Unfair Labor/Slavery In The Middle East
Essay by 24 • April 12, 2011 • 708 Words (3 Pages) • 1,358 Views
These event are taken place in Kurdish North of Iraq and all around the
world.
Two females had come to Iraq's Kurdish North as guest workers six
months earlier. They had been locked in a house for a month and made to
works for free, they said, after their passports, cellphones and plane
tickets were taken away. The two had escaped by begging their captor to
let them attend church, then making contact with other Filipino workers,
who spirited them away.
Whats happening here you ask?- Well,these girls and thousands of
others had been deceived by unscrupulous labor agents who arrange the
journeys. Unable to communicate, some arrive not even knowing what
country they are in. Once here, their passports are seized by their
employment agencies, and they are unable to go home.
Whats happening here is Modern day Slavery, were thousands of
foreign workers have come to the Kurdish district in the last three years.
They come from Ethiopia, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Bangladesh and
Somalia. Some out of desperation for a better life are even satisfied with
their decision to come here, but agents' fees are high, often as much as
two years' wages. To come up with the money, many borrow at high
interest rates and find that their wages are equal only to the interest. In
essence, they say, they end up working for free. Now you see as to why I
call this Modern day Slavery!!!
How are these workers found?- Well, Importing such workers relies
on a far-reaching network of recruiters in poor countries. One such
example is a worker in the name of Tufazil Hussan who spoke: "They said
at the agency that I would make $300 a month and work as a waiter in a
restaurant." With that he said that he took out a $3,000 loan with
monthly interest of $150 to pay the agency, but upon his arrival he had his
passport taken away from him and he was put to work sweeping the
streets seven days a week for $155 a month.
What good is any of this for the crooks?- For the city, the guest
workers fill a manpower shortage while saving money. "We need 1,500
cleaners; we have 350," said Razgar Ahmed Hussein (a filthy crook!!!),
Sulainmaniya's director of cleaning operations. " I never wanted to bring
foreign workers to this city, but we had no other option. Kurds do not
want
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