Following complaints regarding labor abuses to which nearly 130 workers have been exposed who were “exported” from the O’Higgins Region to the United Kingdom, to work in agricultural tasks, which The counter announced last year by a panel of experts from the United Nations (UN).
According to a statement issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the experts expressed their alarm “at the systematic exposure of migrant workers to the United Kingdom to deception, excessive recruitment quotas, debts, undignified living conditions and potential deportations.” .
In this regard, Carolina Rudnick, president of the NGO Libera, indicated that “the UN communication reaffirms the existence of the crime and urges the government to comply with its international obligations in terms of detection and investigation of crime, and protection and assistance to its citizens.” victims”, adding that, as the recruitment of the workers was carried out in Chile, specifically in the commune of Las Cabras, “we understand that this communication not only reinforces the existence of the crime in the United Kingdom, but also in our country.”
As he explained, that was where “the companies involved recruited workers under deception and abusing their vulnerability, for which there is currently an ongoing investigation in the High Complexity Prosecutor’s Office of O’Higgins.”
According to the UN, several British companies recruit workers in different countries, with the aim of working on agricultural or poultry farms. “Some of these operators illegally charge workers more than £3,000 for employment insurance, leaving affected workers in debt. Other migrants arrive in the country with the promise of a job in the agricultural sector or in the care sector, only to find that said position is not available when they arrive.
The experts recognized the work that the British government has done by canceling the licenses of some of these companies, but at the same time they said they were concerned about the situation of their employees, who are left helpless. Given this, the UN statement indicates, “many report having been threatened with deportation, and some of the migrants may be victims of human trafficking or other forms of exploitation.”
Likewise, they say that “the perpetrators of labor exploitation must be prosecuted, and access to justice and effective reparations must be guaranteed to the victims.” Likewise, they urged the British government to generate effective measures to prevent deception of migrants, as well as to prevent human trafficking for labor exploitation.
It is worth mentioning that all of the above was carried out after experts analyzed the situation regarding two large British companies, Haygrove and Fruitful Jobs, which are involved in the trafficking of migrants from Chile to the United Kingdom.
Rudnick reported that “Chile was recently evaluated negatively by the Rights Committee regarding its approach to trafficking and the 2024 action plan is still pending. The communication reinforces what all criminal justice systems, including the Chilean one, they must comply. Additionally, it speaks out on the actions of companies and their duty to respect human rights, and thereby also reinforces the responsibility that they have in the commission of these crimes. In Chile, the law on criminal liability of legal entities includes the crime of human trafficking. “This means that companies can be responsible for these crimes, and this communication not only highlights this, but also exposes corporate non-compliance.”
In the same sense, he pointed out that “we are very happy that the United Nations special rapporteurs have taken up our complaint and have sent an official communication to the British government, about the case of trafficking of Chilean and foreign people captured in Chile and then transferred to camps.” English farmers to subject them to conditions of forced labor.”
