One of the women at Leisure Clothing says she is from North Korea
North Korea? It is impossible to leave that country, unless you are somebody who somehow managed to flee across the border into South Korea, in which case you wouldn’t be working on the sewing-machines half a world away in Malta.
We know – from an absurdly unquestioned piece of news that emerged in parliament – that the Maltese embassy in Beijing has given Maltese (Schengen zone) visas to 55 North Koreans since March last year.
But to be in a position to apply for them in the first place, they would have to be members of that hideous regime. And that means they will not be on the sewing-machines in Malta either.
This situation is beyond scandalous. The idea that it is “only the Vietnamese” who are complaining because their conditions of work are different is absolutely preposterous.
Those Vietnamese tried to ESCAPE using FALSE PAPERS. They had to do that because Leisure Clothing had sequestered their passports. I cannot believe that there are people who can’t understand the significance of Leisure Clothing holding its non-Maltese employees’ passports AND money. The only possible reason for doing that is to hold its employees hostage.
Retaining somebody else’s passport is a criminal offence in Malta, but even if it were not a criminal offence, you still have to ask yourself why an employer would want to hold on to a foreign employee’s passport. There is only one reason: to stop the employee leaving the country.
There is no difference at all between the way these Asian people are being trafficked into Malta and kept here working for Leisure Clothing and the way that women from the former Soviet bloc are trafficked into Malta and kept in pop-up brothels.
They are recruited in their home countries by agents who give them false promises about great conditions of work. They come to Malta and are met by people whose first act is to seize their passport. They are then taken to controlled accommodation which they are not free to leave.
They are forced to work in conditions which violate Maltese law. Their earnings are withheld and they are given pocket money so they have little or no financial flexibility.
The fact that some of the people working in those abysmal conditions do not know their rights or EU law, and have come to take gross violations of human rights as a fact of life because of the way things are in their country of origin, and so do not complain, does not mean that the press and the authorities here in Malta should allow this abuse to continue.
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“Lanqas jien ma kelli biex nixtriulu”? What’s that supposed to mean?
Jaqaw hi shop steward tal-GWU?
That girl from North Korea might be one who participates in the honey-trap scheme.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11313978/North-Koreas-honey-trap-scheme-revealed.html
Are they working in Malta, since from the clothes they are wearing, it appears that they are working in a Siberian environment.
20 years in Malta and she can’t even say twenty in English? Phone Varist. Now! I said NOW!
So The Malta Independent is employing this bloke as a “reporter”?
“You were not trafficked to Malta?”
What kind of question is that?
From what we gather from the video, it is even more strange that there are Maltese people who would rather accept precarious working conditions elsewhere than a job with this benevolent company: Leisure Clothing.
Everybody is happy there and still they are not able to find 90 employees with EU freedom of movement to do that work.
The lady wearing Father Christmas clothes said that she didn’t have the money to buy the iPhone. The way she looks she doesn’t have money to fix her teeth.
I don’t believe in fairytales.
A ‘very inquisitive’ assignment isn’t it!
I wonder if the heavenly spirits would exude the same satisfaction were they to be asked about conditions up above.
Watched only 1 minute of the interview. Could not believe that the reporter works for The Malta Independent.
“Have you seen any irregularities in the last 20 years?” he asked her. When one asks a very stupid question one receives a very stupid answer. But did he really expect her to say the truth.
Hope that this newspaper in not going down the same route as Malta Today.
”When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” Frédéric Bastiat
On the 2nd of December 2014:
”After hearing all witnesses for the day, Magistrate Peralta said he was concerned with the human trafficking charge and whether there was enough evidence to prove the charge sufficiently for indictment. “It seems to me that Han Bin never denied that the passports and money in the safe deposit box belonged to the employees and there is no indication that they would not have been paid upon expiry of their contract.” On the other hand, he said, he was also concerned with the fact that Mr Bin allegedly held on to the passports and pay to keep them from escaping.
The Magistrate allowed the prosecution to present more witnesses tomorrow, by which time it has to prove the charges prima facie. The court will then decide if there are grounds for indictment.” TMI
And then on the 11th December 2014:
”Meanwhile, a court-appointed accountant testified said that even though the company allegedly owed €534,000 in salaries, the company only had €70,000 available. It also had used up its €280,000 overdraft facility.
Presenting the finds of an HR audit, Marsa Ciappara, a court-appointed expert, said that the company’s present financial situation made it unable to honour its financial obligations.” MT
So in the first instance the Magisrate gives the company the benefit of the doubt because he thinks that the company still might have given the wages and passports to the employees.
