Last year, in my hometown Woodbury, there was an incident where it was discovered that a suburban mom, Lili Huang, had hired a nanny but had been treating her as a slave. When all the police reports were filled out it was discovered that the wife had taken her from China in order for her to be a nanny in America. Her job would be to take care of the family, cook, and clean for about 18 hours a day. She would get paid $850 every month which is equivalent to about two dollars per hour. Even worse the Lili had treated her as an animal as, “the nanny had also been forced to walk on all fours for hours “like a dog” and fed her own hair.” (The Washington Post). She wasn't allowed to leave the house at all nor communicate with the outside world. I …show more content…
She is she is still alive and she’d be a critical source as to what was really going on inside the house when she was still working as a nanny. Questions that I’d ask her would include, why did she take the job in the first place? Did she ever think about calling the cops? I’d also like to know what her daily routine was from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night. I’d also want to interview the Huang children who witnessed what was happening to this nanny. Did it ever occur something was wrong when their mom was treating the nanny like a dog? Could they ever invite their friends over? Did they ever feel bad that the nanny would cook for them, but she herself was being starved to death. In the police report it was discussed that the nanny initially came into the country weighing roughly 120 pounds but when police found her she weighed roughly only 88 pounds. Other interviews would include the Huang’s family neighbors, family, employers, and friends. I would ask them if you ever thought something was out of the ordinary with them; did you expect them to keep a nanny as their personal slave? Lili was only 35 years old, why would she do something like that? Compared to the Laramie Project, this play would not have as many interviews. This isn’t particularly a negative though; one of the downsides of having so many people is that when reading the script it, it’s easy to get the
Labor trafficking is another form of human trafficking. Labor trafficking happens when employers take advantages of the social problems, economic problems, and health problems of their employees. The story of “The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse” is just one of the many stories about labor trafficking. For more than 30 years, a group of men with intellectual disabilities were working under deplorable conditions. Not to mention that these men receiving a minimum pay of $65 each month for 30 years. I feel angry to see how unethical owners of business take advantage of vulnerable workers, but what makes me feel really annoyed is the fact that they use people with disabilities. People with disabilities have less opportunity to defend themselves. I honestly
All of my life I have considered myself as a person who loves children. I enjoy playing with them, helping them, and just being around them. So when I first agreed with corporations who use child labor I shocked myself completely. After examining two articles; one “The Case for Sweatshops”, by David R. Henderson, and two “Sweatshops or a Shot at a Better Life”, by Cathy Young, I came to the conclusion that in some cases when young children work under proper conditions it can keep them out of the streets and be helpful to them and their families.
Most Americans when they hear about the crime of human trafficking they automatically refer it to sex exploitation by big time gang organizations. Sexual exploitation is a big chunk of the trafficking problem in America but in reading the book The Slave Next Door you can see that there are different types of work for human trafficking. One of the unique and underrated types of trafficking is in the type of domestic slavery. This type of trafficking is not as popular for gangs and other trafficking organizations because it is more along the lines of saving money than making money. The story in The Slave Next Door of Ruth the 52 year old West-African woman who now lives in Washington D.C. and is a slave to a family; her chores are long and tedious and other than her short naps and small meal breaks she works 24 hours a day.
Every day women, children, and even men are kidnapped, taken from their families, and forced into free labor and sexual exploitation. According to a new report from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, as many as 9,298 cases of human trafficking have been reported in the past five years, but these are only the instances in which it has been reported. Furthermore, the report also shows that from December 7th, 2007 to December 31st, 2012, cases of human trafficking were reported in all 50 states. Just how many more are under the radar? One of the definitions given for slavery is the state or condition of being a slave; a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune.
There are a ton of women and young children being trafficked as sex slaves all around the world mostly in areas like Thailand or Central Asia. There are 1.5 million sex slaves today; most of them are in Asia, while the remaining is in Thailand. I am going to analyze the many different people and organizations that hold women from their will by forcing them onto the streets....
Sweatshop workers are without a doubt some of the most overworked and underpaid employees. With inhumane, unhygienic work areas and demanding, cruel employers, it is tantamount to modern day slavery. Unfortunately, most of these sweatshops are either located in developing countries or generally impoverished areas in the U.S., where there are not many opportunities for jobs with decent wages. This forces many people (children included) to take on these undesirable jobs in order to provide for their families. Though there are anti-sweatshop organizations dedicated to opposing and halting the usage of maltreated labor, there are too many giant and well-established corporations
2,880. That’s how many children are taken away from their families each day. That’s 2,880 eighty children who should be playing outside and enjoying childhood. Instead they are torn from everything they know and forced into slavery, sometimes to never come out. Slavery was not fully abolished in 1865. Over 27 million men, women, and children are enslaved at this very moment (“The Cost of Coercion”). That number is close to the population of Florida and Georgia combined who would be enslaved today. What most people today call “modern-day slavery” is the illegal trade of human beings for forced labor and exploitation; referring to using others for sexual exploitation, organ trafficking, and forced labor. This international crime is happening all around us and little to nothing is being done by governments. “Roughly two hundred thousand slaves are working here in America” (Madox). So the land of the free, well, it might not be so free after all. Coming in second after drug trafficking, “human trafficking generates about 35 billion dollars annually” (“The Covering House”). 35 billion is more than Google makes in a year. In order to better understand human trafficking, it is imperative we look at the history. Then, exploit the underlying problems of this crime that are happening today, at this moment. Finally, find solutions to this global epidemic in order to help the hopeless.
