Trafficking Story II

The human tragedy behind human trafficking Peter (25) and Kevin (19)

Peter (25) and Kevin (19), both citizens of a northern EU country, were homeless and unemployed when they were approached by Edgar. Edgar offered them a construction job, including room and board. The idea of a job and a place to stay seemed heaven-sent, and they quickly agreed. The wages were low but steady, and more than they could hope for in their current situation. Edgar put Kevin and Peter up in an old caravan with two other men and set them to work on construction jobs.

He paid them a bit of cash at the end of each day and brought them food as well. After a

short while he asked if they would like to go work in a couple of wealthy neighbouring countries where there were many construction jobs on offer. Kevin and Peter agreed, as did the other men in the caravan, one of whom was a minor: Jim, a 17-year-old runaway. Kevin and Jim did not have passports, but that did not matter; Edgar got them each a fake one and bought their tickets.

Things did not work out in the new countries the way the men had imagined. Again living in cramped caravans, sometimes six of them together, their “wages” soon shrank to the point where they were earning less in a day than they should have been earning per hour. They were working long days – sometimes 12 to 14 hours – six days a week, laying asphalt and doing stonework around private houses. Whenever they were not working, they had to go door-to-door in residential neighbourhoods, trying to drum up new business. Edgar shipped them around so much that they had no idea where they were or even which country they were in. He often treated them abusively, shouting at them, hitting them, and even striking them with a spade. He warned that if they left they would be fetched back or beaten. Kevin tried it anyway, once, but was quickly found by Edgar and hauled back to the building site. He did not try again.

After three months, Edgar suddenly went back home, leaving the men behind. Kevin walked all the way to his national embassy in the capital city and appealed for help. Jim also tried to walk and was found by the police and handed over to child protection services. Peter made it to a port city and tried to buy a ticket home but was in such a confused condition he had to be helped by police; who opened an investigation into Edgar’s activities when they heard his story.

In the end, Edgar was convicted of human trafficking for purposes of forced labour. Though all the men had consented to work for him and to go abroad, the court deemed that their labour had been exploited and that they had been in reasonable fear of reprisal had they tried to leave their jobs. The fact that they had little money, were dependent on Edgar for room and board, had a limited ability to make themselves understood, no real idea of where they were and, in two cases, false papers, all made any escape from their circumstances much more difficult.

Edgar received a two-year prison sentence. The money he had made from the building jobs was confiscated and he was requested to pay limited damages to Peter and Kevin worth about 10 days’ wages. Kevin now lives under a form of police protection in his home country; Peter stayed in the host country in a secret location and is now under a witness protection regime.