Analysts spoke about the difficulties of combating labor slavery in southern Russia.

People who are vulnerable often fall into slavery, and helping them, freeing them from slavery, and returning them to a free life is often not easy - the problem lies both in the unwillingness of those around to spoil relationships with those who use slave labor and in the difficulty of proving the crime. At the same time, the freed individuals themselves are not interested in punishing those who exploited them.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in the Stavropol Territory, an investigation into a criminal case regarding the organization of labor exploitation of six people has been completed. Three local residents found homeless individuals or those abusing alcohol for nine years and sold them for free labor.

Recruitment is named the main reason for falling into slavery

An activist dealing with slavery issues, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that the scheme used by the accused, in which they found homeless or alcohol-abusing men and women, promised them work, salary, food, and housing, and then sold them for free labor at a price ranging from 10 to 30 thousand rubles per person, is "the most typical scheme for recruiting people into labor slavery".

"Recruitment is the main way people fall into slavery; abduction still occurs, but less frequently. More often, it is recruitment, meaning people fall into slavery through deception. They are misled about what is being offered to them. This creates the illusion that the person is entering voluntarily. The longer time passes after that, the worse and harsher the situation becomes, and the person has no opportunity to escape on their own. Especially considering that, as a rule, they enter this state of captivity from some vulnerable position. And then everything worsens because the aspects of vulnerability increase, and those that exist are exploited, and slave owners constantly operate on them," the activist told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot".

The head of the "Civic Assistance" committee Svetlana Gannushkina also noted that recruitment remains the main way for Russians to fall into slavery.

"A person is told that they will have a job, but then it turns out that this is not at all the job they were told about," she stated.

Speaking about which groups are most vulnerable, the activist named the homeless, people with addictions, and vulnerable populations - migrants, graduates of orphanages, and people released from places of deprivation of liberty.

"And in general, broadly speaking, one can say that these are people with low levels of education and income. So if we exclude the most obvious vulnerable categories, these are also people from the depths of the provinces who come to big cities in an attempt to earn money. But at the same time, they do not know how to look for work, do not know whom to turn to for help in case of need, and, in general, therefore, they are much easier to deceive and much simpler to keep," he emphasized.

Speaking about what precautions people should take to avoid falling into slavery, the activist stated that the most basic precautions are needed - not to look for work in public places, to check documents in advance, to demand a written agreement beforehand, to inform someone from relatives or friends about their work plans, and to seek help from train station administrations rather than from strangers.

"If a person goes somewhere with someone they do not know, they are not insured against anything," he noted.

Gannushkina believes that the only precaution available is to try to learn at least something about the company to which the recruiter invites them from people who have already worked there.

"This works especially well if someone from friends, acquaintances, or relatives has worked there before," she noted.

The geographical features of southern Russia complicate the fight against labor slavery

Touching on the question of why southern regions are considered "the most problematic," the activist noted that this is related to the natural features of the regions.

"Firstly, these are regions with developed agriculture. These are warm regions where a person can work and live outdoors for a significant number of months. The second point is that these regions have very large territories and vast spaces. That is, if a person is brought and placed somewhere in a private household to, for example, herd sheep or goats, it is extremely difficult to extract them from there, even if they ask for help. Because it is difficult to get there, communication is poor, and the likelihood of outsiders being present is minimal. Many factors come together there, making these regions generally favorable for keeping and exploiting people. Plus, there is often family settlement, meaning families live close together (neighboring houses are occupied by relatives), and seeking help becomes even more complicated because a person who finds themselves in slavery in a particular house understands that they cannot go to the neighbor for help, as that person may well be in cahoots with their owners," he noted.

Gannushkina emphasized that the Krasnodar Territory is generally the "champion of human rights violations".

"Moreover, it is much harder to reach human rights defenders there than in Moscow or St. Petersburg. However, cases of slavery also occur here. Recently, there was a case of a slave from the Moscow region who had to escape barefoot because his shoes were taken from him," she noted.

Speaking about the scale of human trafficking, the activist emphasized that judicial statistics, unfortunately, cannot provide any idea of the real scale of the problem.

"Statistics on human trafficking and the use of slave labor are very scarce. If you open it, you can see that traffickers are something like 12-15 convicted per year, while the use of slave labor is from zero to three convicted per year across the country. And in the last year, the Supreme Court has not published statistics on cases at all," he noted.

However, according to him, over the past year, there has been some increase in the activity of law enforcement agencies.

"Some activity has appeared, and in fact, it has appeared not only in Stavropol but also in other regions, meaning these news stories have started to appear more frequently. Probably, something is changing in the approaches of law enforcement agencies because, in reality, the cases are quite typical. But now these cases are not closed immediately, they do not pretend that there is absolutely nothing to investigate, but they try to substantiate the elements of the crime. And it must be said that when you get acquainted with the sentences, it is clear that the work is being done quite effectively. If earlier they were limited to some standard formulations like, for example, that the fence conditionally has a hole, the person could leave, therefore no one restricted them, so there can be no talk of slavery, now more often you can see in the texts explanations that there were sufficient factors of psychological violence and pressure, other factors due to which the person had no opportunity to leave, seek help, and had no opportunity to refuse to work. Such cases, without a doubt, become good examples for future considerations," the activist noted.

Gannushkina also noted that the number of appeals regarding slavery has significantly decreased over the past year.

Neighbors are simply afraid to contact the police because they have to live there further.

The activist noted that such crimes remain unnoticed for years for several reasons.

"The first reason is that in these areas, all neighbors know each other. The second is that neighbors are simply afraid to contact the police because they have to live there further, as they may be suspected of being the ones who reported. Therefore, very often the truth turns out to be such that the slave has no one to turn to for help. And it is also unlikely that anyone will want to help them very much because, after all, everyone is usually more interested in their own life. The local police officer is usually local too and does not want to acquire a reputation for harming 'his own'," the activist explained.

