A recent DOD investigation...identified a number of abuses, some of them considered widespread, committed by DOD contractors or subcontractors of third country national (TCN) workers in Iraq. Some of these abuses are indicative of trafficking in persons....
It sounds incredible, but this is from the US State Department itself. Do read the Chicago Tribune articles listed here to draw your own conclusions about what is happening, and whether the US is doing enough to prevent the use of forced labor by DOD contracters.
- Part 1: Desperate for work, lured into danger (Oct. 9, 2005)
- Part 2: Into a war zone, on a deadly road (Oct. 10, 2005)
- U.S. stalls on human trafficking (Dec. 27, 2005)
- U.S. to probe claims of human trafficking (Jan. 19, 2006)
- U.S. military orders human-trafficking reforms in Iraq (Apr. 23, 2006)
- U.S. tax dollars tied to human trafficking, report alleges (Jun. 6, 2006)
Then there's this, from May of this year: "For security reasons, the new embassy is being built entirely by imported labor. The contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co., which was linked to human-trafficking allegations by a Chicago Tribune investigation last year, has hired a workforce of 900 mostly Asian workers who live on the site."
Free the Slaves has begun investigating these charges, and are compiling their findings on a new blog.
Rebecca, thanks for posting about our issue. (Btw, I emailed the other folks you mentioned might be interested in the campaign, too--thanks!)