AUDIO
TRANSCRIPT # 01
[Reporter’s
voice] à Historically, the slave trade across the Atlantic represents one of
the great crimes against humanity, and it was organized
from ports like this one – Liverpool – on the north-west
coast of England. As you look across this elegant waterfront
today, it’s easy to believe that slavery has been firmly
consigned to the museums, but, in fact, millions of people
still live under what are officially deemed ‘slavery conditions’.
We’ll meet some of them in this series and learn whayt
it’s like to be under another person’s control. We’ll
ask if they really merit the emotive label of slaves,
what part slavery plays in the world’s economy and whether
it is always to be condemned.
[First
voice] à Three or four times a week, my wife has to wake me up in the middle
of the night to tell me “Wake up ! Stop screaming ! You
were screaming, wake up.” The dreams are not clear, but
you see yourself as a slave child, er, helpless, and things
are being done to you, and you cannot control it, you
cannot save yourself…
[Second
voice] à He beat me all the time… even out in the street. He beat me with his
hands, his feet, his belt… My body was just black…
[Third
voice] à In my belief, even if I die, and he dies in the year after, I will
remain his slave…
AUDIO
TRANSCRIPT # 02
[Reporter's
voice] à The perils facing vulnerable workers,
even in the affluent West, were highlighted earlier this
year in a case which shocked the world. A few kilometers
along this coast, in a wide tidal bay at Morecombe, a
party of Chinese labourers were picking cockles from the
sands on wages of less than $2 a day. Caught by the rising
water, 19 of them were found drowned the following morning.
[Noise is heard in the background] What are you doing,
Jean ?
[Jean's voice]
à Just digging a pair of holes for incense sticks…
[Reporter's
voice] à Incense sticks ?
[Jean's voice]
à Yeah, they'll embrase them tees… Every
time I come, I bring them some to… to tell them
I care…[lights incense sticks] … I just pray,
hope that God gives them back their bodies so they can
bury it dearfully. It's two more bodies out there…
[Reporter's
voice] à Two more people that haven't been found
?
[Jean's voice]
à Yeah…
[Reporter's
voice] à Near the spot where the Chinese cocklers
drowned, one of the members of the local Chinese community,
Jean Tang has put a small shrine and just lit incense
in memory of those who died. … Jean, how well did
you know the people who died ?
[Jean's voice]
à Well, I know Alongs very well, he made me laugh,
he was funny… and he's kind-hearted. He will help
anybody who'll need help.
[Reporter's
voice] à And why were they doing such dangerous
work, because you've only to look at this bay to realise
that once the tide starts coming in, it could catch you
and drown you very easily.
[Jean's
voice] à One way or the other, they need to work
to pay off their debts. How could they survive?
[Reporter's
voice] à How could they survive ?
[Jean's voice]
à Yes, I agree. They can't stay in the street and
pick in the dustbins, so they find a way out, picking
cockles.
[Reporter's
voice] à When you say debt, what debt ?
[Jean's voice]
à The money they owe, in China…
[Reporter's
voice] à Is this in order to leave China ?
[Jean's voice]
à Yeah.
[Reporter's
voice] à How much would be typical for someone
in fact to borrow ?
[Jean's voice]
à Well, the cheaper one is over 10 000, and the
other one is over 30 000 to come over.
[Reporter's
voice] à 30 000…
[Jean's voice]
à Pounds.
[Reporter's
voice] à Pounds ! About $50 000 ?
[Jean's voice]
à They, they're desperate for money, They work
at night with that kind of condition.
[Reporter's voice] à Desperate for money ?
[Jean's voice]
à Money's not everything. But no money, also, you
can suffer {????}.
AUDIO
TRANSCRIPT # 03
News of the
tragic end and exploitation of these migrants led some
commentators to speak of them as modern day 'slaves'.
But is this really fair ? After all, they had voluntarily
left China in search of a better life; they'd taken out
massive loans to pay for their travel then had to take
extremely low-paid jobs in order to pay back their debts,
a few dollars at a time. According to Roger Plant, of
the UN agency 'The International Labor Organization',
modern slavery and forced labour conditions come about
when a person is compelled to work under threat.
[Roger Plant]
à In ancient times, slavery was actually defined
as ownership of a person; in modern times, what we're
talking about is threats, sanctions which can take many
forms - it can be confiscation of identity papers, it
can be threats of denunciation to police as well as physical
and outright cohertion.
[Reporter's
voice] à And would it be in the most extreme cases,
the most vulnerable people who are deemed to be livinhg
in slave conditions ?
[Roger Plant]
à Yes, it is definitely the most vulnerable people
- women tend to be the most vulnerable - we're also finding
that it is minor workers who are in a position of extreme
vulnerability when they leave their communities of origin.
