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【中英双语】美国在国内国际上实施强迫劳动的事实真相

引  言
  一段时间来,美国为了抹黑和遏制中国,炮制所谓中国在新疆实行“种族灭绝”“强迫劳动”等世纪谎言,制定并实施“维吾尔强迫劳动预防法”,诋毁新疆人权状况,破坏新疆民生发展。事实上,强迫劳动对新疆完全是无中生有,而对美国则是自建国伊始便已产生、时至今日仍然广泛存在、甚至愈发严重的顽瘴痼疾。
  这份报告从历史和现实、国内和国际多个角度客观记录了美国在强迫劳动问题上的所作所为,目的是廓清事实、回击谎言,让世人认清什么是强迫劳动、是谁在搞强迫劳动。让谎言在事实面前无处藏身、无所遁形。
  一、强迫劳动在国际法上有明确定义
  上世纪30年代以来,通过一系列公约、议定书等文件,强迫劳动在国际法上已确立了明确的定义和认定标准。
  ◆国际劳工组织关于强迫劳动的核心标准包括:《1930年强迫劳动公约》(第29号公约,截至2021年底179个成员国批准)、《1957年废除强迫劳动公约》(第105号公约,截至2021年底176个成员国批准)以及《1930年强迫劳动公约的2014年议定书》(截至2021年底59个成员国批准)。
  ◆《1930年强迫劳动公约》规定,强迫劳动是指“以任何惩罚相威胁,强行要求任何人从事的非本人自愿的一切工作或服务”,需满足“非自愿”“以惩罚相威胁”和“工作或服务”等三个要素才能构成强迫劳动。
  ◆据国际劳工组织统计,美国只批准了14个国际劳工公约,是批准公约数量最少的成员国之一。10个核心公约中,美国仅批准了2个,迄今尚未批准《1930年强迫劳动公约》。
  ◆中国已批准28个国际劳工公约,2022年4月批准《1930年强迫劳动公约》和《1957年废除强迫劳动公约》。中国积极履行各项国际公约义务,通过立法、政策制定和实施,切实保障劳动者各项权利,反对强迫劳动。中国法律明确禁止强迫劳动,刑法第244条规定了强迫劳动罪。新疆各族劳动者根据自己的意愿选择职业,按照劳动法、劳动合同法等法律法规,在平等自愿、协商一致等原则基础上,与用人单位自由订立劳动合同,获得相应报酬和权益保障,新疆各级政府还为自愿报名的劳动者提供必要的职业技能培训。各族劳动者完全有选择职业的自由,去什么地方、干什么工作都出于自己的意愿,从未受到惩罚威胁,人身自由从未受到任何限制。新疆完全不存在强迫劳动。
  二、强迫劳动与美国建国史如影随形
  奴隶贸易是美国的原罪。美国建国之初,是成百上千万被贩卖至美国黑人奴隶血与泪创造出的大量财富,帮助美国完成了资本的原始积累。
  ◆作为一个仅有246年历史的国家,奴隶制度在美国“合法”的延续时间竟然占到了建国历史的三分之一。据“跨大西洋奴隶贸易数据库”统计,在奴隶贸易史上,1514年至1866年间至少有3.6万个“贩奴远征队”。据德国斯塔蒂斯塔调查公司数据,1790年,美国有近70万黑人奴隶,而到1860年,总数竟然超过395万,而全美自由的非洲裔美国人仅有不到49万人。
  ◆黑人奴隶被迫在严苛的工作条件下从事社会底层劳动,衣不遮体,食不果腹,遭受残酷压榨,甚至许多人被折磨至死。这些黑人奴隶很多被迫从事棉花产业。正如美国作家爱德华·巴普蒂斯特所著的《被掩盖的原罪:奴隶制与美国资本主义的崛起》一书中讲到,皮鞭驱使奴隶将全部体力和大部分精力投入采棉工作,从而使采棉速度越来越快。在奴隶主的严酷逼迫下,到1860年,美国的棉花产量达到了1800年的130倍。快速增产棉花背后浸染的是黑人奴隶的血与泪。
  ◆据统计,美国奴隶主从黑人奴隶身上压榨的劳动价值以现价计算高达14万亿美元。据美国第四任总统詹姆斯·麦迪逊故居官网“詹姆斯·麦迪逊的蒙彼利埃”,奴隶制经济曾是驱动美国经济的主要引擎。从弗吉尼亚的烟草种植到罗得岛的造船业,都与奴隶制经济有关。1850年,美国80%的出口产品都是由奴隶生产的。哈佛大学历史学家斯文·贝克特指出,美国与西方的繁荣之道是奴隶制,而非民主。
  ◆非营利新闻机构“对话”在追溯美国奴隶制历史时提到,从18世纪末,“罪犯奴隶”和“不动产奴隶”就同时存在。在囚禁黑人最多的弗吉尼亚州,囚犯被宣布为“死魂灵”和“州奴”。直到20世纪初,各州才停止向农场主和工商业经营者出租罪犯作为铁路、公路和煤矿的廉价劳动力。在佐治亚州,1907年停止出租罪犯竟然导致制砖、采矿业等多个行业遭受经济冲击,很多公司因此倒闭。
  ◆据史料记载,到19世纪60年代末,先后有数十万华工参加了美国铁路的修筑。当初,一批批来自中国的穷苦农民登上被称为“浮动地狱”的海船,像罐头里的沙丁鱼一样拥挤蜷缩在船舱内,在海上漂流约两个月来到美国加利福尼亚州做苦力,途中因非人待遇、台风、传染病而致死者高达64.21%。侥幸来到美国的华工饱受种族歧视,在白人监工的皮鞭下,只用了7年,修建了原计划14年完工的铁路。史学家形容“每一块枕木下都埋着一具华人的尸骨”。
  三、美国国内强迫劳动劣迹斑斑
  多年来,美国政府刻意逃避劳工保护责任,导致私营监狱囚犯沦为“奴工”、滥用童工现象普遍存在、农业领域强迫劳动触目惊心,堪称“现代奴隶制”国家。
  (一)监狱是美国强迫劳动的重灾区
  ◆美国是名副其实的监狱国家。美国公共政策智库“监狱政策倡议”报告显示,美国102所联邦监狱、1566所州监狱、2850个地方看守所、1510个少年管教所、186个移民拘留所和82个原住民看守所以及军事监狱等各类机构共关押了约200万名囚犯。美国人口数量不足世界总人口的5%,而监狱人口数量占全球在押人口的四分之一,是全世界监禁率最高和被监禁人数最多的国家。
