“When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.” -César Chávez
Governor Perdue has issued a proclamation declaring January “Human Trafficking Awareness Month” in North Carolina. Nationally, President Barack Obama has declared January “National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.” Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, severe forms of trafficking in persons is defined as (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Trafficking has many faces including child prostitutes, men or women forced to work in brothels, domestic workers held in a home or farmworkers forced to labor in the fields. Forced labor manifests itself in a variety of ways, but each is alike in that it strips its victims of their essential, inalienable right to human dignity and freedom. Governor Perdue’s and President Obama’s proclamations remind us as we enter into a new year that modern-day slavery continues to exist in our country and our North Carolinian communities.
North Carolina ranks as the 8th most likely state in the United States for human trafficking to take place. North Carolina has a vast highway interstate system, many military bases, a growing immigrant population, a large coast with several port cities and flourishing tourism industry, and its booming agricultural industry that relies on heavily on migrant labor. Human traffickers target society’s most vulnerable, i.e., invisible populations who are marginalized by society and unable to fight back against oppression. For this reason, victims often include immigrants, and in North Carolina these immigrants frequently work in agriculture.
Victims of human trafficking in agriculture include men and women, adults and children, undocumented or permanent residents or those on H2-A visas. Farmworkers often face difficult conditions including low wages, harsh working conditions, and exposure to unsafe pesticides in their work and their homes. However, unsafe and, at times, abusive conditions do not necessarily constitute human trafficking. Exploitation in agriculture becomes trafficking when the employer uses force, fraud or coercion to control workers and make them believe that they have no option but to continue working for that employer. These methods include: enticing a worker to migrate and leave the safety of home with false promises about living or working conditions; isolating workers from their peers, family members, or service providers; controlling a worker's movement inside and outside of their home and their communications with individuals in the community; and verbal, psychological, physical or sexual abuse. If that worker is from another country, a trafficker may attempt to control a worker by confiscating his or her passport or identification documents; exploiting that workers’ lack of education or familiarity with the language, laws and customs of the U.S.; or threatening the worker with deportation or other harm to the victim or the victim’s family back home.
(Image via Legal Aid of NC, Farmworker Unit)
Farmworkers are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking for a variety of reasons. First, farm work often occurs in rural areas where farmworkers are geographically isolated and living in employer-provided housing. Under these circumstances, employers often control their migrant workers' access to transportation, medical care, food, religious services, and, thus their ability to meet their own basic human needs. Unlike other low wage workers, farmworkers are often exempt from basic labor protections, such as overtime pay, the right to organize and bargain collectively, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, most occupational safety and health protections, and farm work has less restrictive child labor laws. Moreover, the protections that farmworkers are afforded by the law are often not adequately enforced. Finally, the immigration status of farmworkers makes them vulnerable to human trafficking. Although immigration status is not determinative of whether or not someone is a victim of trafficking, it is often used to physiologically coerce an individual to remain in a situation against his or her will. Undocumented workers can be threatened with arrest or deportation by employers who seek to intimidate them from reporting labor violations or from finding a new employer. Workers who are legally working on guestworker visas such as the H2A visas are restricted to working for the one employer who sponsored their visa, limiting the options if workplace conditions are abusive.
The Farmworker Advocacy Network believes that all people, including farmworkers, deserve safe places to live and safe places to work. You can help work to prevent those conditions that make farmworkers in NC vulnerable to exploitation by endorsing the Harvest of Dignity campaign. For those interested in learning more about agriculture and exploitation, “Trafficking 101” is an online training created by Farmworker Legal Services of New York. To take action, you can also write your local supermarket to tell them that you support efforts to end modern-day slavery in the fields (for a sample letter see the CIW website) or you can trace products on Anti-Slavery International’s interactive map in order to see the economy of modern slavery in action and hold businesses accountable. Locally you can attend an event sponsored by NC Stop Human Trafficking in order to get involved in your community and to connect with organizations working to fight human trafficking in our state.