Many Chinese (women and children) are recruited by false promises of employment and are later coerced into prostitution or forced labor. Children are sometimes recruited by traffickers who promise their parents that their children can send remittances back home. In poorer areas, most trafficked women are sold as wives to old and disabled unmarried men. In richer areas, most trafficked women are sold to commercial sex businesses, hair salons, massage parlors and bathhouses. Chinese children are also kidnapped and sold for adoption. (www.humantraffickin.org).
Taking into consideration the conditions these children work in, they are obviously mistreated. They are not washed, fed or clothed, resulting in malnutrition and children “clad in rags” (597). Employers even use mistreatment to teach the children how to do their jobs. Hibbert describes that “you can’t be soft with them, you must use violence” (595). Chimney sweepers can sometimes go “fifteen months without being washed except the rain” (595), wearing the same shirt until it is worn thin. To harden the flesh of the sweepers, their elbows and knees are rubbed profusely with the strongest brine, leaving their limbs “streaming with blood” (596). Workers sometimes found themselves caught in a machine, crushed by a machine, or swung by a machine. They suffered multiple injuries that were always ignored, most of the time consequently becoming fatal. The workers were not only subjected to poor working conditions, but being mistreated within them. It wasn’t for long after laws were made that treatment of children laborers improved.
Migrant workers in the Middle East are unskilled workers from undeveloped Nations that transport to another country and become household maids to better their life and their family to gain better materials and social conditions. Many of these workers come from impoverished Nations such as South/East Asia and Africa and are lacking education and resources. For years, it has dragged on in failing to protect domestic workers in the Middle East. Many of them experience abuse, paid low wages with almost no time off, are usually restricted from leaving there household, and have excessive hours of work. Many will face abuse, violence, and are discriminated in their everyday lives and can even be forced into being trafficked.
...nd frankly an alien to these primitive working conditions. "And, for this, at the end of the week, he will carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour-just about his proper share of the million and three quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States."(Sinclair pg. 85). I could not imagine myself being subjected to these ridiculous working conditions. I could not picture my kids at such young ages being forced to work like slaves in order to survive or to eat there next meal. In this day and age labor laws, health codes, and fire codes are so complex that this way of life are from the stone age and today are unheard of. Employers in modern times would not only be fined but they would possibly lose their business or be thrown in prison because as of today it is a crime rightfully so.
In Haiti there is a system of child trafficking call “Restavek” parents give their children – its always a girl, to a stranger, to work as a slave. The narrative mentions “Marilaine is a very sweet 13-year-old from the countryside who is a restavek, she arrives at school with marks indicating she’s been beaten …” (Kristof) I’m angry at the fact that Haitian parents give their children away to function as a slave, putting the children in danger to be physically and mentally abuse because of the lack of resources. Barbara Ehrenreich is an American author and political activist who wrote an article called “It Is Expensive to Be Poor” there she mentions “The original welfare reform bill – a bill, it should be recalled, which was signed by President Bill Clinton – included an allocation of $100 million for “chastity training” for low-income women” It’s inhuman to control women from getting pregnant just because they can’t afford a pregnancy. Comparing both governments, they aren’t doing anything to change the inequality that exists in their countries social
How would you feel if your child worked extreme hours trying to earn money for your family? Imagine yourself being in a situation where you are too scared to speak out for your own welfare-- afraid that your life will be in jeopardy? Labor rights ensure a worker’s safety, proper payment, reasonable working hours, and termination of child labor. In many areas of the world, labor rights are not even provided. Such disregard is a violation of human rights. Despite all the changes made through history, employers and manufacturing companies still do not have respect for laborers and their rights. In order to respect one’s human rights, employers must treat workers’ rights as essentials to human rights. Workers deserve the right to demand for decent working conditions.
Child labor is and has always been a difficult problem to address. In the global market system which exists today, the problem has become that much more difficult. Now more than ever before, markets are interdependent, and the regulation and governance of them is a convoluted process to say the least. The regulatory structure is not intact; no one knows who will regulate such issues, internationally and locally, governmentally, and in the private sector. Also, current economic practice makes it difficult to in one broad stroke ban the practice of child labor, for fear of eliminating the nation’s area of comparative advantage, cheap labor. Not only is the problem of child labor one of economics, but it is also one that raises very difficult ethical questions. This paper will attempt to weigh the economic factors both locally and internationally, against common ethical principles which are certainly to be raised when one discusses child labor.
In 1655 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a master found guilty of slaying a servant was punished by having his hand burned and all his property taken away. Other early records show brutal masters being warned for abusing young servants. In some cases, the children were freed because of the harsh treatment. Virginia passed laws protecting servants against mistreatment in 1700. (Child Abuse—A History - Overview, n.d.)