WarSlavery Campaign | Summer '07 Update

by Austin on July 13, 2007

The last few months have been a busy time here at the WarSlavery Campaign. The plight of workers and growing concern about the New Embassy Compound have captured attention from the media as well as the federal government.

Press
By last count MSNBC, NBC, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, Kuwait Times, independent journalist David Phinney, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) office and the State Dept’s Inspector General’s office have all reported on this abuse.

State Department Confirms Trafficking in Iraq
The State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released and covers Iraq in some detail. This report echos Free the Slaves’ assessment that Iraq is ripe for trafficking and slavery. It goes on to identify Iraq as being a source and destination country for workers brought into the country to work and women taken from the country for sexual exploitation.
Read the Iraq section of the TIP Report here

Unfortunately, the TIP report places the burden of regulation and enforcement on the Iraqi government, not the US government. The TIP Report rightly calls Iraq a ‘special case’. Free the Slaves agrees. Iraq is a special case because American (and international) companies are spending American taxdollars on projects in Iraq. This demand for cheap, disposable and non-Iraqi workers has led to exploitation that the American government should address. Exploitation of Nepali workers by American (or Kuwaiti) contractors is not just an Iraqi problem, it’s an American problem.

US Embassy Compound in Bhagdad

Reports of abuse on the compound continue to surface, and there has still not been a credible investigation. The State Department’s Inspector General released a report on his visits to the compound, but Free the Slaves found serious gaps in his analysis. Over a year ago, at Free the Slaves’ urging, Ambassador John Miller called on the Inspector General to investigate every State Department contract in Iraq. It appears, however, that only the Baghdad Embassy Compound was visited. Our demands followed reports by independent journalist David Phinney that workers were threatened and abuse by the project contractor, First Kuwaiti. Subsequent reports indicated that the State Department staff helped restrain workers attempting to escape the compound. Free the Slaves calls on the Inspector General to amend or retract the report, and start the investigation over again with appropriate methodology and trained staff, and with visits to every State Department contract in Iraq.
Download the DOS-IG Report here
Read/watch NBC Coverage here

In an interesting side-development, the Kuwaiti government has responded to the TIP Report by stating that while there isn’t traficking in Kuwait, there is trafficking by Kuwaiti contractors. This is a clever PR tactic, but it may also be a tacit admission that First Kuwaiti (and/or other Kuwaiti companies) are involved in abuse.
Read Kuwaiti Times report here)

IOM: 30 Trafficked Workers Rescued from Iraq
The International Organization for Migration reported the repatriation of 30 Sri Lankans who had been trafficked into Iraq. While subsequent press releases from IOM’s Geneva headquarters indicated the labor broker which tricked these workers into Iraq they have been reluctant to identify the companies who enforced their bondage. Free the Slaves calls on the IOM, and on the United States, a major IOM donor, to publically identify the offending companies and for the US to ensure that they are defunded and are added to a disbarment list, ensuring they will not receive future contracts.

The WarSlavery Campaign
For over a year now Free the Slaves’ WarSlavery Campaign has demanded:

• Freedom for workers and compensation for their (or their families’) losses,
• Punishment for contractors,
• Screening of new contractors,
• Implementation of appropriate laws and policies, and the
• Impartial, transparent, timely investigation into known and alleged cases of trafficking in Iraq.

Want to learn more?
In addition to the links above, we recommend you read Phinny’s IPS News articles here and here, his Alternet article here and in IraqSlogger here.

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