Taste of Brazil

'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

ByEyes on Trafficking News

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

ByEyes on Trafficking News

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…

Indictment: Restaurant Owners Smuggled Brazilians for Cheap Labor
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Indictment: Restaurant Owners Smuggled Brazilians for Cheap Labor

ByEyes on Trafficking News

Editor’s note: the term “illegal” should be “undocumented,” as a person cannot be illegal. Being without documentation is a potential red flag of human trafficking, so in each case, these people may be in need of help. The sordid, sophisticated, and profitable business of illegal migration is exposed in the indictments of several people who…

Father and son in Woburn arrested on federal charges in alleged human trafficking scheme
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Father and son in Woburn arrested on federal charges in alleged human trafficking scheme

ByEyes on Trafficking News

A father, his son, and another man were arrested Tuesday on federal charges alleging they were involved in a human trafficking scheme in which Brazilian nationals were smuggled into the United States and worked at Woburn restaurants, where their wages were garnished to pay the smuggling debts, officials said. In a statement, US Attorney Rachael…