A looming election join me Steve Clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u. S. Politics and society on aljazeera. The 300 years the most powerful nations honest group rich and strong go on the profits of the slave trade over 12000000 men women and children will be transported from africa on slave ships like this to the colonies and plantations in north and south America Today slavery is illegal in every country on the planet but the truth is slavery did not die in the 19th century it is a life that is thriving and it is bigger than ever. Among the brick kiln factories a real strong one of the oldest and most brutal things of slavery continues virtually unnoticed by the outside world. It that he did lay him. Down have been little book at that get a call of that. For those traps here this seems no escape. Lomas him to do a sequel a movie how to do that you know a shepherd is not even the common cause. And this slavery traps entire families sometimes for generations. Zindagi are going to fish and you have a party of another case every time the other models and the comment i want to get in my balloon about me. Totaled them young to me got the book came out of the. This is the Cultural Capital of pakistan where centuries of opulence and imperial ambition have been expressed in some spectacular architecture. The whole is a city with a grand history and today its still a city of enormous wealth and power. Its the capital of punjab state the industrial heartland of pakistan and yet barely harf an hour from this beautiful setting to find some of the most shocking and appalling working conditions anywhere in south asia. Whole lives on the eastern edge of the most heavily populated province in pakistan where more than heart of all pakistanis live. Outside the city limits the landscape of rural punjab is paul mones with earthworks smoking chimney stocks. There are up to 5000 brick kilns in this province and they are supplying the real materials for practically all buildings in the punjab and beyond. But inside these factories men women and children toil through the he. Of the day affectively but nope. Many say they are trapped in these conditions for their entire lives and are subjected to a brutal routine of overwork and violence and. They are bonded laborers. In the brick kilns all bonded labor begins with a cash advance to kill no no presents the labor with the contracts that compels them to work for however long it takes to clear the debts. The original amount borrowed rarely seems to form and often increases. The debt traps the labor and his family into a life of slavery. That could be as many as a 1000000 people in bonded labor in pakistan including Young Children. And up to 90 percent of those who work in the brick kilns in the punjab are working to pay off debts to their employment. The practice has been condemned by the United Nations a slavery. It is therefore prohibited by the uns universal declaration of human rights. In pakistan itself bonded labor has been outlawed for almost 2 decades. In the countrys constitution forbids slavery and the use of children under 14 in factories mines or any other hazardous important. Site of fatima runs an organization that campaigns for brick kiln workers and against the whole system of bonded labor. Family. Had best advice. But the. Thing it. All one to bill me. Down but theyre not. What im going to give the model. To achieving. You have gotten lucky. Where. Ashraf became a bonded labor a 6 years ago having incurred a debt to the brick of 140000 rupees or about 1600. 00. He accepted the loan as many do to pay for his marriage. Ever since he as well as his 2 young sons and his father of how to work to meet their quota of a 1000 bricks a day often this leaves little time for rest. A bit out because your link is out of business from romana mill that youre going to get better. As he comes out of his article company. Digital common market. The critically to start something is that. Something. Like this how does that. Said i did im a senator bob we beat up a dog here. Got their law. Well our manners in the civil i mean the holiday vittia shopping is that given that how many. Weekly wages are not paid to bonded laborers they meet their quota of bricks in an attempt to reduce their indebtedness. However many bonded laborers in the brick kilns are illiterate if they had been shown contracts they would not have known what they were signing and none of the laborers we spoke to had any idea what rates of interest were being charged for their tents. Not even death releases the labor from the loan it is then handed down to other members of his family so a small loan made several years even decades ago can still entrap wives brothers sisters sons and daughters. Having the opportunity to see a brick kiln. In close quarters what strikes me is not just the working conditions of people here but its also just the generations that are involved and its incredibly shocking to see not just one or 2 generations at work in forced labor but 3 generations a grandfather a father and the grandchildren with almost no possibility of ever escaping this kind of existence. But a few managed to escape. Deep inside one of the forced disputes of the whole lives a Small Community of christians in pakistan christians are a religious minority under siege. Some have found themselves in prison in the words of to be accused under the countrys trillion plus criminals. And their political supporters have been murdered. Christians remain overwhelmingly illiterate and in the punjab many christians work in the brick and. The tiny compound next to a church is now home to khalid and his family. Until recently he was trapped in a brick home having been drawn into bonded labor with the offer of an advance of 20000. 00 rupees or around 250. 