Thread: Modern Day Slavery

Egad! What a pair of troglodytes!

Sadly, though not to the same extent, the same sort of exploitation is happening closer to home.

The economy boom here in WA has led to some major employment issues where even unskilled workers can make big bucks on minesites. As a result the lesser paying (though still good by most peoples reckoning) unskilled jobs are hard to fill. In the industry that I'm involved with (WA Rock Lobsters) deckhands are almost impossible to recruit nowdays so a lot of the larger operators in the fishery have been bringing in Indonesian workers to fill the decks. This is sensational I think, and I believe that we should be encouraging more Indonesian workers to fill the jobs that many lazy West Ozzy's can't be bothered doing.

However, what really stinks is that these poor guys that are coming over are being exploited. Most of these workers are on boats that carry very big entitlements to fish the fishery (lots and lots of lobster pots) so they are working very hard. In a normal situation a deckhand would be getting approx. 8% of the boats gross revenue as their 'take home' salary which for a vessel with 200 pots might equate to around $80k for the season (Nov - June). But the bastards that are bring these fellas over are only paying them a minimum wage and are perfectly entitled to do so. This really sucks I reckon. Yes, a minimum Aussie wage is big bucks to an Indonesian, but everybody's equal so why should they not be remunerated the same as an Aussie worker.

This sort of attitude is starting to creep over into the hospitality industry too with a recent push to try and recruit Balinese chefs and hotel workers. I'm betting they're probably going to be on minimum wages too....

Adz

The same thing happened in my town, Winchester, 2 years or so ago. The two domestic servants in question were also Indonesians. However, they did get well deserved justice the following year. :)

SAUDI NATIONAL CONVICTED OF VISA FRAUD AND HARBORING ILLEGAL ALIENS

BOSTON - A Saudi national living in Winchester, Mass. pleaded guilty today in federal court to charges of visa fraud and harboring of illegal aliens relating to her employment of two domestic servants.

Hana F. Al Jader, 40, of Winchester, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Reginald J. Lindsay to two counts of visa fraud and two counts of harboring illegal aliens for private financial gain in connection with her employment of two women from Indonesia as domestic servants,

At today's plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that Al Jader, who has resided in Winchester and Arlington since the mid-1990's with her invalid husband, Prince Mohamed Al Saud, brought the two Indonesian women to the United States in 2003 to work as domestic servants. In order to obtain visas for the women, Al Jader was required to submit to the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia a copy of a work contract guaranteeing that the women would be paid $1,500 a month and would work no more than eight hours daily. However, when the women arrived in the United States, they were required to work - cooking, cleaning, serving meals, caring for the severely disabled Prince, and serving at frequent parties - routinely in excess of eight hours per day. Al Jader paid them only $300 a month which, at their request, was wired to their families in Indonesia.

In July 2003, Al Jader, through an attorney, filed applications with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for a six-month extension of the visas for her domestic servants. In connection with the extension application, Al Jader submitted another employment contract, which again represented falsely that the servants were each being paid $1,500 per month and working only eight hours per day. Based on the false information provided in the contracts, the servants' visas were extended, however, when those extensions expired, Al Jader failed to apply for or obtain any additional extensions. Despite the fact that the servants' legal status had expired, Al Jader continued to employ them for the next 11 months at the same pay rate of $300 per month.

In exchange for Al Jader's plea of guilty to these charges, her agreement to pay restitution of approximately $98,000 to each of the servants, and her acceptance of a stipulated order of deportation to her native Saudi Arabia, the government agreed to dismiss pending charges of forced labor and document servitude against Al Jader.

Judge Lindsay scheduled sentencing for Dec. 12, 2006, at 2:30 p.m. Al Jader faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 on each of the four counts.

Tintin

There are cases like this every day in Saudia of housemaids (mostly Indonesian) being abused. What a sign of the world we live in that this kind of thing makes common reading.

Nowadays also those from poor ex soviet union countries are suffering similar fate from everything from forced labour to prostitution.

The time of the year is coming when peace to all men is espoused. I trully wish it was Christmas (or Ramadan or any of the great religious festivals) evry day so that we can behave well for 365 days rather than just one.

As I get older but not necessarily wiser I sometimes despair of mans inhumanity to man even in here.