  ◆美国宪法第十三修正案虽然在名义上保护公民免受强迫劳动,但却将刑事犯人排除在外。美国监狱系统滥用第十三修正案,将强迫囚犯劳动合法化。美国联邦及地方各级监狱犯人中存在大量监狱劳工,从事狱政系统日常维护工作,包括修理、烹饪、设施清洁以及衣物洗涤等,其中多为黑人和有色人种。还有犯人被外包给公共项目或被企业雇用,从事建筑、道路养护、林业和殡葬等行业,这些工种要么是脏活累活,要么高风险。路透社披露,美国最大的太阳能电池板制造商之一Suniva公司使用监狱劳动力维持低成本。该公司负责人承认,公司与联邦监狱工业公司(UNICOR)合作,将生产线从亚洲迁回美国,得到利润丰厚的联邦合同。
  ◆美国公民自由联盟ACLU(American Civil Liberties Union)报告显示,全美至少有30个州将服刑犯人列为灾难和紧急事件的应急劳动力,至少14个州雇用犯人从事森林消防工作。大多数监狱劳工称自己从未接受过正式岗位培训,却常常要在不符合安全操作标准和缺乏防护设备的情况下进行危险作业,经常造成人员伤亡,而对这些伤亡,各监狱无明确记录。美国《大西洋月刊》早在2015年就评论称:“这些外包的犯人比奴隶还要便宜,毕竟企业无需操心他们的身体健康。”
  ◆美国实际上形成了巨大的“监狱-工业复合体”,同美政府签署合约运营的私人监狱成为美国强迫劳动的大毒源。美国私营监狱劳工完全受制于雇主,根本没有拒绝劳动的权利。高达76%的受访服刑人员表示,一旦自己无力劳动或拒绝劳动,就将受到狱方花样百出的惩罚,比如单独囚禁、减少家人探视、驳回假释或减刑申请。此外,服刑人员没有权利选择工种,工作分配完全出自狱政管理人员武断、歧视甚至惩戒性的决策。美国威拉姆特大学法学院教授劳拉·艾普曼在题为《血钱:监狱劳工和监狱利润》的研究报告中指出,私营监狱是一种“有害的奴役形式”,服刑人员“被困在不断增加的体力劳动、痛苦和剥削之中”。
  ◆多年来,美国私营监狱与黑心政客勾结,强制囚犯劳动,让私营监狱沦为其大肆敛财、压榨穷人的奴隶制式“集中营”。由于缺乏监管,被强迫劳动的囚犯工作时间长、环境恶劣、工资微薄甚至被迫无偿劳动。2022年初,美国公民自由联盟曾提起法律诉讼,指出美国私营监狱在经营拘留设施时存在大量权钱交易,加剧了过度监禁和强迫劳动问题,要求美国联邦法警局提供有关运营商合同信息并向社会公布。
  ◆美国监狱用于支付犯人工资的开支不到总预算的1%,而监狱劳工每年创造的产品和服务总价值却超过110亿美元。因囚犯无需劳工权利、薪资低廉,美大型企业滥用监狱劳工现象严重。同美政府签署合同的私营监狱每年从对狱囚的强迫劳动中获利数百万美元。截至2022年5月,全美平均时薪约为10.96美元,而监狱劳工的时薪却不足1美元。不仅如此,很多狱政机构已连续数年甚至数十年未给犯人涨过工资。佛罗里达州等7个州绝大多数安排给犯人的工作没有劳动报酬。此外,很多犯人的工资以“税务、膳食费、监牢费及出庭费用”等原因遭到狱方克扣,超七成受访者无法承担服刑期间基本生活开支。
  ◆新冠肺炎疫情期间,全美至少40个州要求犯人赶制口罩和洗手液等防疫物资,处理医院产生的大量医疗垃圾,搬运尸体,打造棺木,挖掘墓穴。而从事这些危险工作的犯人却难以得到相应保护。疫情暴发以来,美国监狱已经有近三分之一的犯人感染新冠肺炎,3000人死于缺医少药或拘押环境恶劣。《洛杉矶时报》披露,疫情期间加利福尼亚州监狱中的数千名服刑人员被迫在高风险条件下从事缝制口罩、制造家具等工作。即使监狱内出现大量确诊病例,监狱工厂仍照常运作。服刑人员被要求每天缝制上千只口罩,自己却一只也得不到。监狱工作人员还威胁服刑人员,称如果拒绝工作将影响获释。
  (二)针对儿童和妇女的强迫劳动触目惊心
  ◆美国的童工问题由来已久。早在100多年前,美国矿井、烟草农场、纺织工厂就开始雇佣压榨童工。时至今日,美国仍是联合国193个会员国中唯一没有批准《儿童权利公约》的国家,雇佣童工问题仍未解决。据美国卫生与公众服务部等机构统计,每年从境外贩卖至美国从事强迫劳动的10万人中,50%为未成年儿童。
  ◆据非营利机构“美国农场工人就业培训计划”估计,美国至今仍有约50万童工从事农业劳作,很多孩子从8岁开始工作,每周工作长达72小时。农场童工长期暴露在农药等危险化学品中。此外,他们需要操作锋利的工具和沉重的机械,由于缺乏必要培训和保护措施,面临较大工伤风险。据美国国家职业安全与健康研究所数据,1995年至2002年间,估计有907名青少年死于美国农场。据《华盛顿邮报》报道,2003到2016年间,美国有452名儿童因工伤死亡,其中237名童工死于农业事故。根据美政府问责办公室2018年11月报告,5.5%的童工在农场中艰苦劳作,死亡童工案件有一半来自农业领域。美国多个州存在烟草农场大量雇佣儿童从事收割和晾晒烟叶等情况,对他们的身心健康造成很大危害,很多儿童出现尼古丁中毒现象,甚至被发现肺部感染。
  ◆据美国官方统计,2019年,美执法人员发现违反《公平劳动标准法》童工案858起,在危险职业场所工作的未成年人达544名。美最大工会组织劳工联合会和产业工会联合会称,美劳工部每年平均只报告34起违法使用童工案件,远低于实际数量,暴露出美劳工部门执法能力严重不足。
  ◆美国《里士满时讯报》报道,美国有24万到32.5万名妇女和儿童遭受性奴役。美国非政府组织“现在结束奴隶制”称,一名被贩卖至性行业的儿童一天“工作”12小时,每周“工作”7天,每年可榨取15万至20万美元。
  (三)强迫劳动在美国各行各业无处不在
  ◆美国丹佛大学网站刊文披露,目前在美至少有50余万人生活在现代奴隶制下并被强迫劳动。美强迫劳动现象无处不在,在家政、农业种植、旅游销售、餐饮、医疗和美容服务等23个行业或领域贩卖劳动力问题尤为突出。2004年,美国加州大学伯克利分校人权研究中心对1998年至2003年相关案例研究后指出,全美强迫劳动案例数以万计,遍布各大城镇及乡村,成为美国内最隐蔽、非人道、广泛且罪恶的非法交易据点。
