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Silvia Carta works as Advocacy Officer for the non-governmental organisation PICUM. In the past, she has worked for multiple organisations and groups, including the European Parliament. Based in Brussels, PICUM advocates for social justice and respect of human rights for undocumented people in Europe. PICUM acts as an umbrella organisation bringing more than a 100 other organisations working on the same issues.
Voxeurop : What is the situation in the EU regarding forced labour and migrant workers?
Silvia Carta: Migrant workers with precarious, dependent or irregular status frequently experience conditions below those required by minimum labour standards and collective bargaining agreements, in terms of pay, working time, rest periods, sick leave, holiday, and health and safety. Such risks of labour rights violations may amount to or turn into forced labour, through a combination of factors such as wage theft, excessive working hours, accumulation of debt, confiscation of documents, threats, dependence on the employer for housing and residence status, physical and sexual violence and restricted mobility.
The definition of forced labour implies that work or services are extracted from a person under the threat of punishment and without the person’s consent. However, in the case of undocumented migrants, the specific situation of dependence and vulnerability can have a specific impact on the definition of voluntariness.
In the Chowdury case, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a landmark ruling on this matter. The case concerned 42 migrant workers on a strawberry farm in Greece who had been denied wages after several months of working in substandard conditions. The ECtHR found that this amounted to both “forced or compulsory labour” and “trafficking”.