On the later date shown above the court appointed expert states that the company is unable to honour its financial obligations. What does Magistrate Peralta say?:
”Presiding Magistrate Carol Peralta ordered that more time is needed for the first phase of the compilation of evidence to be completed, noting that very little evidence produced so far by the prosecution substantiated the human trafficking charge.”MT
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-02/local-news/Leisure-Clothing-held-on-to-salaries-and-passports-to-prevent-workers-from-escaping-6736126717
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/47357/limit_on_how_much_water_chinese_firms_employees_could_drink#.VKQdYSvF98E
How many years has Leisure Clothing been a loosing concern and what other dues has it not paid? Have taxes, NI, factory rent and water and electricity bills as well as suppliers been paid? I have yet to see an entity which exploits one group only and if anyone has any experience of any group of employees that thinks that any other group of employees were hogging overtime, one will have a very clear idea of what the Maltese workers and the GWU knew or did not know.
”When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.” Frédéric Bastiat
The Malta independent asked valid questions but the replies are what they are. They all seem happy let them be then
Astute questions indeed!
Same things are happening to some fellow Maltese individuals. Isn’t Peppi, the Xarabank conductor scared to speak?
What a pathetic interview and interviewer. Has he heard of open questions instead of trying to put words into people’s mouths. I’m sure that they were telling the truth when faced with a camera and their minders at the factory listening in. Yes, and pigs can fly.
What a pointless video. I expected much better from The Malta Independent.
The Yellow Slave Trade, White Slave Traffic, Black Like me are three books written by people who had first hand experience in the degrading, inhuman, disgraceful, degenerating human trafficking.
The people who employed or were in any manner whatsoever involved in this scandal are the people who in Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando`s dictionary, diction and vocabulary should be pushed back.
In my humble opinion these are the people that should be banished from our islands forever.
The silence that the Gvern With Union has zipped its lips with, are leaving many doubts and unanswered questions about its involvement in precarious work, inhuman conditions of work, unimaginable salaries and cruelty toward workers.
This particular union is the most silent and quiet when it should have been barking the loudest.
It is neither the case of letting sleeping dogs lie nor that of letting the sleeping beauty of Gvern With Union lie.
Not surprising these days of modern movements, lies and lying are their expired modern trends.
Dan il-gurnalist ghandu rispett lejn l-inteligenza ta’ min qieghed jara din l-intervista?
Dik it-tfajla nahseb wahda li ghamlet il-priedka tal-Leisure Clothing, a la North Korea (ghid dak li niktbulek ahna). Gurnalizmu ta’ habba ziz.
In view of your excellent piece in The Malta Independent yesterday, I guess this Bortex page stands out for its grim irony:
http://www.bortexgroup.com/ethical-policy/
This sorry story sounds familiar to our islands too. Unbelievable, that there are people who still think that they can do what they like with the blessing of higher authority.
http://news.yahoo.com/living-hell-slaves-remote-south-korean-islands-000536459.html
One can’t help but compare this interview to the BBC Panorama one in the previous post. BBC filmed inside the factory secretly and made an effort to get honest comments from interviewees.
This interviewer obviously got permission from the factory owner to film and interview people. Although his intentions might have been good, he played into the factory’s hands and produced an advertisement for it instead of a damning exposé.
As others have pointed out, his questions also leave much to be desired.
Besides which, “irregularities” doesn’t exist in the English dictionary used by the normal world (i.e. everyone else).
”Twelve North Koreans to join Leisure Clothing despite 6,500 Maltese unemployed”
Forget the ‘despite 6,500 Maltese unemployed’ bit for a second and focus on the North Koreans allowed to work abroad bit. My eyebrows are touching my hairline and not because I am wondering whether they will watch ‘The Interview’. On the other hand they might watch ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-01-07/local-news/Twelve-North-Koreans-to-join-Leisure-Clothing-despite-6-500-Maltese-unemployed-6736128296
Freedom of speech is a threat to all abusers because ‘jekk ma tperritx l-affarijiet fil-berah’ as it seems that our new Police Minister suggested, such atrocities continue.
‘The managing director of Leisure Clothing admitted to the police that he showed the Employment and Training Corporation a copy of a contract which was in line with Maltese employment laws but different to that given to the workers, a court heard this afternoon.’
Freedom of expression is also what allows me to express my disgust that the alleged perpetrators are being given notice of an inspection of the allegedly inhumane premises conditions.
Freedom of speech is about all aspects of life not just religion. Religion just comes in handy because the afterlife is a powerful threat for many.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-01-07/local-news/Magistrate-to-visit-miserable-living-quarters-housing-Leisure-Clothing-employees-on-Friday-6736128325