  ◆美国现行移民法支持了现代奴隶制。美国对外籍劳工的临时签证制度在法律上将劳工与雇主绑定,令外籍劳工沦为下等人,即使雇主任意压低工资或延长工作时间,雇工也不敢离开工作岗位,否则可能被驱逐出境。这种雇主与雇工之间的权力失衡是系统性的,有证据表明,美国强迫劳动问题与特定签证类别存在关联。美国城市研究所和美国东北大学2014年一项研究显示,在美国强迫劳动受害者中,超过70%在抵美时持有合法签证。要结束这种现代奴隶制,需要改革美国的移民法,但美国会和政府都缺乏改革意愿。
  ◆纽约、洛杉矶等主要城市是美国大多数“血汗工厂”总部所在地。这些工厂一般承接服饰、咖啡、电子产品的生产和制作。据美劳工部数据,仅服装类血汗工厂数量在美就多达2.2万个。为了节省成本以实现利益最大化,工厂拥有者往往通过各种手段钻法律漏洞,规避政府监管;工人工资和有关福利待遇都远低于法定标准,长时间工作或加班也并没有相应报酬,极端情况下甚至会遭受雇主虐待。《纽约时报》披露的美劳工部内部文件显示,在美属萨摩亚服装厂工作的越南裔工人投诉经常遭保安毒打,一名女工被保安用硬塑料管戳瞎左眼。在俄克拉何马州的一家食品厂,印度裔工人食不果腹,该厂许多工人营养严重不良,看似“行走的僵尸”。
  ◆在家政服务部门,绝大多数服务人员为境外移民且不被美法律认定为雇员,美移民政策不允许他们随便更换服务对象,否则将被驱逐出境。绝大多数受害者劳动条件极差,工资被拖欠或达不到最低工资标准,遭受雇主及其家人的暴力、性侵或恐吓,被禁止向任何人抱怨,否则会被驱逐出境。据美国城市研究所和美国东北大学2014年报告,在美国强迫劳动受害者中,超过三分之一的受害者是家庭佣人。
  ◆在农业部门,30%的农场工人及其家庭生活在联邦贫困线下,遭受威胁或暴力并被强迫劳动,不能表达意愿。位于佛罗里达西南部的小镇伊莫卡利被称为美国的“番茄之都”,该小镇共生活着26000人,大部分是来自墨西哥、危地马拉、海地等国的农民。当地最低工资标准为1小时8.65美元,而他们实际能拿到只有每小时5.5美元,远未达到最低工资标准。英国《卫报》调查发现,在美国玉米农场工作的外籍劳工未能得到法律保护,居住条件极其恶劣,每天连续工作12小时、工作15天后,仅获得225美元报酬,且经常面临性侵、骚扰、工资被窃、工伤致残致死、暴露在有毒化学品中等问题。美国独立记者吉娜·玛丽2017年发表题为《强迫劳动在美国比你想象的更普遍》调查报告指出,在美国一些农场,外籍农工被迫睡在棚屋和箱式卡车内,他们采摘农产品却没有工资,如果试图逃跑,就会遭到殴打。美国经济政策研究所报告显示,美国季节性农业工人常因其移民身份和对报复以及驱逐出境的恐惧而遭受工资盘剥和其他虐待,每年被拖欠工资达数百万美元。美国劳工部工资和工时司资金和人员不足,导致其对农业工人能采取的保护和救济措施只是杯水车薪,最终使农业工人认为向劳工部报告雇主违规行为既无必要也没有用。
  ◆2015年《纽约时报》在起底纽约美甲行业的调查中发现,美甲行业绝大多数工人的工资低于最低工资标准,有时候甚至没有工资。工人遭到严重盘剥,还要忍受包括视频监视、体罚在内的各种侮辱。这些美甲师多为来自中国、韩国、尼泊尔和南美等地的移民,从事的往往是超时的低薪劳动。然而,许多纽约美甲行业工人由于没有合法居留身份,受到雇主剥削后往往只能忍气吞声,不敢举报。
  ◆美国作家布伦南在其著作中指出,美国移民政策不仅没有改善人口贩卖问题和社会弱势群体处境,反而加剧了社会问题,让更多隐藏形式的强迫劳动出现在美国社会。美国社会对被从强迫劳动中解救出来的受害者的帮助和救济不足,导致其为维持生计主动落入新的强迫劳动陷阱,永远生活在被奴役、被压迫的恶性循环中。
  ◆2022年6月,美国人口贩卖研究所发布《2021年联邦人口贩卖报告》。报告显示,2021年,全美强迫劳动犯罪案件数量比2020年增加22%。2021年,在美国各地联邦法庭受理的人口贩卖案件中,有162名受害者是因为强迫劳动,占所有449名人口贩卖案件受害者的36%,而93%的强迫劳动受害者是外国公民。
  四、美国强迫劳动恶劣影响外溢国际社会
  美国国内强迫劳动恶劣影响蔓延,引发出严重的跨国人口贩卖、侵犯其他国家人权等问题。美国在批准和履行国际劳工公约方面是名副其实的差等生,这与美国在强迫劳动和侵犯劳工权利方面的长期糟糕纪录形成了呼应。
  (一)国内强迫劳动滋生跨境人口贩卖
  ◆美国是强迫劳动、奴役受害者的来源国、中转国和目的地国,合法和非法行业都存在严重的贩卖人口情况。据美国务院估计,每年从境外贩卖至全美从事强迫劳动的人口多达10万人。过去5年,美国所有50个州和哥伦比亚特区均报告了强迫劳动和人口贩卖案,美国“全国人口贩卖举报热线”统计显示,2012至2019年接报案件数从3200多个增加到约11500个,呈现显著上升趋势。2020年,热线接报案件数达10583起,受害者达16658人。以强迫劳动为主的现代奴隶制在美国酒店、餐馆、按摩店、农场、建筑业、家政业中广泛存在,受害者多是新移民、儿童、女性等弱势群体,涉案人员多使用身心虐待、威胁和羞辱等手段控制受害者。
  ◆2021年4月,联合国人权理事会单边强制措施对人权负面影响问题特别报告员、任意拘留问题工作组发表联合声明指出,美通过威胁制裁等手段胁迫他国人员与美合作,构成强迫劳动,侵犯有关人员权益。人权理事会当代形式奴役问题特别报告员布拉在其2018年有关报告中指出,美多家番茄种植农场曾发生针对女性移民工人实施强迫劳动、抵押劳工、性暴力和威胁驱逐出境的事件。
  ◆《2021年美国侵犯人权报告》指出,由于美国移民政策收紧、国内监管不力,针对移民的人口贩卖和强迫劳动现象加剧。该报告援引美司法部2021年11月资料指出,在一起人口贩卖案件中,几十名来自墨西哥和中美洲的工人被贩卖至美国佐治亚州农场,在恶劣条件下被非法监禁和强迫劳动。这些“现代奴隶制”的受害者在持枪者的监控之下,被迫徒手挖洋葱,每挖满一桶洋葱只能得到20美分的报酬,其中“至少两人死亡,一人被多次性侵”。
