On Monday, a Bangladeshi diplomat in New York was charged with labor trafficking and assault for allegedly forcing his servant to work up to 18 hours a day without pay. The man couldn’t escape his situation as the employer, Mohammed Shaheldul Islam, had taken his passport and threatened to kill his mother and son.

Forty-five-year-old Islam is the deputy consul general for Bangladesh. According to authorities, he hired Mohammed Amin to be his servant and organized for him to come to the U.S. in 2012. But when he arrived, Islam took his passport and made Amin work for up to 18 hours a day. He said if Amin left, he would have his mother and son killed and “shame” his daughter.

Islam is also accused of beating Amin if he wasn’t obedient enough, with his hands or with a wooden shoe. He didn’t pay him, but Amin did make a little bit of money working at parties and events that Islam organized. But even then, Islam took the tip money and gave Amin a check back, so that it would look on paper as if he was given a paycheck.

Islam is now facing 33 charges for grand larceny, assault, labor trafficking, unlawful imprisonment, and more. “The long list of 33 charges in the indictment is a clear indication of the shocking depth of the deprivation and abuse allegedly meted out by this diplomat against his helpless domestic worker,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch in Asia.

Arranging for countrymen to accompany diplomats to serve as household help is common for South Asian diplomats. But in 2013, Indian deputy consul general Devyani Khobragade was arrested on charges of labor trafficking, also in New York. She had forced her housekeeper and nanny to work for $1 dollar an hour, for 100 hours a week. Shortly after that Islam started writing checks for Amin’s tip amounts, to create the illusion of a regular paycheck.

Khobragade’s arrest caused relations between the U.S. and India to worsen. People in India were outraged at the news–not because of the rich diplomat’s treatment of her employee, but because U.S. officials had arrested her outside her daughter’s school and strip-searched her. Many also argued that the housekeeper was far better paid than domestic workers in India.

Preet Bharara, then the United States Attorney in Manhattan, commented on it at the time. “One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse,” he said.

Experts say the cases that are actually prosecuted are only the tip of the iceberg–the practice of using servants under slave-like conditions is probably much more common than we know.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A major crackdown in Bangladesh has led to the arrest of over 8,000 people over the weekend, in an attempt to stop the wave of violence that has killed hundreds of liberals and members of minority groups over the past few years.

The mass arrests started on Friday and are scheduled to last for a week. Officials say that all the arrests are made on the basis of specific charges. Over 100 of those arrested are alleged militant Islamists.

Bangladesh is a largely Muslim nation and has suffered from some extraordinarily violent killings lately, many carried out with machetes in broad daylight. Since the beginning of last year over 30 people from minority groups have been killed, including Christians, Hindus, atheist bloggers, gay activists, liberal academics, and even foreign aid workers.

The latest of the horrific killings happened last week, leaving an elderly Hindu priest, a Hindu monastery worker and a Christian shopkeeper hacked to death. The Muslim wife of an anti-terrorism policeman was also stabbed and shot.

The Islamic state has claimed responsibility for 21 of the recent killings and al Qaeda for many others, but the Bangladeshi government says that neither of the groups is involved. According to junior foreign minister Shahriar Alam, ISIS and al-Qaeda want to claim responsibility for attacks they didn’t carry out, while native Bangladeshi radical groups are actually behind them.

The government’s inability to stop these radical murders has spurred international criticism and pressure on the state to do something. PEN America said in April:

The persistent failure of the Bangladeshi Government and the international community to better protect threatened thinkers has created a climate of fear and direct threat to free thought in the country.

The government’s recent crackdown is huge, and the number of total arrests was up to 8,192 on Monday morning. But the opposition has criticized the government, claiming the arrests are just for show or for suppressing political dissent, arguing that a large number of the arrested are ordinary criminals with existing warrants against them, for narcotics, firearms, or other offenses.

However, local police said that they have caught some members from banned radical group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which is a group accused in some of the most recent killings, and also a senior official from banned Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

We’ll see by the end of the week where the total number of arrests ends up, but hopefully many of the real perpetrators will be among those detained.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Bangladesh Arrests over 8,000 in Attempt to Stop Radical Violence appeared first on Law Street.

The U.S. military isn’t doing enough to protect the health and safety of the people who make their clothing, according to The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF). In the ILRF’s recent report, Dangerous Silence, the organization asserts that the U.S. Military has not properly looked into the sources of the clothing sold in their over 1,100 base stores, much of which comes from outsourced factories in Bangladesh.

According to the ILRF, the military doesn’t gather  sufficient information about the safety conditions and treatment of workers in these factories, and in many cases, relies on audits by companies such as Walmart and Sears that have failed to properly protect workers in their own factories. In some cases the military exchanges were aware of safety violations but did not alert Bangladeshi authorities; for instance, the Army and Air Force Exchange failed to act when they learned that Green Fair Textiles workers were being submitted to 80-hour work weeks.

Considering the fact that it is legal for the military to use overseas suppliers, some believe that they do not need to protect the factory workers. Army and Air Force Exchange Service spokesman Judd Anstey stated that the agency abides by guidelines issued by the Department of Defense which necessitates that all local laws are followed and merchandise is not made by forced labor or children. But what about overworking those in factories that is illegal by American standards, if not locally?

The military exchanges’ failure to report and solve the problems with their clothing suppliers is all the more surprising in the wake of last years’ tragedies in Bangladesh. The Tazreen Fashions factory, which manufactured Marine Corps logo clothing, experienced a fire in which 112 workers died. In April 2013 at Rana Plaza an eight-story clothing factory collapsed, killing more than 1,134 people and leaving 200 people missing as of last December.

The U.S. military fights for freedom across the world and defends liberty at home, yet the message strikes some as hypocritical when their uniforms are made in places that condone human rights violations. Although the U.S. has no legal responsibility for the conditions in factories in other countries, government entities should not turn a blind eye to the safety and labor violations in the factories they patronize.

An interesting comparison is the nearly nonexistent criticism directed toward military exchanges with the public’s reaction to the 2012 U.S. Olympic uniform controversy; the difference is striking. Ralph Lauren received a significant amount of negative press during the London Olympics because the U.S. delegation’s uniforms were made in China rather than domestically. Perhaps the backlash to this outsourcing was due to the fact that the Olympics is a spectacle that attracts international attention, while the military exchanges lack public prominence. Nevertheless, the Ralph Lauren controversy shows how public outcry can stimulate change: in reaction to the negative press over their uniforms, Ralph Lauren made a point to use American sources and labor for the 2014 Sochi uniforms. If the military exchanges garnered the same level of attention, perhaps they would be compelled to act, too.

United States officials should take a stance against this abuse of workers and safety in outsourced factories in order to set an example for other retailers to follow when it comes to factory conditions. The ILRF’s report provides several suggestions as to how the United States military can help protect Bangladeshi workers, including requiring suppliers to comply with international labor standards, issuing mandatory repairs and inspections to ensure safety, organizing worker unions and committees, and publicly disclosing audit results. The Marine Corps appears to be taking the lead. The branch’s Trademark and Licensing Office issued a new policy mandating its retail suppliers be signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety.
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Sarah Helden

Sarah Helden is a graduate of The George Washington University and a student at the London School of Economics. She was formerly an intern at Law Street Media. Contact Sarah at staff@LawStreetmedia.com.

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