migrant workers

Illegal immigrants working on Paris metro "reduced to slavery"

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:45:22 +0200

These labourers, working on station platforms in the Paris metro, are illegal immigrants. The conditions they work in, shown in the following videos, are simply deplorable.

Under the pretence that they wanted to send photos home, the labourers were allowed to bring a small digital camera along to work. They then passed their videos to French labour union CGT, who brought them to the attention of the media. The images show the workers removing concrete slabs from the station platform, and then resurfacing the ground with boiling tarmac. Bare armed, gloveless, without masks, without helmets.

Filmed in September on the platform of Porte de Saint-Ouen metro station in northern Paris, the video immediately caused a stir in France, where it was published by several online publications, which outlined that the company in charge of the metro, RATP, is state owned. The 23 men we see in the clip, most of them of West African origin, are employed by temporary employment agencies, and passed over to RATP subcontractor Asten. They have contracts, they receive payslips, they calculate and pay taxes, but they receive no social benefits.

RATP responded to the video on October 13, explaining that: "We make regular checks on worksites to ensure that security rules and working conditions are respected" and added that, "to our knowledge, no employee working on these sites is an illegal immigrant".

Since the beginning of last week, more than 3,000 undocumented workers in Paris have gone on strike to protest their right to official recognition.

Standing unemployed under the Liu Li bridge

Julien — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:13:13 +0200

(Crédit : Ana F.)

Jia Ze Wei is one of 150 million Chinese "mingong" -modern slaves or workers who leave their village in search of work in Beijing, one of the richest regions in China. Jia Ze Wei comes to Beijing's Liu Li bridge area in a bid to make some money to support his family back in the village.

Working in a Chinese sweatshop for HP, Microsoft, Dell and IBM

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:49:53 +0100

A report issued by human rights activists reveals that young migrant workers are labouring under sweatshop conditions for IBM, Microsoft, HP and Dell in a factory in China. Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, the people who put your keyboard keys into place are paid 60 euro cents an hour to do it. And they're not even allowed to raise their heads or go to the toilet...

Taiwanese-owned Meitai factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong province (southeast), employs two thousand young workers, 75% of them women, to produce computer equipment including keyboards and printer cases for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM (as we go to press IBM and Dell are yet to confirm this). The damning research, published online by the National Labor Committee, was carried out between June and September of 2008, and updated mid January 2009. When we contacted the companies cited in the report, only Microsoft and HP replied to say that they had been made aware of the report. Both gave similar statements about their commitment to the "fair treatment and safety" of workers contracted to produce their software.

Migrant worker taped to train floor, dies

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:51:16 +0200

When a Chinese train passenger started panicking on board, staff taped him to the floor. Ten hours later, he died.

Web users are taking on the case of Cao Dahuo, a migrant worker who was taped to the floor of a train for ten hours before he died. Fellow passengers who sympathised with the 30-year-old factory worker have posted testimonies of the incident online (excerpts translated from Chinese to English here). They say that when Cao began having a panic attack, the train manager got staff to attach him to the floor with duct tape.

Cao was originally from Renhuai, Guizhou Province, in the centre of the country. He was working in Guangzhou, in the southwest, when one of his friends says he became "mentally disturbed". It was decided that his friends would take him on the 34-hour trip home on the 1291 train. But the husband and father of two never made it. His body was offloaded in Laibin station, Guangxi province, on 25 September.

Amongst others, two bloggers posted their testimonies on Tianya.cn. Tan Renwei, a journalist from the Southern Metropolis Daily, contacted both Cheng Zhunqiang and Mr Huang to verify their stories. Both gave the same account:

Cao seemed to be anxious and started talking loudly and then shouting as though he wanted to get off the train. Passengers demanded that the train policeman ask the manager if he could be tied down. The train manager arrived with a role of duct tape and several staff and attached Cao by wrapping tape around his shoulders, chest, legs and ankles. When he managed to struggle partially free, the train manager then applied tape to his wrists and more to his ankles. Despite constant requests to be released, Cao spent the entire night bound on the floor.

At 9am, the train manager arrived again to apply more tape. Cheng objected, saying it was painful and that Cao was harmless. But the train manager refused, saying that Cao might jump out of the train window. When Cao became quiet and still, Cheng went to fetch the train manager for help. But he wouldn't come, and said that it was his responsibility if anything happened. Although Cheng went to cut the tapes and comfort Cao, the latter was unable to drink water and died soon after.

When Cao's body was offloaded Cheng Zhunqiang got off the train too and noticed that the health officials had written on admin papers "seriously ill patient". Believing that the paramedics were trying to change the story in order to aid the train manager, Cheng shouted at them that a dead man could not be a sick man, and it was changed.

The train company offered the victim's family 120,000 Yuan (around €13,000) in compensation, which they accepted. Cheng Zhunqiang put the family in contact with a lawyer in Beijing but it hasn't been decided whether they'll pursue the case. The train manager has been suspended.

Cao's body offloaded at Laibin station, Guangxi province. Photos posted on the Tianya forum by Mr Huang, who says he regrets not taking photos when Cao was bound.

"Hi, I'm Romanian"… not Roma!