  ◆除了艰苦的劳动条件,严酷管理、没收证件、限制自由更是这些强迫劳动案件的标准特征。2021年,美联社披露上百名印度工人被诱骗到新泽西州建设大型印度教寺庙,这些工人一下飞机后就被收走护照,被强迫每周累计工作超过87个小时,新泽西州当地最低工资是每小时12美元,而这些印度工人工资仅为每小时1.2美元。路透社报道,全球最大轮胎制造商、美国固特异轮胎橡胶公司曾遭遇多项指控,包括在马来西亚拖欠外籍工人工资、违法要求外籍工人超时工作以及拒绝外籍工人保管自己的护照等。报道援引该案律师的话称,一些员工每月超时工作229个小时,远远超出马来西亚规定的104小时上限。
  ◆美国执法部门对贩卖人口、强迫劳动等行为的打击力度明显不足。美国司法部发布的《2021人口贩卖数据报告》显示,2019年全美因贩卖人口和强迫劳动遭检察官调查的嫌疑人共2091人,但被定罪的仅有837人。丹佛大学学者克丽西·巴克利指出,“美国强迫劳动现象之所以难以禁绝,一方面是因为利润丰厚,另一方面是由于美国立法不力和执法效率低下,作恶者被起诉的风险很小”。
  (二)美国公司在国外长期实施强迫劳动
  ◆《华盛顿邮报》2019年披露,玛氏、好时等美国知名大型巧克力公司采用的可可原材料近20年来大多由西非童工采摘,从事可可豆采摘的童工人数高达200万,每人每天报酬不足1美元。英国电视四台2020年报道,星巴克等美国知名咖啡公司使用的咖啡豆由危地马拉13岁以下的童工采摘。这些童工每日工作8小时,每周工作时长超过40小时,年纪最小的不过8岁,而他们的单日薪资有时只买得起一杯咖啡。
  五、国际社会对美国强迫劳动的批评不绝于耳
  长期以来,国际社会严重关切美国社会存在的强迫劳动,呼吁美国政府认真反思和对待。
  ◆美国农业领域雇用童工问题是美履行国际劳工公约特别是核心劳工公约的顽疾和硬伤,也是国际劳工组织标准监督机制对美履约最大关切。国际劳工组织公约和建议书实施专家委员会(CEACR)从2012年起连续多年对美大量18岁以下农场童工严重工伤事故表达关切。2014年第103届国际劳工大会期间,国际劳工标准实施委员会将美违反《1999年最恶劣形式的童工劳动公约》案件列为重点国别案件之一上会审查。
  ◆近十年来,CEACR还就美履行《1957年废除强迫劳动公约》《1936年船东对病、伤海员责任公约》等发表评论,要求美政府改变不当作为,切实履行公约义务。CEACR在2017年指出,美应通过联邦立法确保在刑事司法程序中不出现因种族歧视而导致强制劳动(compulsory labor)判决数量在各种族间的失衡。美政府应在联邦层面出台必要措施,减少刑事司法体系中种族和民族不平等现象,确保强制劳动判决不针对特定种族和少数民族。
  ◆联合国人权理事会时任人口贩卖问题特别报告员格拉齐亚在2016年结束对美国别访问后发表声明,呼吁美采取更有效措施调查以强迫劳动和劳动剥削为目的的人口贩卖案件。声明指出,2015年数据显示,美人口贩卖案件中75%与性交易有关,13%与劳工有关,3%与二者同时有关。妇女和儿童、移民工人、无人陪伴和失散的儿童、逃离冲突的人、离家出走的年轻人、土著人、性少数群体等面临更大的劳工和性交易贩卖风险。
  结束语
  美国无视本国在历史上和现实中大量存在的强迫劳动和“现代奴隶制”问题,肆意诬蔑抹黑其他国家,散布所谓“强迫劳动”谎言,充分暴露出美国在人权问题上的虚伪双标,以及打着人权幌子搞政治操弄和经济霸凌的惯用伎俩。
  美国强推“维吾尔强迫劳动预防法”,绝非关心子虚乌有的新疆“强迫劳动”问题,而是要剥夺新疆民众的工作权利,制造“强迫失业”;是要破坏新疆各族人民的生计,制造“强迫返贫”;是要破坏国际经贸秩序和产业链供应链,在国际上制造“强迫脱钩断链”。美方的所作所为,本质上是打着人权的幌子危害人权、打着规则的旗号破坏规则、打着法律的招牌践踏法律,逆时代潮流而动,注定要失败。
  美国政府应该做的是,收起“人权教师爷”的惺惺作态,检讨自身在强迫劳动问题上的累累赤字,停止造谣抹黑,停止干涉中国内政,停止实施“维吾尔强迫劳动预防法”,停止“以疆制华”。



The United States' Practice of Forced Labor at Home and Abroad: Truth and Facts
Introduction
Over the years, the United States has concocted the biggest lies of the century such as the so-called "genocide" and "forced labor" in Xinjiang, in an attempt to smear and contain China. It has enacted and implemented the "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act", denigrated the human rights situation in Xinjiang and undermined people's livelihood and development of Xinjiang. In fact, the claim of forced labor does not apply at all to Xinjiang. It is instead a chronic disease of the United States that goes all the way back to the founding of the country. It remains rampant today, and is getting worse than ever.
