Leisure Clothing: they took their passports and paid them “tens of euros a month”
More details are emerging. The story began to come to light – or rather, began to be made public – when a few Chinese slave-labourers were caught trying to flee Malta using false passports. Their own passports had been taken from them by those who brought them to Malta to work at the Leisure Clothing factory, and they said they were held in virtual captivity and paid “tens of euros” a month.
So you ask – why didn’t they go to the police? Maybe for the same reason that the police never raided that place? But I imagine the real reason is the same old one: white slaves and slave labourers held in these conditions, their passports taken from them, in a foreign country, tend to be taken – for all the obvious reasons – from societies where the rule of law does not apply, where it is very weak, and where the concept of human rights and citizens’ liberties is culturally alien.
They do not go to the police because they think that this will be worse than not going to the police.
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Footage shows a man, definitely Maltese, wearing a pink T shirt, watching over the workers as they file in through a side door.
Then there’s the ‘dormitory’ in Hal Far, who does it belong to, and if it was let, to whom?
The Maltese version of caporalato, except that we don’t grow tomatoes.
The ‘dormitory’ should be the two floors on top of what used to be the Hal Far Reception Centre (at ground floor level). The building should be government owned.
HFRC was an open centre for single women administered by AWAS. It had to be closed down as drains were repeatedly clogged (allegedly by the ‘Chinese tenants’) with water seeping into the ground floor damaging electricity wiring as well as creating an ongoing problem with rat infestations.
AWAS and NGOs providing their services at HFRC repeatedly brought the situation to the attention of higher officials at Home Affairs but nothing was ever done about it.
Rumour had it that the place was rented out by the government to a Maltese person linked to a local factory.
Same red colour everywhere though.
More details in Malta Right Now:
http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/10/30/l-isfruttament-ta-azjatici-fizzjal-tal-pulizija-li-allegatament-ixxahham/
But who will be policing the police now? Mallia?
I have a Maltese passport, but I wouldn’t go to the police either. They’re a bunch of crooks.
Tell me about it.
First we had Sleeping Beauty who did fuck all and it’s about time Simon told him to go get a real job and now we have a criminal lawyer who won’t do anything about it because once he goes back to his former job he will need their support.
One just can’t win can’t win can one.
What’s more, they’re armed, six-foot tall mean bastards, and we’re unarmed, five-foot nothing puny weaklings. We can’t win.
Now I begin to understand suicide bombers.
What is shocking is that this has been going for so long.
I cannot believe that no-one was aware of this scandal, whether they kept silent because they were given the occasional designer label suit or for some other reason is equally despicable.
It would be really horrible if it emerges that our politicians pragmatically decided that since it was good from Malta’s GDP and economy to allow this factory to continue operating, they should not take action to stop the abuse.
The government needs to tell us whether they have had political pressure from the Chinese ambassador to kill this story. It was reported that the ambassador paid an ”unexpected visit” to the PN HQ in the past few days, presumably for this same purpose.
Interesting. How about asking the ambassador himself.
http://mt.china-embassy.org/eng/jjmy/t313106.htm
On April 19 [2007] Chinese Ambassador Chai Xi and his wife visited the Mediterranean Center for Chinese Traditional Medicine and Chongqing Leisure Clothing Factory in Malta respectively and gave some suggestions to their work.
How sweet, an ambassador popping over to a political party’s headquarters to decide on matters of public opinion.
Muscat must be fuming, there he is in Mile End, a few hundred yards away, with a Movement supposedly packed full with happy Nationalists, and this ambassador takes a wrong turn.
Many people know about this. People from all walks of life. People simply chose to ignore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCzHziiM91s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGMXBnlukHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er7ShvBw9TQ
The mechanism explained below, tax evasion and human trafficking the two criteria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM8ktjwzCu4
This mean practice seemingly part of the Chinese culture is well worth emulating. The avaricious grabbing wealth at the expense of their “slaves”. Shame on Tony Zarb and all those concerned who did not do anything to alleviate this burden. Before the last election he strongly criticized and pledged to eliminate precarious work. Indeed he did. Really unconscientious. Soul-searching is badly needed here.
Exactly right. Has anyone looked at the immigration control angle to this story?
I assume that Chinese nationals need a visa to get into Malta.
If they came in on work visas the employer would have to sponsor them and satisfy the authorities that they could not find any Maltese workers to do the job.
If these were tourist visas I am sure that these tourists would have to satisfy the Maltese authorities in Bejing issuing the visas that they had the means to support themselves in Malta.
In both cases the people requesting visas would have to list their address in Malta.
If visas were requested constantly from a tiny embassy in Bejing surely questions would have to be asked? It all sounds as if there was official knowledge at the highest levels of this operation over many years.
Your last sentence needs a revision I think.
Where did they get the false passports from, who did supply these??
All workers who were enslaved by this gang of criminals must be paid their full wages, in full arrears by Leisure Clothing. Justice must be done and seen to be done.
The nine year old documentary film “China Blue” shows a bit of the labour abuse in a Chinese jeans factory.
It seems that the full documentary in English has been mysteriously removed from Youtube, but this shorter Portuguese sub-titled one still remains on Youtube for now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAfk3VH32Ck
Does the Chinese government have anything to say about this? Does the Chinese embassy have any intention of helping these slave labourers, or does it prefer to help the factory owner?
Many must be involved and the network must be large. It is impossible for it to have gone unnoticed for almost 30 years.
I’m disgusted by PN as they must have known about it and didn’t have the balls to do anything about it, or who knows who is implicitly involved too.
I’m even more disgusted at MLP, why weren’t they staging marches in Valletta?
Fejnu Mr. Issa Daqsekk.
Imbasta il-partit tal-haddiem. Miskomm tisthu, jekk tafu, u l-haddiem kif ser jafdakhom jekk kontu involuti fiha din il-bicca xoghol.
Anybody who knew should be ashamed.
Let us not shy away from the fact that many must have known about this for a long time. How did they enter the country – by air, by ship or illicitly via Freeport or other means?
Who let them into Malta? Imbasta kontra r-refugjati. Who gave them their visas? Where were the police?
What about medical requirements? Who was driving them back and forth? Who was involved in their accommodation and food requirements? If any died here, what happened to their bodies?
Did no one see them moving around? Did they never go shopping or walk the streets? I’m utterly disgusted at our population.
Lest we forget it’s the Chinese who intend to build a compound in Pembroke. Is this where they are going to expand their illicit activities? Everybody at Enemalta and Air Malta take note. These are soon going to be your bosses.