met in Geneva.  Anti-Slavery’s successful lobbying made bonded labour a focus for its 2000 agenda.  Working with other activists, we were successful in pressing for the Group’s final resolution to include issues key to ending this form of slavery, such as calling for government action against all reported cases of bonded labour, enforcing existing anti-bonded labour laws, and for governments to develop effective programmes preventing freed labourers from returning to this system of debt.

In 2002, information on measures taken by member states to suppress or prevent debt bondage will be submitted to the Group and future sessions will evaluate progress made.

Political will is key.  The will for the international community to demonstrate to offending States that breaking international standards is unacceptable. The will for Governments to fulfil their promises codified in law that bonded labour will indeed be ended and that those who are found guilty are penalised.

Anti-Slavery International launched its campaign against bonded labour last October. By getting involved you can do something about it.  Join our Campaigns Network and add your voice to our campaign.