Modern day slavery?

Jamie has been learning about the history of African Americans at school this term, bringing home lots of questions on racial inequality, slavery and the Klu Klux Klan. And so as the Home Secretary talks about the increase in "modern day slavery" and Londoners reflect on the strange unfolding story of 3 women who appear to have been enslaved for over 30 years, we have been talking lots here about work and employment and equality of opportunity.

One repeated theme that has touched the lives of a few people we know here is the movement of cheap African labour to jobs in the Gulf and Afghanistan. Closest to home is a woman who works part time for us. A few weeks ago she asked for an advance to help with her rent. A bit of digging revealed that her husband was planning to travel to Bahrain for work and had used all his money to pay for the paperwork, visa and no doubt some "facilitation payments". His contract is for 2 years, with no provision to travel home at any point in between. She's got 2 young kids - one of whom has a different dad and so she has sole responsibility for paying all the child's costs - there is absolutely no expectation here that the father or step father will do that. Tim and I are both pretty certain that she will not do well out of her man's decision (which she would never challenge or be part of the decision making - its just not the way things are done here). But it is also clear that there is very little we can do about it - they feel it's their only choice, an opportunity to change their lives for the better rather than stumbling along towards the bottom of the pile.

Whilst we wont change the decision they have (or he has) made, we have been trying to help make sure they are less vulnerable to it going wrong. We will help her personally with more work, and with practical things like regular food supplies and making sure her kids get a larger chunk of the share of clothes and toys and odds and ends that we pass on to others every month. We've also talked with her at length about life in the Gulf and the very real possibility that the money he's expecting to earn will be harder to come by than he thinks and also harder to get to her. She's listened but is very confident that its all genuine - she has to be I guess. She brought the (very flimsy) contract round to prove it. Tim gave her some advice on strengthening it, particularly on pay and return passage and helped her look into the details on line - the hotel chain her husband is apparently going to work for exists but isn't yet open in Bahrain (or advertising that it will be). Another guy we know who went to Saudi a few months ago found himself in this position and earned nothing at all for the first 3 months of "mandatory training". Her husband is now going to phone ahead before he travels to at least know whether this will happen to him and to be sure there is work. But it is clear that he has too much at stake and such limited alternatives that he can't now change his mind. He's also desperate to go on a plane and the short term excitement of flying and the distant promise of wealth is overriding the very real challenges from the bit in between.

And of course its not just this woman. A couple of weeks ago Ethiopia repatriated 50,000 workers from Saudi - all had been there without proper immigration status and there had been a 7 month grace period for people to get their papers in order. That 50,000 hadn't been able to do that gives you a sense of the scale of this migration. Tim and I are fairly regular visitors to Addis for work and have seen the crowds of Ethiopians, mainly young women, milling around Bole airport waiting for their flights. And we have also seen plenty of stories on line about the terrible conditions that many find themselves in when they arrive.

Of course people have and always will travel in search of jobs and wealth and the chance to lift themselves and their families from poverty. And lots of economic growth is based on that necessity, entrepreneurial spirit and on migrant workers' efforts, with people making some pretty big sacrifices along the way. I've always understood that. But it has been really eye opening to live up close to people who have such a poverty of choice that the best future they can see involves leaving regular, relatively well paid jobs here, putting all their money into a very tenuous, uncheckable arrangement, leaving wives and children at home and getting on a plane with a one way ticket and no certainty of having the money to get back. And it underlines just how safe and protected our own African adventure has been.



Anne