This report records the United States' practice of forced labor at home and abroad from historical and current perspectives. The aim is to clarify facts, debunk lies, and help the world better understand what is forced labor and who is doing that. Let the truth shine through the darkness of lies.
I. There is clear definition of forced labor in international law
Since the 1930s, a series of conventions, protocols and other documents have established clear definition and determination standards of forced labor in international law.
◆ The core standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on forced labor include: Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29, ratified by 179 member states by the end of 2021), the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105, ratified by 176 member states by the end of 2021) and the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (ratified by 59 member states by the end of 2021).
◆ According to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, the term forced labor "shall mean all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily." In other words, "involuntariness", "menace of penalty" and "work or service" are three core elements of forced labor.
◆ According to ILO statistics, the United States has ratified only 14 international labor conventions, one of the lowest numbers among member states. It has ratified only two out of the ten core conventions, and has not yet ratified the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 till this day.
◆ China has ratified 28 international labor conventions. The Forced Labor Convention, 1930 and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 were ratified in April 2022. China faithfully fulfills its obligations under international conventions, and truly protects the rights of workers and prohibits forced labor through legislation and policy formulation and implementation. Forced labor is explicitly prohibited by Chinese law. The crime of forced labor is specified in Article 244 of the Criminal Law. In Xinjiang, workers of all ethnic groups choose jobs according to their own will, and enter into labor contracts with employers and get remuneration and rights and interests in accordance with laws and regulations such as the Labor Law and the Labor Contract Law, and on the basis of equality, voluntariness and consensus. The governments at various levels in Xinjiang also provide necessary job skills training to workers who apply voluntarily. Workers of all ethnic groups are free to choose where they work and what they do. They are never menaced by penalty or restricted in their personal freedom. There is no such thing as forced labor in Xinjiang.
II. Forced labor in the United States was born and grew with the founding of the nation
Slave trade was an original sin of the United States. When the United States was founded, it was the blood and tears of millions of black slaves sold to the country that helped create immense wealth and complete the primitive accumulation of capital.
◆ For a country with a history of only 246 years, slavery had been legal in the United States for almost one-third of its history. According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, in the history of slave trade, there were at least 36,000 "slaving expeditions" between 1514 and 1866. And according to German data firm Statista, there were about 700,000 black slaves in the United States in 1790, while by 1860 the number had exceeded 3.95 million, and fewer than 490,000 African Americans were free in the whole nation.
◆ Black slaves, without adequate food or clothing, were forced to work under harsh conditions at the bottom of society. They were cruelly exploited and many were even tortured to death. Lots of black slaves were forced into the cotton industry. As American writer Edward Baptist wrote in his book The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, the whip drove the slaves to devote all of their physical strength and most of their energy to cotton picking, making the speed faster and faster. Under the brute force of slave owners, cotton production in the United States by 1860 reached 130 times that of 1800. Behind the rapid increase in cotton production are the blood and tears of black slaves.
◆ Data shows that the value of labor extracted from black slaves by U.S. slave owners is as high as US$14 trillion at current prices. According to the website of James Madison's Montpelier, the home to the fourth President of the United States James Madison, the slavery economy was once the main engine driving the American economy. Slavery was essential to the U.S. economy from tobacco farming in Virginia to shipbuilding in Rhode Island. In 1850, slaves produced 80 percent of America's exports. Sven Beckert, a historian from Harvard University, said that the United States and the West prospered through slavery, not democracy.
◆ The Conversation, a nonprofit news organization, noted when tracing the history of slavery in the United States that "criminal slaves" and "real estate slaves" have coexisted since the late 18th century. In Virginia, the state with the most African Americans in jail, prisoners were declared "dead spirits" and "state slaves". It was not until the early 20th century that states stopped leasing criminals to farmers and industrial and commercial operators as cheap labor for railroads, highways and coal mines. In Georgia, a 1907 cessation of renting out criminals led to an economic shock in industries ranging from brick making to mining, and many companies went out of business as a result.
◆ Archives show that by the end of the 1860s, hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers had taken part in the construction of railways in the U.S. Poor Chinese peasants boarded ships known as "floating hells", where they were packed like sardines, and drifted on the sea for about two months before arriving in California and working as coolies. On these journeys, up to 64.21 percent of the Chinese died due to inhuman treatment, typhoons or infectious diseases. Those who survived became the target of racial discrimination and whipping from white supervisors. It took them only seven years to build a railway originally planned as a 14-year project. As some historians put it, the bones of Chinese laborers could be found under every sleeper of the railway.
III. The United States has a horrible track record of forced labor
Over the years, the U.S. government has deliberately evaded its responsibility for labor protection, resulting in "slave labor" among prisoners in private prisons, rampant use of child labor, and appalling forced labor in the agriculture sector, effectively making America a country of "modern slavery".
