Durban - More than 70 migrant workers who are allegedly victims of cross-border human trafficking have been rescued from living in a KwaZulu-Natal factory where they worked for wages of less than R100 a month.
The plight of the desperate workers emerged after two victims escaped and alerted police, who swooped on the textile factory in Newcastle and arrested five people, including the employers and alleged recruiters, on Friday.
They were charged with human trafficking and appeared in the Newcastle Magistrate's Court on Monday.
Provincial Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said 72 people aged between 18 and 44 were allegedly trafficked from Swaziland and Lesotho into the province.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the victims were brought into South Africa illegally,” Mhlongo said.
He said the latest intake of workers had arrived last month following a promise of R700 to R1 000 a month to work in the factory.
However, when they received their first salary, they were paid R98 and told the remainder had been docked for board, lodging and use of facilities at the factory.
Mhlongo said Labour Department inspectors who accompanied the Hawks and immigration officials on the blitz found the factory uninhabitable. The factory has operated in the province since 2014.
Labour Department spokesperson Lungelo Mkamba said the Occupational Health and Safety Act had been flouted as workers had not been registered with the department for UIF purposes.
“They were cooking near the toilets, the fire hose was used to flush toilets.There was no toilet paper, soap, lockers or dining facilities. The conditions were also unsafe, with inadequate ventilation, and no risk assessment had been done,” Mkamba said.
“The revolving machinery was unguarded, while there was no first-aid kit or qualified first aider in the factory. It also did not have a certificate of compliance for electrical installation,” Mkamba said.
He said the employers had been served with prohibition and contravention notices, the factory had been closed and the workers had been taken to a place of safety.
Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) senior researcher Simon Eppel said the union was not surprised because KZN had the largest clothing and textile manufacturing industry in the country, and the highest number of illegal factories.
“We have long said that the town operates like the Wild West. In this particular case, workers appear to have been lured and trafficked to Newcastle from surrounding countries by the false promise of decent employment. Yet not only did it turn out to be sweatshop employment, but we understand the factory locked workers inside the premises at night. It is incredible that this can happen in 2017,” Eppel said.
He added that the case was not the first in which workers had been locked inside factories in the town.
“Despite this problem having made national headlines and despite this issue of locking workers up having been flagged with local industrialists many times, it has happened again,” Eppel said.
“In places like Newcastle there are many foreign workers who are employed in clothing factories. Sactwu believes that where foreign workers are employed in South Africa, they must be employed under legal conditions and receive the legal minimum wages.”
Eppel said illegal clothing manufacturers sought to compete by paying workers less than the minimum wage, forcing them to work in illegal conditions, not paying taxes or VAT.
“When factories break the law and exploit workers, they are often rewarded by the market, specifically retailers, and receive orders.
“This is an enormous problem in the local clothing industry. It is particularly problematic in places like Newcastle,” he said.
Consortium for Refugees and Migrants director Roshan Dadoo said the exploitation of migrant workers was common because people believed they did not have any rights.
“They are often not treated according to South African labour standards, but this is different from actual human trafficking,” she said.
Meanwhile, police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said 35 alleged illegal immigrants from Lesotho and Malawi and their employer appeared at the Chatsworth Magistrate's Court last week.
Gwala said the migrants were arrested in a shoe factory that employed more than 300 people.
Home Affairs Minister Melusi Gigaba said recently that 33 339 illegal migrants had been deported during the 2015/16 financial year.