The new faces of "modern" slavery
Audio 19:30
Ethiopian domestic workers, working in very poor conditions, gathered in front of the Ethiopian consulate, in Hazmieh, east of Beirut (Lebanon), June 4, 2020. AP Photo / Hassan Ammar
By: Frédérique Lebel
23 mins
"
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude
" is article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
An article that serves as a basis for all these modern slavery court complaints.
Whether they are undeclared workers, captive domestic workers, or exploited prostitutes.
(Replay)
Publicity
Children in Italian agriculture
In the south of Italy, for example, thousands of agricultural workers struggle to harvest strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes in often appalling conditions: days of twelve to fourteen hours of work for wages that vary from 250 to 600 euros per month.
Employment contracts are non-existent, or deceptive.
These workers, mostly foreigners, came, often with their children who do not have legal status.
Children who work without being paid,
Cécile Debarge
.
Nursing assistants from Eastern Europe
They do not appear in any statistics, most often work without health insurance, well below the minimum wage.
And without them, the care system for dependent elderly people would collapse.
In Germany, hundreds of thousands of women from Eastern European countries take care of an aging population at home.
For many, illegally and victims of real exploitation.
From Berlin, report by our correspondent
Julien Mechaussie ...
Latin American prostitutes
There are thousands of them in Spain, originally from Latin America and exploited in prostitution networks.
For the first time, one of them succeeded in obtaining from the courts the recognition of a work relationship, which binds her to her employers.
Not only will they have to pay him severance pay, but they could also be forced to pay him all social security arrears.
In Madrid, Diane Cambon explains to us how the story of this Colombian woman who lodged a complaint is an example.
Textile industry workers in Bangladesh
And modern slaves are sometimes hidden in the twists and turns of outsourcing.
This is the case of textile workers who, in Asia, manufacture clothing for major European brands at low prices.
Our correspondent in the region,
Sébastien Farcis,
has done a lot of research on this market.
Bangladesh is the second largest producer of clothing in the world, mostly cheap, mass-produced clothing, which is what fuels what is called fast fashion.
Vincent Théval's music chronicle
And for our music column, we embarked in the Netherlands with
Vincent Théval
who makes us discover a pop melody with a little retro accents, signed
Don Melody Club.
Program originally aired on May 14, 2021.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Slavery
Agriculture and Fishing
Italy
Germany
Employment and Work
Spain
Bangladesh
Women
On the same subject
Ecuador: abaca fiber company sentenced for modern slavery
Great report
Lebanon: the ordeal of African domestic workers
Bangladesh
Bangladesh: new tragedy in textile factory near Dhaka