Center for Investigative Reporting

'I had nowhere to go': Labor traffickers are taking advantage of the Massachusetts housing crisis
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'I had nowhere to go': Labor traffickers are taking advantage of the Massachusetts housing crisis

For eight months, Julio worked as a landscaper in Western Massachusetts, hauling rocks, digging ditches and pulling weeds about 70 hours a week, earning less than two dollars an hour. At night, tired and hungry, the Guatemalan immigrant would be driven back to his employer’s suburban home, where he would head down to the basement…

'Working like a slave': Why human trafficking in restaurants is underreported – WGBH
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'Working like a slave': Why human trafficking in restaurants is underreported – WGBH

Working in Boston-area restaurants over the last 15 years, Billy often felt like a slave. He was caught in a seemingly never-ending cycle of labor and exploitation, striving to pay off debts, sick from stress and overwork, terrified about being turned over to immigration officials. The 41-year-old Salvadoran immigrant said he started his first restaurant…

New report exposes dramatic shortfall of visas for victims of trafficking – WGBH
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New report exposes dramatic shortfall of visas for victims of trafficking – WGBH

The federal government is making it hard for labor trafficking victims to get legal immigration status that allows them to remain in the United States without fear of deportation, according to a first-of-its-kind nationwide report from Boston University. “The findings of this report show that the T-visa system that is built on a goal of…

More Than Meets the Eye: The Immense Web of Human Trafficking and Its Vast Implications
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More Than Meets the Eye: The Immense Web of Human Trafficking and Its Vast Implications

“The existing social order is a swindle and its cherished beliefs mostly delusions.” – George Orwell  Human trafficking is an issue that takes many forms and typologies across the world and society. Traditionally, human trafficking is thought of as falling into one of two categories: sex trafficking, trafficking in persons for commercial sexual exploitation, or…

For labor trafficked immigrants, T-visas are a life-saving but flawed relief – WGBH
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For labor trafficked immigrants, T-visas are a life-saving but flawed relief – WGBH

In 2018, the police came to a home in Saugus, Massachusetts, to rescue Anabelle Masalon, a Filipina housekeeper who had been essentially a prisoner of the family from the United Arab Emirates that employed her. She had been forced to work 21-hour days, earning no more than $400 a month, unable to leave the house…

Trafficking Inc.: Forced labor in Massachusetts – WGBH
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Trafficking Inc.: Forced labor in Massachusetts – WGBH

Melba regularly showed up at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2018 to accompany a child she cared for who was being treated there. But nobody noticed — or asked about — Melba’s own suffering. The petite Filipina was miserable, working more than 100 hours a week as a maid and nanny, earning between $400 and $550…

Locked Up: The prison labor that built business empires
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Locked Up: The prison labor that built business empires

More than 150 years ago, a prison complex known as the Lone Rock stockade operated at one of the biggest coal mines in Tennessee. It was powered largely by African American men who had been arrested for minor offenses — like stealing a hog — if they committed any crime at all. Women and children,…