00 he believed his work would steadily pay this of over the next 2 years. From out of door saw thats a new car today. To do a song about the moon and the it a lot of devon on the im. Told give out menus that of course to the. Community of good as a side of the guardian com got to get. But khalid was told by the bridge owner that he would have to work another 2 years to pay off but didnt draw out his time of the per kilo college says he was subjected to repeated bonnets. Shonen and little to not to win the show in a year that is so when in india dont they my dear dear they can assure you in the short time she got to know london. With no means of paying back their debts college in this family decided they had to try to escape the british even though they knew they may not somebody who turned. In the dust dust done that they didnt give was pleasurable that the end is still of their. Own good do quite a minute then we get jobs fit into a gun and then open it up with god cordon undated or dont call in the little sis who got them. They chose to leave under cover of darkness but even after theyve made it to the perimeter of the bridge to move this land it was still not safe. To say so got out of the movie i saw they got a lot of other than the pundit obvious who thought that i threw in the whole paddle. Thats been put on it will generally have on their this planet and then sort of them died in is either something to pull back in the middle stages on down the lot now with the. Pilot now works as an Office Cleaner in lahore here is a weekly wage and is free to work where he can find it this is no escape from chronic poverty but its ease and. From the violence and fear he lived with as a pointed labor. Slavery in the brick kilns is not just the results of unscrupulous its a consequence of a social structure in rural south asia that stretches back hundreds of years 20 to stand why conditions in this industry a so bad and why those owners who abuse their workers are rarely challenge you have to appreciate the brick kiln owners a part of a much wider system one of feudalism where Land Ownership political patronage and economic power into twined the system of what seems to me to be very clearly feudalism is operating very healthily in the countryside of pakistan that you have the equivalent of barons who control large parts of the population and the land who hold them in hereditary forms of slavery used them in all sorts of different ways as well as controlling local police as well as controlling local schools its a its a kind of mafia. There is a feudal system in this country and anybody living anywhere remotely connected to a field of family even if theyre not bonded caves to these families then the kind of control that they have over this population is tremendous and nothing happens without the mosque being involved and they actually run the lives of these people so you can see how the double jeopardy applies to them firstly because of the economic status and the repression of the more powerful politically and socially over them and secondly because they are from an even more vulnerable get a group of citizens which is non muslim minorities. Feudal power can extend so far into the lives of bonded labor is that even the most personal of math is decided by the brick kiln own ends. Well i mean with this. I mean he said the yacht that gave all of. The m. B. A plane with this in need that for the. Dont get when she has one key he doesnt know who one case having been he has to be on general. Big men put the i guess the cheeky how to get a scoop which would be new to look up now there ought to may have backed the cake of all that make it fun but theyve been covered telling they dont mix or dont know if you doubt that new hooty. Making the linky doll will have been instead of. Showing upon your answer is a powerful businessman and learned enough from the whole he also represents all the brick kiln owners in pakistan. Touring a brick kiln with his own toronto he tells me that workers here far from being exploited are actually engaged in a labor of love. But now im. Committed to. Mr neons he sees the presence of Young Children among the bonded labor is something that perpetuates the system in a way that benefits them. To have been out there. Though theyre always going to cause the expert do it the the wall jessica. Electrician. But i mean its a very tough industry is very difficult conditions we can see that right where we are would you say to those allegations that working conditions in the industry is equivalent to modern slavery. That. May be inside. So the. But why has bonded labor persisted in the brick kilns overseen by missed me all these organizations despite the fact that it is illegal. The whole like most cities in villages in the. Is built with bricks. Everything new and old depends on this one Building Materials the brick kiln supply these local markets nothing is explained. And this means that what happens in the brick kilns is much less subject to international scrutiny. There arent any overseas clients to insist that child labor cannot be nor are they in forcible minimum rates of pay. The contracts of the illiterate workers sign when theyre handed their advances. And nothing to protect bonded labor is from a new and terrifying. Exports which. Can traffic. Im traveling to a small village outside of or to meet. She is one of a growing number of victims of traders. Desperation in britain workers and their families to. Say what is. The better the better they take a lot of time going out handing out. Medical binding on his own they. Get to go to the new i dont. Log or die as they. Had a basic in a way that. Believes her kidney was sold in this hospital 4152000 rupees or about 1800. 