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:18:03 +0200

Romanian immigrants have been given such a bad reputation in Europe that the Romanian government has ordered for an expensive publicity campaign to improve the country's image abroad. Some see it as a hidden message - that not all Romanians are Roma.

The campaign is targeting Spain and Italy in particular, where the Roma communities make up the largest of the immigrant groups, with 500,000 and 700,000 inhabitants respectively. According to the Romanian government, they need to make an "effort in communication to correct the mistaken perception of Romanian citizens with alternative information to that of the sensational media debate based on the violations of some citizens originating from Romania".

And they're not holding back on the budget. Notorious New York agency Saatchi & Saatchi have been commissioned with a comprehensive "360°" campaign, which will include posters, a three-spot series, a website and also conferences and meetings to promote research that presents Romanian people as beneficial to Spanish society. A similar campaign, called "Piacere di conoscerti" (Pleased to meet you) is planned for Italy too.

In Spain, Romanian "gypsy" associations quickly noticed that there were no Roma people represented in the adverts. According to them, the message that the government is trying to get across is that "not all Romanians are Roma".

One of three videos from the campaign "Hola, soy Rumano".

Fifteen minutes of fame for the "iPhone Girl"

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:45:11 +0200

Surprised to find photos of a young Chinese factory worker on his new iPhone, a British Apple customer decided to post the pictures online. The girl in the pics has managed to catch the attention of everybody, including her boss...

Switching on his newly acquired phone for the first time, Mark Mitchell, an Apple customer from the UK, was shocked to find images of a young factory worker, all smiles, posing for a photo. Clearly the photos had been taken on the production line. This was confirmed by Foxconn, the Taiwanese company commissioned by Apple to manufacture the phones in Shenzhen, where the girl - now known as "iPhone Girl" - was employed.

On the MacRumours forum where the pictures were posted, there were no less than 360 comments made to the webuser, pseudonym, "markm49uk" (our Observer Mark Mitchell). Some people were immediately worried the girl might lose her job. Others thought it might be a publicity stunt by Apple.

A spokesperson from the company prefers to speak of the incident as a "beautiful mistake". The photos would have been taken to test out the phone, and accidentally got left on the handset, he said. It was assured that the woman has not lost her job. However, frightened by all the commotion (today's South China Morning Post), she might deserve a day off to recuperate. Something of a luxury in the factory she works in - a report from China Labor Watch says that the staff there only get one day off per fortnight and earn on average €80 a month.

"Black on black racism at the height of stupidity"

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:31:00 +0200

An anti-xenophobia protest in Johannesburg yesterday. Photo: Christo Doherty.

Forty-two people have been killed since the outbreak of violent clashes between native South Africans and Zimbabwean refugees in Johannesburg.

The violence began at the beginning of last week when mobs of South African youths started attacking foreign migrants, many of whom are Zimbabweans who have fled their country because of a brutal crackdown following elections at the end of March. The aggression towards the refugees is thought to be a reaction to rising food prices and high unemployment rates among the poor working classes, who blame Zimbabweans for taking their jobs. Since the beginning of the chaos, 42 people have been killed, 400 arrested and 16,000 displaced. Yesterday, President Thabo Mbeki called on troops to halt the attacks.

Fifty-four Burmese suffocate to death: "It's far from the first time"

Julien — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:34:47 +0200

Burmese stowaways step out of a police van in Thailand. Photo from the Human Rights and Development Foundation. Date unknown.

Fifty-four Burmese people have been found suffocated to death in a freezer truck on its way to the Thai tourist resort of Phuket on the other side of the border. The incident has shocked the world, but it's hardly an isolated case according to our Burmese Observer. Read more...

The victims were part of a group of 121 people crammed into the six by two metre cold storage container, which was normally used to transport frozen seafood. When the air conditioning system failed the stowaways started to run out of oxygen, trapped for a long time at a Thai checkpoint. According to AP, when he discovered what had happened, the driver of the lorry fled the scene. It was nearby villagers, hearing distress calls, that came to the rescue of the Burmese captives, most of whom were women.

The saddest peep show in the world

Julien — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:21:25 +0200

These desperate migrant workers from southeast China, who often leave their wives behind to find work, are reduced to paying women ten cents to see their private parts.

The photos, taken in Nanchang city in southeast China, have been circulating on the Chinese blogosphere since they were posted on an online discussion forum on March 27. Taken with a camera wrapped in a bin liner (pictured), the images show migrant workers paying a woman in exchange to see and touch her private parts. A common practice for migrant workers, says Zhang, our Observer in the country. Many men leave their families behind to find work in a big city, and might not have sexual relations with a woman for many years. The price for a quick peek is between one and two RMB (10 and 20 euro cents). This is just one issue arising from the mass migration that has swept China in the past few decades. It has also seen thousands of children orphaned and millions of people working under slave labour conditions.

Migrant workers, the new slaves

Team Observers — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:04:00 +0100

Material compiled by Zhang, our editor for the Chinese region.

Today there are an estimated 200 million migrant workers in China (120 million according to official figures), the majority of whom are peasants from the south who settle in the eastern cities to work in construction, restoration, and mining. They work 11 hours a day, sometimes more, under difficult conditions and for an average wage of 60 euros a month. They do not benefit from any social protection or medical care. And they have no rights to challenge their employer.