BANGKOK, Thailand -- Tired, poor, huddled people seeking jobs in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, America and Europe have died on the high seas, suffocated in vehicles, toiled in sweatshops, and been expelled to countries where dictators lock them up.
Human traffickers eagerly profit from migrant workers' poverty, ignorance and desperation, including many unemployed men and women who beg to be smuggled abroad despite knowing the risks.
People pay huge fees and bribes to unscrupulous agents and officials to secure access to jobs, but often end up working in wretched conditions, cheated out of their meager wages or busted by authorities who squeeze them for cash or sex while imprisoning them before expelling them back home.
In an all-too-typical case, a group of frightened workers on April 20 climbed out of the window of a Bangkok garment factory where employers were allegedly exploiting up 60 people from Burma.
One of the workers, who filed a case with police, said they were locked in the factory from 8 a.m. to midnight, and paid less than $7 a month instead of the $200 salary previously agreed upon.
