The story of a little girl reflects a new form of modern slavery in the United States, characterized by human trafficking, forced labor, and slavery and abuse. Zena Amevoor came to the United States from her native Togo at the age of 15. She thought she could get a better education in the United States, but Zena did not expect that what awaited her would be a slave life. In the years that followed, Zena was forced to work without compensation at a hair salon in Newark, New Jersey.
Between 2002 and 2007, more than 20 girls like Zena were brought to the United States by a human trafficking gang from Ghana and Togo and forced to work in hair salons. They weave intricate and delicate braids every day, but they don't get a penny.
Zena Amewall: I work seven days a week, sometimes 14 hours a day.
It wasn't until 2007 that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received clues to crack the case and rescue Zena and the other girls. Law enforcement officials found that the environment in which the migrant workers lived was extremely harsh. The smugglers made huge profits from it, earning about four million dollars from the girls in a few years. The girls were often beaten and lost all contact with the outside world.
Paul Fishman, a lawyer in New Jersey, USA: Some people may have a hard time believing that in 2010 we still have people enslaved, which is a violation of basic human rights and cannot be tolerated.
University of Michigan Law School Professor Bridget Carr: These girls were forced to work in hair salons for so many years, the youngest being only nine years old. It's frustrating, but not shocking, because human trafficking is too lucrative. It was so profitable that some drug traffickers even later switched to human trafficking.
According to the investigation of relevant international trade union organizations, the United States has a systematic violation of labor rights and is the worst performer among major developed countries. The Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating modern slavery, describes labor trafficking as "a form of modern slavery that exists throughout the United States": traffickers use violence, lies and debt to "force people to work against their will in many different industries."
Even the U.S. State Department itself acknowledges that the United States is a "country of origin, transit, and destination" for victims of forced labor, debt slavery, involuntary slavery, and sex trafficking, including U.S. and foreign citizens.
The United States advertises itself as a "beacon of human rights", but the United States, as the most developed country in the world, is the only country in the world that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and of the 8 core conventions of the International Labour Organization, the United States has only ratified 2, which is one of the countries with the smallest number of ratifications.
According to official U.S. statistics, in 2019, U.S. law enforcement officers found 858 cases of child labor in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and 544 minors working in dangerous occupational places. However, the statistics of some industry associations in the United States are far more shocking than the official data of the United States. According to reports from relevant organizations, about 500,000 child laborers in the United States are engaged in agricultural labor, many children start working from the age of 8, working up to 72 hours a week, working more than 10 hours a day is not uncommon, and the risk of child labor due to pesticide cancer is 3 times that of adults. Half of the deaths in the United States come from agriculture, and 237 child laborers in the United States died in agricultural accidents between 2003 and 2016, four times more than in other industries. The shocking problem of child labor has turned the United States black under the lights of the so-called "lighthouse".
Source: CCTV News Client