MADE IN A FREE WORLD
1. Saudi Princess in California Charged With Enslaving Domestic Servant
Last week, a Saudi princess was charged with felony human trafficking in Orange County. She is accused of enslaving her domestic servant. The princess, who posted five million dollars in bail, allegedly withheld the worker’s passport and other documents, paid her only $220 a month, and forced her to work for the family sixteen hours, seven days a week. The domestic servant reportedly could not leave the property unaccompanied. Four other workers treated similarly were also found in the house.
2. Colorado Man Found Guilty of Trafficking Nurses
A Colorado man has been found guilty of trafficking in forced labor for recruiting nurses from other countries to work at a non-existent university. In addition, he charged a fee to help the nurses receive their visas. Once in the U.S., he put the women to work in nursing homes and kept significant portions of their wages, threatening to have their visas revoked if they did not cooperate. Sentencing will occur in September, with the maximum sentence being twenty years in prison.
Slavery is a $32 billion global industry. Profits from slavery run all the way up supply chains, from slaveholders to companies buying products made with slave labor and consumers who buy these products. Slavery’s murky ties to our everyday lives mean that laws and regulations alone cannot solve the problem. Following the money and stopping its flow are critical to ending slavery.
4. South Korea Orders Compensation for Forced Labor Decades Ago
The Seoul High Court ordered Japanese company Nippon Steel to pay $88,000 to each of four South Koreans for forced labor during Japanese colonial rule, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. Nippon Steel claims that the company was a different group at the time of the abuses, and the current company holds no responsibility for the past actions. Media estimates suggest there may have been hundreds of thousands of forced laborers under Japanese rule of Korea.
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