The rarity of convictions for slavery is related to the difficulty of proving it

At the same time, proving the use of slave labor is quite difficult.

"In order for the composition of the use of slave labor to be proven, three elements must coincide. A person must perform some labor activity, they must be coerced into some activity, and they cannot refuse to perform this activity, provide services, or perform work voluntarily; attributes inherent to property rights must be used against them. And how does it happen in practice? For example, activists saved a person or somehow discovered them with a slave owner. But even in a good scenario, when the slave is ready to tell what happened to them, how they were coerced, under what conditions they lived, and what horrors they experienced, it usually ends with words if there are no visible physical injuries and wounds that can be medically certified. And here will stand their slave owner, who will tell a completely different story. That they came to him voluntarily, that he feeds them, buys them things in exchange for their salary, that he gives them cash, for example. And that there is no restriction of freedom. And neighbors will confirm this. Everything collapses at this point because it is impossible to find any material evidence. Plus, slaves do not want to interact with law enforcement agencies; they are afraid of them.

According to him, those who find themselves in slavery understand that even if a criminal case is initiated and the slave owners are punished, for the person who has experienced all this, there are no particular advantages. "That is, it will not help them live further; it will not restore their life in any way. Therefore, of course, they want to just forget and go on living their life and pretend as if nothing happened," he said.

Gannushkina named the main reason why these crimes remain unnoticed for years as the inattention of law enforcement agencies in some cases related to crime "simply or for a bribe".

As an example, Gannushkina cited the story of a girl who escaped from slavery and returned for her passport.

"She ran away a second time - beaten, raped. When we called law enforcement and warned that we would raise a fuss, they replied: 'Don't make a fuss; they will return her passport.' And indeed, she received her passport at a neighboring police station, which means that the police were well aware of the whole situation - and did nothing," she noted.

Gannushkina confirmed the activist's words that such accusations are difficult to prove.

"There is also another problem - if a person does not know the Russian language, they cannot even explain where they were and from where they escaped from slavery," she emphasized.

Speaking about measures that could reduce the number of such cases in southern Russia, the activist named increasing people's awareness as the main one.

"Leaflets at train stations about what happens, do not trust recruiters. The same at stops, where there is advertising for labor houses, there should be announcements that one should not agree to work and help offered on the street. This and also awareness - lectures, and some videos on the internet. Regarding the control of employers in agricultural enterprises, this is a very important point, but it has a rather complicated path for implementation. Because unregistered people can simply not show up during inspections. There is a need for help for the homeless and people without documents. In general, there should be more helping organizations that have the status of state - shelters, organizations for providing assistance in resocialization, "hotlines." That is, specifically help with restoring documents, assistance to victims of such vulnerable situations. Police officers need advanced training courses. But if we talk about global solutions - then changes in legislation are needed, raising the literacy level of the population - how to get a job, what ways to protect oneself, where to turn for help. After all, many are now afraid of police officers almost more than criminals," he emphasized.

Educational measures are currently impossible, Gannushkina sadly noted.

"Volunteers once tried to distribute leaflets with warnings at the train station. They were told that they were engaged in illegal activities," she said.

Speaking about the fate of freed slaves, the activist noted that their further fate depends on the person themselves, on how long they spent in slavery, and in what conditions they were enslaved. "Conditions can vary drastically. In some places, they can be beaten to the point that the person can barely walk, controlling every step they take, keeping them behind closed doors, and only letting them out for some work, or keeping them in a basement, and making them work there, for example. And there are cases, for example, when a person helps around the household, they live, for example, in an extension of the house with the family. They go outside, they are fed properly, but they just do not have documents, they are not paid for their work, and they cannot leave on their own because it is unclear where to go from these fields. This is very different slavery. And then it also heavily depends on what the person will be returning to? Do they have family, a home, relatives who are waiting for and loving them, and searching for them? Or is it a lonely person who will have to deal with this heavy experience alone," he stated.

There are cases when a person escapes from slavery for a while, and then agrees again.

The activist noted that a freed person from slavery has several paths they can take:

"Therefore, some return to normal life, for some, it turns out to be such a trauma from which they will not escape. That is, there are cases when a person escapes from slavery for a while, and then agrees again. And they can remain in this cycle. Just moving from one labor house to another. If we talk about southern regions, then they will escape from one farm, they will be caught, lured somewhere, they will be in another, and so it will continue. What help is needed for restoring documents, housing, health, and the ability to earn independently again? Here too, everything depends on everything mentioned above. That is, in reality, there are quite strong people who return home, return to their families. And after a few years, they write that we had a son. We want to share our joy with you, I have a new job and something like that. Or it happens that after liberation, for example, people somehow restore their lives, they take it as a lesson, and move on," he said.

According to him, it even happens that those freed from slavery donate to organizations fighting against slavery.

"And it happens that a person cannot escape from this on their own. And then they really need the help of psychologists, and then they really need the help of a large number of outsiders who can help them get back on the track of independent life. And unfortunately, we are not adapted for this. That is, we have shelters that we can find for people who have nowhere to return to, resocialization is very minimal, but still they assist in job searches so that the person has somewhere to live at first and can earn, so that later they can find a room to rent or something else, to transition to independent existence. We can also help with a psychologist, but still, our mentality is such that very few people agree to this work because it is actually long-term, complicated, and requires a lot of effort," he concluded.

Gannushkina noted that the system of assistance for those freed from slavery is not established. "Our organization can help a few. Here, money is needed for living, for restoring documents, for paying for travel. These are quite large amounts, and I do not see organizations that could systematically deal with this," she emphasized.

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