1.Forced labor is rampant in U.S. prisons
◆ The United States is a country of prisons in every sense. According to a report by the Prison Policy Initiative, 2 million inmates are held in 102 federal prisons, 1,566 state prisons, 2,850 local jails, 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities, 186 immigration detention facilities, and 82 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons and other facilities in the United States. With less than five percent of global population, the United States holds a quarter of the world's detainees, making it the country with the largest imprisoned population and highest imprisonment rate.
◆ The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, while nominally protecting citizens from forced labor, excludes criminals. The U.S. prison system abuses the 13th Amendment to legalize forced labor among prisoners. In prisons at the federal and sub-national levels, there are a large number of incarcerated workers engaged in the daily maintenance of the prison system, including repairs, cooking, facility cleaning and laundry. Most of them are black or other people of color. Some prisoners are leased to public projects or employed by businesses in construction, road maintenance, forestry and funeral services, jobs that are considered dirty, heavy-duty or high-risk. According to Reuters, Suniva, one of the largest U.S. solar panel makers, uses prison labor to keep costs down. The head of the company has admitted to working with the Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) in the relocation of production lines from Asia back to the United States for a lucrative federal contract.
◆ According to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), at least 30 U.S. states include prisoners as a labor source for disasters and other emergency operations, and at least 14 hire prisoners for forest firefighting. Most incarcerated workers say they have never received any formal job training and often have to conduct dangerous operations against safety protocols and without protective equipment. Casualties, which are not uncommon, often go unrecorded by the prisons. The Atlantic commented in 2015 that "convict leasing was cheaper than slavery, since farm owners and companies did not have to worry about the health of their workers."
◆ The United States has effectively formed a sprawling "prison-industrial complex". Private prisons operating under contracts with the government have become a major source of forced labor in the United States. Incarcerated workers in private prisons are entirely at the mercy of their employers and have no right to refuse to work. As high as 76 percent of the inmates interviewed reported various punishments when they were unable or unwilling to work, including solitary confinement, reduction of family visits, or denial of bail or commutation. Besides, prisoners have no choice in their work assignments which are entirely based on the arbitrary, discriminatory or even punitive decisions by prison management personnel. Laura Appleman, a professor at the College of Law of Willamette University, points out in her report Bloody Lucre: Carceral Labor and Prison Profit that private prison is a "pernicious form of servitude", and that prisoners are "trapped in the service of endlessly increasing profit, the literal revenues of physical toil, suffering, and exploitation."
◆ For years, private prisons in the United States have colluded with greedy politicians to force prisoners to work, thus turning private prisons into "concentration camps" of slavery where they could make fortunes by exploiting the poor. Due to lack of oversight, prisoners of forced labor work long hours in harsh conditions while getting paid little, or in some cases, nothing at all. In early 2022, the ACLU filed a lawsuit, exposing the pervasive power-for-money dealings in the operation of detention facilities in American private prisons, which exacerbate excessive imprisonment and forced labor, and demanding that the U.S. Marshals Service provide information about operators' contracts and make it public.
◆ American prisons spend less than one percent of their budget on paying incarcerated workers, who produce goods and services worth more than US$11 billion every year. Big American corporations use prison labor rampantly, as prisoners have no labor rights and are cheap. Private prisons under contracts with the government make millions of dollars a year from forced labor in prison. As of May 2022, average hourly wage in the United States was about US$10.96, while incarcerated workers were paid less than one dollar per hour. Moreover, many prison facilities have not given prisoners any pay raise for years or even decades. In seven states including Florida, prisoners are not paid at all for most of their work assignments. In addition, the wages of many prisoners are withheld by prisons for "taxes, room and board expenses, and court costs". Over 70 percent of respondents said they were unable to afford basic necessities during imprisonment.
◆ During the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 40 U.S. states asked prison inmates to manufacture masks, hand sanitizers and other protective equipment, dispose of large amounts of medical waste from hospitals, move corpses, build coffins and dig graves. The inmates who performed these high-risk tasks hardly got the necessary protection. Since the start of the pandemic, nearly one third of the incarcerated people in the United States have contracted COVID-19, and 3,000 of them have died from inadequate health care or poor detention conditions. The Los Angeles Times revealed that during the pandemic, thousands of prisoners in California were forced to make masks and furniture under high-risk conditions. Prison factories kept running despite the numerous confirmed COVID cases. The inmates had to sew thousands of masks a day, without getting one for themselves. Prison staff threatened postponed release date if inmates refuse to do the work.
2.Forced labor of women and children is appalling
◆ Child labor has long been an issue in the United States. American mines, tobacco farms and textile factories started hiring and exploiting children since over a century ago. To date, the United States remains the only one of the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and child labor remains an unresolved problem in the country. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other institutions show that half of the 100,000 people trafficked into the United States each year for forced labor are minors.
◆ According to estimates by the nonprofit organization Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, there remain about 500,000 child farm workers in the United States, many of which started working at the age of eight and work up to 72 hours a week. These child farm workers are regularly exposed to dangerous chemicals such as pesticides. In addition, they are at a greater risk of work-related injuries due to the need of operating sharp tools and heavy machines without necessary training and protection measures. According to the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, an estimated 907 youth fatalities happened on U.S. farms between 1995 and 2002. The Washington Post reported that about 452 children died of workplace injuries in the United States between 2003 and 2016, including 237 child fatalities in agriculture. A U.S. Government Accountability Office report in November 2018 shows that around 5.5 percent of child labor is in agriculture and accounted for over 50 percent of all work-related child fatalities. In several U.S. states, tobacco farms employ a large number of children to harvest and dry tobacco leaves, posing a significant risk to their physical and mental health. Many children suffered from nicotine poisoning and some were even diagnosed with lung infection.
◆ According to official statistics, in 2019 alone, U.S. law enforcement officers found 858 cases of child labor in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and 544 minors were found working in hazardous places. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the largest federation of unions in the United States, said that the Department of Labor (DOL) only reported 34 child labor violations on annual average, far lower than the real number, revealing deficiency in DOL's law enforcement.
