India's tea firms urged to act on slave trafficking after girls freed

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2014/mar/01/tetley-tea-maids-real-price-cup-tea-video

Slave traders took girls as young as 11 from an Indian plantation that supplies tea to Tetley and sold them on to a life of abuse as domestic servants, an investigation has revealed.

The girls were taken from the Nahorani estate in Assam. Workers on the estate are paid 94 rupees (91p) a day – barely half the 169 rupee legal minimum wage for Assam. Anti-slavery campaigners say the low wages help traffickers to lure girls away with the promise of a better life elsewhere.

An Observer and Guardian investigation set out to track the traffickers from Assam to the national capital, Delhi. At least 21 people were rescued in a series of raids.

One young woman, 19-year-old Somila, was found with minutes to spare after she called her father – who was travelling with the documentary team – to say the traffickers were threatening to sell her into prostitution in Bombay.
Somila, who was bought by her final owners for £250, described how she had suffered serious abuse and spoke angrily about the traffickers who lured her from Nahorani. "They should realise that they cannot separate daughters from their parents and make us fools. They speak lies and make us fools. They cheat us," she said.

Tea companies promised action after the Observer first exposed the slave trade from Assam's tea estates last year, but little has changed. Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan child rescue movement, which helped to free the girls, said companies had to take responsibility. "The owners of these international tea estates don't care for these people, they don't pay them minimum wages. Forget about the decent wages, they don't pay the survival wages," he said. "The reality is abuse, the reality is a kind of sexual exploitation, the reality is endless slavery," he said.

Nahorani is one of a group of 24 estates in Assam owned by Amalgamated Plantations. It is one of the world's richest companies, worth £60bn.

Tetley is the UK's most popular brand, and is ranked second in the US and the rest of the world. The company says 45m cups of Tetley are drunk in 70 countries worldwide every day. There is no suggestion that Tetley was aware of any slavery or trafficking. In its mission statement, Tetley insists: "We don't just do as we like. We do what's right for our tea drinkers, our team and our world. We believe our success must not be at the expense of the people or the environment that make that success possible."

The Ethical Tea Partnership's executive director, Sarah Roberts, said: "ETP and its members oppose all forms of abuse, discrimination, exploitation and manipulation of children and adults."

The managing director of Amalgamated Plantations, said the company had been unaware of the trafficking. "APPL is against any form of abuse on children and we will make every effort with external and government agencies who specialise in addressing child trafficking," he said.

The World Bank Group said human trafficking was a "tragic crime" and those who engaged in it should be brought to justice. It said it was troubled by the allegations and was investigating.


VOCABULARY
Slave traders: Traficantes de esclavos

Domestic servants: Servicio domestico

Barely: apenas

Campaigners: activistas

Lure: atraer

Rescue: Rescatar

Threat: amenaza

Fool: engañar, liar

Salve trade: comercio de esclavos

Wages: salarios

Brand: marca

Aware: darse cuenta

Allegation: acusación


SUMMARY
Poverty pay on tea estates in Assam fuels a modern slave trade ensnaring thousands of young girls. A Guardian/Observer investigation follows the slave route from an estate owned by a consortium, including the owners of the best-selling Tetley brand, through to the homes of Delhi's booming middle classes, exposing the reality of the 21st-century slave trade
By Daniel Cuevas and Joan Cases.

Human trafficking

(Thursday, June 23rd, 2005)

The Justice Department today announced the sentencing of the ringleader in the Department’s largest ever human trafficking prosecution. Kil Soo Lee, the former owner of an American Samoa garment factory was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in holding over 200 victims in forced servitude.

“Human trafficking is a moral evil that is nothing less than modern-day slavery,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “Today’s sentencing concludes the largest human trafficking case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice and is another example of our commitment to protect the civil rights of trafficking victims. The Department of Justice will continue to pursue and prosecute all those who attempt to profit from human suffering.”

Lee, the owner of the Daewoosa garment factory, was convicted on February 21, 2003 of numerous federal criminal violations, including involuntary servitude, extortion and money laundering. Lee was charged in 2001, in the U.S. District Court in Hawaii, with illegally confining and using as forced labor over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese garment workers.

The workers were recruited from China and from state-owned labor export companies in Vietnam. They paid fees of approximately $5,000 to $8,000 to gain employment at the Daewoosa factory and risked retaliation and punishment at home if deported back to their native lands. Lee and his henchmen preyed on this vulnerability, and subjected the laborers to poor conditions and minimal pay. In March of 1999, after months of mistreatment, the workers complained about their plight and attempted to obtain food from local residents. Lee and his henchmen retaliated, using arrests, deportations, food deprivation and brutal physical beatings to force workers to operate the Daewoosa factory. In one episode, a woman was beaten so badly that she lost an eye. This abuse continued through November of 2000.

Kil Soo Lee was the third and last individual convicted in this case. In 2002, two of Kil Soo Lee’s co-conspirators, a manager and a garment worker, pleaded guilty to trafficking charges and were sentenced to 70 months and 51 months, respectively, in January 2004.

“Motivated by greed and with no regard for human dignity, these traffickers exploited more than 200 Vietnamese and Chinese workers,” said Bradley J. Schlozman, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is firmly committed to ensuring that those who traffic in human lives are aggressively investigated, swiftly prosecuted and firmly punished. Today’s sentencing sends a clear message to those who would attempt to profit at the expense of another’s freedom.”

This case was prosecuted by attorneys from the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and was investigated by the Honolulu regional office of the FBI. The victim witness coordinator in the U.S. Attorney’s Office also assisted with the case.

(source: Department of Justice of Washington D.C.)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DObzMVNq-HE

Vocabulary

ringleader: "cabecilla"
slavery: owning slaves
garment: clothing
laundering: "colada, lavado"
fee: "tarifa" "pago"
to prey on: (a person) victimize
plight: bad situation
to convict: "condenar"
to punish: penalty for offence
prosecute: "procesar"
witness: "testigo"

Summary



On June, 2005 was announced Kil Soo Lee's sentence: 40 years in prison. Kil Soo Lee was the boss of a garment factory called Daewoosa. This factory is located in American Samoa, a territory in the Pacific Ocean that belongs to United States. Kil Soo Lee received an important order from J.C Penny (a chain of stores really important in America) and this order was supposed to be complete in only two months. As a consequence, he had lots of workers from Vietnam, China and Samoa working in poor conditions: if the workers complained, they were punished with lack of food, pshysical abuse, detainment or deportation.

Although he had already been investigated in 1991, it wasn't until the plant was ordered by a Samoan court to be taken over by a receiver in 2001 that the FBI arrested Lee for involuntary servitude and forced labor. He was escorted to the District of Hawaii. His sentence on October, 2002 included 480 months in prison, over $ 1,500,000 in restituation payments and $1,400 in court fines.


Nowadays, twelve of those workers are now living in Washington State. The sentence was bittersweet for them because a Microsoft Corp. employee helped many garment workers move to the continental United States and have better lives.


David Enseñat, Cinthia Vargas and Marina Orfila