Forced labor
July 15, 2009
The new three-year, 600,000-euro ($840,000) pilot project was founded by the German Institute for Human Rights and the Remembrance, Accountability, and Future foundation. Its main goal is to give victims of forced labor their human rights back.
Germany and many other countries are focused on prosecuting traffickers, but the issue of victims' rights is not very well developed, according to Petra Follmar-Otto, the head of German and European policy at the Institute. She is co-author of the recent report Human Trafficking in Germany: Strengthening the Human Rights of the Victims.
Victims of forced labor are usually immigrants
Forced labor is often the result of human trafficking and closely linked with undocumented immigration, Follmar-Otto said. People in desperate situations in their home country can end up paying a high price for living in Germany.
"In most cases people are eager to migrate and then at a certain point in the migration process they lose control, control over their lives, control over their labor," she said.
Their documents are taken by the very people they've paid to smuggle them into Germany or those helping them to immigrate illegally threaten them or their families with violence. Without the proper papers, these immigrants are afraid to approach the authorities with their stories, Follmar-Otto said.
Putting victims first in court
Before launching the project, the German Institute for Human Rights conducted a study on compensation cases in Germany and found that in reality very few cases are taken to court and in those where the victims are given financial recompense, it is far too little.
The legal field mostly sees the victims as potential witnesses against their former employers, Follmar-Otto said. The pilot project would like to put the rights of victims in the foreground.
Using "strategic litigation" the project will attempt to get the word out about the rights of victims, and will financially support individual cases where victims are pursuing legal avenues to get justice .
Author: Holly Fox
Editor: Chuck Penfold