◆ The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that 240,000 to 325,000 women and children are at risk for sexual exploitation each year in the United States. American NGO End Slavery Now said a child trafficked to the sex industry "works" 12 hours a day and seven days a week, and perpetrators can exploit US$150,000 to 200,000 each year.
3. Forced labor is prevalent in numerous sectors in the United States
◆ An article published on the website of the University of Denver reveals that at least 500,000 people in the United States are living under modern slavery and victims of forced labor. With pervasive forced labor, labor trafficking in the United States is particularly serious in 23 sectors including domestic services, agricultural planting, tourism, catering, medical care and beauty services. In 2004, after studying relevant cases from 1998 to 2003, the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, pointed out that ten thousand or more people work as forced laborers in scores of cities and towns across the country, forming an illicit trade that is hidden, inhumane, widespread and criminal.
◆ The existing U.S. immigration law is breeding modern slavery. The temporary visa system of the United States binds foreign workers with their employers by law, leaving them in a vulnerable position, as workers, for fear of deportation, dare not quit their jobs even if employers arbitrarily lower their wages or extend working hours. The asymmetry between employers and employees is systemic, and there is evidence that connects forced labor in the United States to certain visa types. A 2014 study by the Urban Institute and Northeastern University shows that more than 70 percent of the interviewed victims of forced labor entered the United States legally with a visa. Ending this form of modern slavery requires reform of U.S. immigration law. However, both the Congress and the administration lack the will to do such reform.
◆ Most of the sweatshops in the United States are headquartered in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. These shops usually make garment, coffee and electronic products. The DOL estimated that as many as 22,000 sweatshops in the country were in the garment industry alone. In order to minimize cost and maximize profit, sweatshop owners exploit legal loopholes by various means to evade government regulation. Workers get wages and benefits far below legal thresholds and are not paid accordingly for working long and extra hours. In extreme cases, they are even abused by employers. According to a DOL investigation report obtained by The New York Times, Vietnamese workers at a garment factory in American Samoa were routinely beaten by factory guards, and a female worker lost her left eye after a guard beat her with a pipe. Indian workers at a food factory in Oklahoma were constantly provided with inadequate food. Many workers at the factory suffered serious malnutrition and looked like "walking skeletons".
◆ In the domestic services sector, the vast majority of service personnel are immigrants and are not recognized as employees by American law. According to the U.S. immigration policy, they are not allowed to freely change their clients, or they will be deported. Most of the victims work in very poor conditions. They often cannot get their wages on time and are paid below the minimum rate. They are subject to violence, sexual assault and intimidation from employers and their families, and are prohibited from complaining to anyone, otherwise they will face deportation. According to the 2014 report of the Urban Institute and Northeastern University, more than one third of the victims of forced labor in the United States are domestic servants.
◆ In the agricultural sector, about 30 percent of farm workers and their families live below the federal poverty line. They are subject to threatening, violence and forced labor, and unable to express their wishes. The town of Immokalee in southwest Florida is known as the "tomato town" of the United States. It has a population of around 26,000 people, most of whom are farmers from countries including Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti. The local minimum wage is US$8.65 per hour. Yet those farm workers are only paid US$5.5 per hour, far lower than the minimum rate.
According to a survey by The Guardian, foreign workers of American corn farms are not protected by law. They live in extremely poor conditions and are paid only US$225 after working 12 hours a day for 15 days. They often fall victim to sexual assault, harassment, wage theft and work injuries or even fatal accidents in work places, and are often exposed to hazardous chemicals.
Independent journalist Gina-Marie Cheeseman pointed out in her 2017 report Forced Labor is More Common in the U.S. Than You Might Think that in some U.S. farms, foreign workers are forced to sleep in shacks and box trucks, and are asked to pick farm products without being paid. Those who attempt to escape get beaten up.
According to a report by the American Economic Policy Institute, seasonal agricultural workers in the United States are vulnerable to wage theft and other abuses due to their immigration status and fear of retaliation and deportation. Millions of dollars of wage arrears are reported every year. The Wage and Hour Division of the DOL is too underfunded and understaffed to provide adequate protection and relief for agricultural workers. As a result, those workers believe it is neither necessary nor helpful to report employer violations to the DOL.
◆ According to a 2015 survey by The New York Times on the nail industry in New York, the vast majority of workers in the nail industry are paid below the minimum wage and sometimes even not paid at all. Those workers are seriously exploited and subject to various kinds of humiliation including constant video monitoring and physical punishment. Most of these workers are immigrants from China, the ROK, Nepal and South America. They often work overtime with very low wages. Without legal residential status, many nail industry workers in New York, though being exploited by their employees, are often too scared to report.
◆ Denise Brennan, a U.S. writer, noted in her book that the U.S. immigration policy, instead of redressing the problem of human trafficking and improving the situation of vulnerable groups in society, has exacerbated social problems and allowed more disguised forms of forced labor to appear in American society. American society does not provide enough support and relief to victims who were freed from forced labor, leaving them voluntarily falling into new traps of forced labor just to make a living, and forever haunted by a vicious cycle of enslavement and oppression.
◆ According to the 2021 Federal Human Trafficking Report published by the Human Trafficking Institute of the United States in June 2022, the number of criminal forced labor cases filed in 2021 increased by 22 percent since 2020. Of the 449 victims in human trafficking cases filed to federal courts in the United States in 2021, 162 or 36 percent were victims of forced labor. And 93 percent of identified victims in forced labor cases were foreign nationals.
IV. The spillover effect of forced labor in the United States is felt worldwide
The widespread negative impact of forced labor in the United States has caused serious transnational human trafficking and human rights violations in other countries. The United States is an underperformer in the ratification and implementation of international labor conventions, which matches its long-standing poor record of forced labor and labor rights violations.
1.Forced labor leads to transnational human trafficking
◆ The United States is a source, transit hub, and destination country for victims of forced labor and slavery. Both legal and illegal industries in the United States have serious human trafficking problems. According to the U.S. Department of State, up to 100,000 people are trafficked to the United States annually and fall victim to forced labor. In the past five years, cases of forced labor and human trafficking were reported in all the 50 U.S. states and Washington D.C. According to statistics released by the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the number of reported cases increased significantly from over 3,200 in 2012 to about 11,500 in 2019. In 2020, 10,583 cases were reported, involving 16,658 victims.
