Latest Forced labor News
California voters weigh measures on shoplifting, forced labor and minimum wage
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters will decide on 10 ballot measures including one that would turn some nonviolent crimes, like shoplifting, into felonies again, and another that would make the state’s minimum wage the highest in the nation. Here’s a look at some of...
Takeaways from The Associated Press investigation into sexual abuse of incarcerated women
As part of a sweeping two-year investigation into prison labor, The Associated Press found that correctional staff nationwide have been accused of using inmate work assignments to sexually abuse incarcerated women, luring them to isolated spots, out of view of security cameras. Many cases follow a...
A pizza shop owner is sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for threatening workers with deportation
BOSTON (AP) — The owner of two Boston-area pizza shops convicted of forced labor for using physical violence and threats of reprisal or deportation against employees living in the country illegally has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison. Stavros Papantoniadis, 49,...
Altogether fitting and proper? Trump repeatedly compares himself to Abraham Lincoln
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Four score and seven years from now, the mystic chords of memory may recall the way Donald Trump compared himself to Abraham Lincoln, lauded him one day and lambasted him the next. It is altogether fitting and proper that our descendants would examine why the 45th...
Voters in California and Nevada consider ban on forced labor aimed at protecting prisoners
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California and Nevada voters will decide in November whether to ban forced prison labor by removing language from their state constitutions rooted in the legacy of chattel slavery. The measures aim to protect incarcerated people from being forced to work...
US bans new types of goods from China over allegations of forced labor
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it would ban the import of goods from a Chinese steel manufacturer and a Chinese maker of artificial sweetener, accusing both of being involved in the use of forced labor from China's far-west region of Xinjiang. ...
Argentine prosecutors accuse Opus Dei leaders in South America of trafficking and labor exploitation
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine prosecutors have concluded that there are grounds for launching a criminal investigation into the highest authorities of Opus Dei in South America between 1983 and 2015 for the crimes of human trafficking and labor exploitation against at least 44 women...
Cult leaders convicted of forcing children to work 16-hour days without pay
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Six members of a Kansas-based cult have been convicted in a scheme to house children in overcrowded, rodent-infested facilities and force them to work up to 16 hours a day without pay while subjecting them to beatings and other abuse. The defendants were...
Cambodia decries US sanctions against one of its top tycoons implicated in forced labor
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia on Friday decried newly imposed U.S. sanctions on one of the country's top tycoons who has been implicated in allegations of forced labor, human trafficking and lucrative online scams. Cambodia’s foreign ministry expressed “deep regret over...
Japan's leader makes a farewell visit to Seoul and reaffirms sympathy for Korean colonial victims
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Less than a month before leaving office, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Seoul and reaffirmed his sympathy for the suffering of Koreans during Japan’s colonial rule, as he and his South Korean counterpart Friday underscored the need to maintain warming...