00 there is no suggestion that the hospital authorities themselves knew that she would not receive a penny from your brain. Has locked away oclock in the night and then that. Hes out of. One of. Them if theyve got him in his in the you are very patient. And they want to bury my would you not. After 6 years in the brig Terence Ashraf decided for me to take the drastic step of buying himself out of slavery by giving up the kid in our Current Program and only my father going up were both very scared they can never. Come down to bargain on the memory of going to ponder. Some bonded laborers shape to gain their freedom through the pain only to find themselves accused by the owners of criminal offenses without the means to. Themselves would be in prison. When you have all the access to the state institutions they have the power to use to do sions against the people that they are oppressing for instance. Crooners the police has at the behest of the factory owners. And chased. When they have tried to escape they have kept them in custody and torture them at the behest of foreigners so its not just people it is the pollution of this city that has made that dynamic so much to do in their favor. The abuse on the bridge. Street when it is directed at women. This is maria she is 19 years old married. Almost. And you know the minute she did not you know the. Dominican the communists in the middle. Who died not 500. Can you tell us. Whats on them i mean down in d. C. By niccolo that this is done a lot of them in a set up a but not cynical it. And i will go put on not learning. From mr miyagi of the brick kiln known as association such stories are imaginary and malicious. Border pakistan but. You will. Not go to court they have what they thought it would take on. A slip but i would say. To you about them was there. But there should be no need to change the law because pakistani labor legislation specifically prohibits it bonded labor in 90929095. And without bonded labor in contrast picking the exploitation of children and sexual and other forms of violence might not have taken such a 5th home. But these abuses not only exist they seem to thrive in the dust of the protests and then your station is appropriately titled its called the bonded labor system abolition act which means that bonded labor is prohibited and bonded labor is defined as as any kind of expected on the basis of question without the intervention of the work without due is being paid and without. Any man a dating did. Freedom of. The brick kiln owners are able to ignore anti slavery laws because enforcement in pakistan is weak and the recent years it has become we still like. This group a government i love one of the way into the country. So that im instructed to come blanket. Bugs that is not known for despair for human rights. In the 1st question of a democratic rise of the people is rarely respected and i know the rule of law is very very very questionable the barons are able to not just operate at the local level they can operate nationally as well and so they may make sure that in the Pakistani Parliament their voices are heard slaves are voiceless virtually no one speaks for them they suffer but they suffer in silence. According to the brick kiln owners abuses are an exception to the rule human rights observers like a iraq man see it differently. To examples out there. So bad examples are there is a rule. On the face of it abolishing slave conditions in pakistans brick kilns is easy someone simply has to enforce the law but the interests of feudal landlords and their political supporters have historically stood in the way. So whats at stake certainly the human rights of im swimming in bonded labor as in the park. But maybe its also caucus on itself enslaving such a large part of the nation make interest the feudal landlords hardly sounds like a successful recipe for a country to develop. With all that has happened to this country after a decade of being on the frontline of the war on terror abolishing bonded labor might seem like us. Sure. But for all the social change that would have to come with abolition it might be a key to a Brighter Future for a lot of struggle a day to. Honor in the next episode of slavery a 21st century evil deeds in the country built by slaves and red flags themselves and the child slaves have been in plain sight and its slums today. If. Bought into existence by a slave rebellion. Yet rife with slavery. For fans of the 2010 quake forced into domestic was. Deprived of an education under a tough childhood. Child slaves part of slavery a 21st century evil. On aljazeera. These men are survivors of covert 1946 year old is a limousine driver is the only one here who needed to go to hospital when he became bill in early march with the overall goal order of the balance board in november so deep is the 34 year old driver kotori family and he tested positive my body is that it will always small but will you all be Health Officials say the rate of new infections as low the goal here is to conduct a broad serving to better understand transmission and asymptomatic cases which in turn could help paul see this issues in the future so it would be easy for us to inform the a Decision Making on what to do next the goal now is to increase testing and contact trees that. The government provides retesting a medical treatment for those who need it while campaigns to raise awareness continue. Rewind continues to care breyer people back to life im sorry with updates on the best about 0 as documentaries this struggle continues book from did to now of course tuesdays through its revisiting alfreds free press. I am the manager at all the data talk where you go from the public over was top of your address or side to the have been some changes over over the years you know rewind on aljazeera. This is al jazeera. Hello and welcome im peter w. Watching the news our live from our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 60 minutes guilty of 7 charges in a major Corruption Scandal involving the former malaysian Prime Minister najib razak hes now awaiting sentencing. Lebanon is to impose a 2 week lockdown starting on thursday just ahead of the elite holiday as Coronavirus Infection surge. Losing their homes and their livelihood