Modern slavery featuring forced labor is widely seen in U.S. hotels, restaurants, massage parlors, farms, construction businesses, and domestic services industries. The victims are mostly new immigrants, children, women and other vulnerable groups. Means such as physical and mental abuses, threatening and humiliation are widely used to control the victims.
◆ According to a joint statement issued in April 2021 by the UNHRC Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the U.S. government forced foreign individuals to work with it by threatening to use sanctions, indicating a situation of forced labor and rights and interests violation. Urmila Bhoola, the UNHRC Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery pointed out in her 2018 report that cases of forced labor, bonded labor, sexual violence and threats of deportation against female migrant workers were discovered in several tomato farms in the United States.
◆ As highlighted by the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021, tighter U.S. immigration policies, combined with weak supervision at home, have exacerbated human smuggling and labor trafficking targeting immigrants. Citing an indictment released in November, 2021 by the U.S. Department of Justice, the report reveals that dozens of workers from Mexico and Central American countries were smuggled to farms in the State of Georgia, where they were illegally imprisoned and forced to work under grueling conditions. These victims of modern-day slavery, under the threat of guns and violence, were required to dig onions with their bare hands for only 20 cents per bucket. At least two of the workers died and one suffered from multiple sexual assaults.
◆ Besides harsh working conditions, cruel management, confiscation of personal documents and restrictions on freedom are also typical features of forced labor cases. In 2021, the Associated Press reported that hundreds of Indian workers were lured to build a massive Hindu temple in New Jersey. Their passports were taken away on arrival and they were forced to work over 87 hours a week for US$1.2 an hour, while New Jersey's minimum hourly wage was US$12. Reuters reported that Goodyear, an American company and the world's largest tire maker, was sued multiple times by foreign workers at its Malaysian factory, for accusations of unpaid wages, unlawful overtime and the denial of their full access to their own passports. According to the workers' lawyer, some migrants worked 229 hours a month in overtime, far exceeding the Malaysian limit of 104 hours.
◆ The U.S. law enforcement clearly have not done enough to crack down on human trafficking and forced labor. According to the Report on Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities, 2021 released by the U.S. Department of Justice, a total of 2,091 persons were referred to U.S. Attorneys for human-trafficking and forced labor offenses in 2019, but only 837 were convicted. Chrissey Buckley, a scholar at the University of Denver, points out that forced labor lingers on in the United States because it is a lucrative business, and because inadequate legislation and inefficient law enforcement diminish the risks of prosecution of the offenders.
2. U.S. companies has long practiced forced labor abroad
◆ In 2019, the Washington Post disclosed that in almost the past two decades, a number of U.S. chocolate giants including Mars and Hershey had been using raw cocoa harvested by child workers in West Africa. More than two million cocoa workers are children earning less than US$1 a day. UK's Channel 4 revealed in 2020 that the coffee beans used by Starbucks and other famous U.S. coffee companies were picked by workers aged under 13 in Guatemala. These children worked eight hours a day, over 40 hours a week, and the youngest was only eight. Their daily wage sometimes is only about the price of a cup of coffee.
V. The international community has long been criticizing forced labor in the United States
Long being seriously concerned about forced labor in the United States, the international community has been calling on the U.S. government to earnestly reflect on and address relevant issues.
◆ Child labor in America's agricultural sector has been an indelible stain on the U.S. track record of implementing International Labor Conventions (ICLs), in particular the fundamental conventions. It is also the most prominent concern of the ILO standards supervisory mechanism regarding U.S. implementation of conventions. Since 2012, the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) has repeatedly expressed concerns over fatal work-related injuries and accidents suffered by children under 18 working on U.S. farms. During the 103rd Session of the International Labor Conference in 2014, the Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) had a detailed discussion on U.S. violations of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999.
◆ In addition, over the past decade, the CEACR has commented on the U.S. compliance with the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, 1957 and the Shipowners' Liability (Sick and Injured Seamen) Convention, 1936, urging the U.S. government to reverse its inappropriate practices and earnestly fulfill its obligations. The CEACR pointed out in 2017 that the U.S. government should adopt federal legislation to ensure that racial discrimination does not lead to racial disparities in the punishment involving compulsory labor in the criminal justice system, and should take necessary measures at the federal level to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system to ensure that the punishment involving compulsory labor is not meted out more severely to certain racial and ethnic groups.
◆ In her statement made in 2016 after visiting the United States, the then UN Special Rapporteur in Trafficking in Persons Maria Grazia Giammarinaro urged the United States to engage in a more effective effort to detect trafficking for forced labor and labor exploitation. The statement cited data in 2015 that 75 percent of trafficking cases in the United States were related to sex deals, 13 percent labor trafficking, and 3 percent both. Women and girls, migrant workers, unaccompanied and homeless children, people fleeing conflict, runaway youth, Native Americans and the LGBTI individuals are particularly vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking and exploitation.
Conclusion
In disregard of its own enormous problems of forced labor and modern slavery in the past and present, the United States willfully discredits other countries and spreads lies about "forced labor". This reveals nothing but its hypocrisy and double standards on human rights, and its modus operandi of using human rights as a pretext for political manipulation and economic bullying.
The "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act" pushed by the United States is not an act of care and concern over the alleged "forced labor" in Xinjiang. It aims to deprive the people in Xinjiang of their right to work by creating "forced unemployment", destroy the livelihoods of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang by creating "forced poverty", and disrupt international economic and trade order and industrial and supply chains by creating "forced decoupling". What the United States has been doing is, in essence, violating human rights under the pretext of human rights, defying rules under the banner of rules, and breaking the law under the guise of law. Such attempts that go against the trend of the times are doomed to failure.
What the U.S. government should do is to stop styling itself as a "lecturer" on human rights, review its own spotty record on forced labor, stop spreading rumors and lies, stop interfering in China's internal affairs, stop implementing the "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act", and stop "using Xinjiang to contain China."



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