Petra Burc

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Petra Burcíková, Director, La Strada
CZIllegal/Irregular Working Activities of
Migrants in CR and CE, Prague, 9 October 2006

• Human Trafficking and Forced or Exploitative
  Labour in the Czech Republic
• - research conclusions

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• TIP
• Movement of people by means of coercion for
  purpose of exploitation

• Forced Labour
• Work/services exacted under menace of penalty to
  which the person has not offered himself
  voluntarily.

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Project

• Financially supported by Agis Programme
• Partners
• Anti-Slavery International, Great Britain
• Migrants Rights Centre, Ireland
• APAV, Portugal
• La Strada Czech Republic
• Country reports based on unified methodology

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Methodology

• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Case study analysis
• Media monitoring

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Conclusions

• General
• Industries, nationalities, coercion
• Legal

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1General

• Exploited persons are not Czech or developed
  countries nationals
• They are persons with precarious/irregular
  residence status from economically less
  developed countries

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2General

• Practical impossibility to protect their rights
  is one of the main factors allowing exploitation
  of aliens.

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3General

• Human trafficking and labour exploitation are
  less connected to illegal border-crossing than
  generally expected.

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4General

• Motivation to leave the country of origin/seek a
  job abroad was in all cases economic, in some
  cases combined with political reasons.

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5General

• Impossible to separate strictly forced labour in
  sex industry from forced labour in other sectors
• Forced labour in both areas may be combined in a
  story of a single person as experiences following
  one after another or as simultaneous double
  exploitation.

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6Industries

• Industries with high incidence of exploitative
  labour construction, agriculture (forestry),
  services
• Existence of gender divide
• Men forestry, construction
• Women agriculture, textile, cleaning, domestic
  work
• MW work in bars/restaurants, sales, (esp.
  Vietnamese/Chinese communities)

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7Nationalities

• Most significant source regions of persons
  exploited in labour in CR
• Former SU Ukraine
• Asia Vietnam
• Other source countries Moldova, Belarus,
  Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, less frequent
  Georgia and Chechnya

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8Forms of coercion

• Abuse of vulnerability or dependence almost
  universal
• ILO forced labour indicators
• Most often retention of wages/documents
• Often violence/threat of violence, threat of
  denunciation to authorities, restriction of
  liberty
• Least often debt bondage
• Succession in application of different methods

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9Legal

• Violation of obligations under national and
  international legislation
• ILO Convention No. 29 (Forced and Compulsory
  Labour)
• Other Instruments (Bill of Fundamental Rights and
  Freedoms, ICCPR, ICESCR, Council Framework
  Decision on THB)

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Factors affecting exploitation and trafficking
Complexity of migration and labour regulations
in the receiving country
Workers poverty, isolation and lack of
awareness of rights
Business demands for low cost, disposable labour
Coercive threat to workers
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Ways Forward

• Data collection and reasearch - precondition of
  evidence-based policies
• Equal treatment of migrants and citizens at least
  in work related matters
• Impact assessment with regard to trafficking and
  exploitation essential part of migration
  policies
• Companies taking responsibility for forced labour
  in their total supply chains
• Demand and supply of migrant labour should be
  recognized and reflected in employment, social
  and migration policies.

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La Strada Czech Republic

• 421 222 721 810
• lastrada_at_strada.cz
• www.strada.cz