What we see now, is that it tends to an imbalance between
the desire of impoverished people to move from their countries
and communities of origin and the chance to engage in
legal migration.
[Reporter's
voice] à Migrant workers like the Chinese cocklers
are particularly vulnerable to finding themselves in slavery-like
conditions : far from home, often with no family support,
and unable to speak the language of their new country.
When they arrange to be smuggled out of their country,
they may think they know the risks they're taking, but
have no idea of the extent to which criminal gangs are
going to take control over their lives and they become
trafficking victims. The international community now sees
trafficking into the West as the fastest growing problem
of modern slavery. Action to combat these gangs is coordinated
by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
- the OSCE - Elspeth Colmet leads the task force investigating
human trafficking and sees a clear distinction between
trafficking and more general forms of people smuggling.
[E Colmet]
à The difference is that people are put into slavery-like
situations - they are deprived of their freedom, they
are abused, they are beaten, they are raped, they are
heavily exploited - so, in the UN protocol, there is a
clear distinction.
[Reporter's
voice] à Trafficking victims often find themselves
at the mercy of organized criminals who force them to
work in whichever way the gang chooses in order to pay
off enormous travel debts which are sometimes doubled
by extortionate interests and charges for food and accommodation.
[E Colmet]
à Sometimes, friends or so-called friends tell
them 'Come with me', and they will try, they will simply
try. Very often, they find announcements in the newspapers;
they would believe that this is a legitimate job. Sometimes
even, women, for instance, would accept and know that
they were going to work in prostitution, but what then
occurs to them, and how they have to perform, and how
they are treated and exploited is something they wouldn't
have expected before.
AUDIO
TRANSCRIPT # 04
To learn how
these criminal networks operate, the BBC arranged to speak
with an experienced trafficker who has kidnapped and transported
men, women and children across European borders. He's
now cooperating with the authorities and living at a secret
address for fear that his former criminal associates in
the trafficking gangs will kill him. We've agreed not
to name him, and not to broadcast his voice, so his words
are read here by an actor.
[Reporter's
voice] à You're speaking to us on a phone line,
we don't know exactly where you are and you're only going
to talk to us for a few minutes : what are you so frightened
of ?
[Repentent
criminal] à The gang who abducted me came to my
house and threatened to kill me and my family. My mother
called the police, but when they came to the house, they
told her they didn't want to get involved.
[Reporter's
voice] à When the network is operating, finding
men, women and children to send abroad, how did you find
these people ?
[Repentent
criminal] à Most of the time, we used professional
recruiters, but we would also kidnap women and children
ourselves. The children were taken to be sold in Italy,
and the better-looking women were kept as prisoners and
made to work as prostitutes. The men were transported
where they wanted to go.
[Reporter's
voice] à How old was the youngest child you have
abducted ?
[Repentent
criminal] à Around 18 month old. He was sold in
Italy. I've heard that 6 children are sold and made into
beggars. The healthy ones are kept and trained to work
for the Mafia - to deal drugs, to murder, whatever they're
capable of - I've also heard that some children were sold
for organs. This happens with men, women also, depending
on the demand.
[Reporter's
voice] à And, did you use force, in order to capture
them ?
[Repentent
criminal] à Yes, often. If they didn't want to
be separated from their families, we'd hit them until
they did what you wanted.
[Reporter's
voice] à What happens to these people once they've
been abducted -- How are they being transported to another
country ?
[Repentent
criminal] à The men we usually drove to Slovenia,
from where they'll travel further into Europe to work
on building sites and places like that. Or sometimes we
transport them from Bosnia to Croatia by boat, across
the river Sara which we controlled; then, by car or lorry,
North through Croatia to the Hungarian border where we'd
smuggle them through a forest.
[Reporter's
voice] à What kind of forces are used to keep them
working and under the control of the network while they're
in a foreign country ?
[Repentent
criminal] à Generally threats are made that another
family member will be murdered if orders are not obeyed.
[Reporter's
voice] à Are you protected by the authorities now
that you are prepairing to give evidence agaisnt some
of your former colleagues in this network ?
[Repentent
criminal] à No, there is only one man from the
authorities I can rely on; this is because the authorities
are involved in these networks. There is a lot of corruption.
I've been on the run for the past 7 months. No one knows
where I am. I haven't spoken to anyone for 7 months.
[Reporter's
voice] à Do you mean that officials have been paid,
bribed, by the network in order to cooperate with them
?
[Repentent
criminal] à Yes.
[Reporter's
voice] à One final question. When you look back
on the time that you spent with this network, what do
you think about what you were doing ?
[Repentent
criminal] à I feel terrible.
[Reporter's
voice] à Do you feel ashamed ?
[Repentent
criminal] à No, I'd rather say I suffer from a
guilty conscience.
[Reporter's
voice] à Why did you do it ?
[Repentent
criminal] à Money.
