Com africa on the move. Russia is undergoing change at a phenomenal pace the economy has boomed over the last two decades and a new affluent fossil rose together with the new cathedrals of glass and steel but down on the ground in the shadow of that wealth the shadow economy has also been flourishing and with it exploitation and modern slavery on a massive scale as that awful lot of i was scared theyd kill me if i ran away. Denied freedom hope will pay the victims are completely at other peoples mercy deterrent version of what would amount to this appalling situation arises. But although the politicians are doing little to address the problem we meet the people who are taking action. The horrible thing is that in russia people are being in slave by fellow russians you dont find that anywhere else in europe. This is one of many illegal brickyard in the douglas down region in the south of the Russian Federation not all the workers are here voluntarily many were abducted to toil away in the punishing conditions and without getting paid the money not be any camps with fences and guns but these people are slaves as we learn here modern day slavery doesnt necessarily involve chains and whips. This is alexei he works for an engineer that frees forced labor as. Alexa knows this young man is a slave hes been here since june eleventh the demands that the foreman pays him wages to which he responds maybe but only five something in the till weeks alecs a asks what he scared of an office to take him and others away from here but the young man is reluctant to get involved. He was brought here against his will and is clearly scared. The Church People think if someones not locked up or unchanged then theyre not a slave even if they have to work hard you know the man has suffered physical abuse as he now reveals to his family. Its unbelievable what goes on there. And. They punched me in the face for nothing. Thats the. Most slaves who are put to work like this men from rural areas with low levels of education. Who are willing to do very menial work. That we paid work without a contract. To which. These men alike was looking for help. When we are asked whether he will come with the next day he thinks hell come and. The others agree otherwise youll die here alexei tells them to pack their backs the first step is to take the bus to must go from dad the old travel back to their respective homes but many of these stories of exploitation happened to begin in moscow itself sashas nightmare started on Komsomolskaya Square a busy hub home to three railway stations rural migrants gather on the square looking for work zack was one of them. And they all have bags. And thats how he can spot the people who on from here that. Traffickers approach the man with promises of a good jump off the books anyone wanting to work in moscow officially has to be registered in the city migrants from the former soviet republics but even rural russians dont stand a chance. This issue comes from a Community Just three hundred kilometers from moscow but without registration papers he wasnt allowed to work in the capital he was the perfect victim for a traffic and no money no education young and unmarried sasha drank a beer with the stranger then everything went down and the next thing he knew he was in an illegal brickyard hed been drugged and kidnapped. Zeshan had been enslaved like an estimated one million other people in the Russian Federation. Yes that awful i was floored by was scared theyd kill me if i ran away when i arrived in the brick yard i realized there was no point trying to escape. Their vehicle. There were mountains all around us yes most of the locals only know each other very well with other users i see there with the five star on the course as an outsider without knowledge of the area you can forget about escape us on his last me as a chuckle up to. Doesnt have a fixed address he sleeps at friends homes and is borderline homeless men like him are of such ideal targets for those wanting to exploit them they work without contracts and believe the promises that theyll be paid a decent wage those who realize theyll never get any money try to get away and you will be good as they escape but just end up in a different brick yard even though cuz then it was i want them on the edge of the bosses all know each other. They simply switch back escape workers but the most that i knew is like here. They bought them after all with the money that they called travel costs can you tell us about it now that orlando is holding. The twenty five year old felt powerless like all the others who shared his fate he decided to stay where he was. In there and i was probably hoping for a better way out that someone would help me get away i waited for a very long time and maybe two months old. Well you know in the mists of the law. And the sasha was able to get in touch with the. Tenor tiva on a borrowed phone the activists working for alternative or freed him with the help of the local police. Are going to as asians must go headquarters are located in the apartment of alexeis parents. In his childhood bedroom. The thirty one year old has devoted his life to political activism which he sees as his duty. In douglas stan received a call for help from another slave labor. The cooler says hes working on a farm alexei asks if he knows his location. Hes told by the man on the phone that there are two of them alexei wants him to take photos and send them to him so he can post them on the social media platforms to collect donations for their travel costs. Alexei has voltaire and other revolutionary role models on the wall standing for freedom of thought even if alexeis himself dependent on others is sixty five year old pediatrician mother supports him financially to prevent classically im basically a positive person who says he should help others i just worry about him because he doesnt have a wife or children he has nothing no income fortunately i have a pension and im still working to. Rashmi you have a im still rocking at sixty five thats how i managed to catch them myself and support him a bit. Like. You know what else could i do on top of this youre not paying taxes or anything towards your pension dont intend to. You and your pension you dont think about your future theyll steal it from me anyway rubbish moscow wasnt built in a day either my home. My family or out of democracy in america and europe also took time. For. Africa to whos going to steal your pension well arguing again because you dont think about your future. Look first. Will never go green he says ive been shaped by the soviet era hes a democrat as an opposition mentality. And. Shes worried the son is now thirty one but in terms of capitalist russia hes going to have a tough time without money alexei leaves moscow and heads for doug astronomy the russian republic on the caspian sea its one of the areas he visits most frequently in the fight against exploitation. With a population of just three million and an Unemployment Rate of more than fifteen percent dogs don has one of the smallest and weakest economies in the Russian Federation. On paper the republic is independent as regards domestic policy but economically its completely aligned to russia most girl guarantees military security and in return and joyce access to the oil reserves here. Alexei and design alternative is representative in dug a stand out looking for slaves in a brickyard some of the victims the been here for years they fear reprisals from their bosses by years and in the government the victims tell us were too scared to talk. Or use sometimes they beat us or lock us up. With but when you approach us its ok. And means go do it. With the come psychologists we can talk to people like them now everything starts with a small step. Then we agree an initial meeting if theyve been in a factory for a long time they went immediately trust us straight i do mr james safely restrict accused which we have to build up trust first before we can get them out of their. Endless fields of bricks given an idea of just how many people have to work here often against their will. The kilns are all fired with gas illegally diverted siphoned off from the oil industry im filtered the place stinks of sulfur. He was one of them i can hardly breathe because of the smoke. As you know the brick yards zakia and on dalek say can move about freely here the factories dont have extra guards the owners tend to be high ranking local officials theyre the law as a result of foreman arent afraid of any consequences applied this possible bit. Zakia cautiously approaches to workers west. Can we come in and show you some pictures of us whether we want to know if youve seen the people on them before or station this post was a call that was i dont. Write dont you that you dont. Like you do you know any of these people that weve had they work in breakouts to. Know i dont know any of them theres a soldier had to. Choose many people are missing but theres a couple more but the move then just the tip of the iceberg it took me a dish. Well look here. My name is buzz much i want to tell you something take a more thorough look around here but not through the front door like this you understand a little more in conspicuously question some of the people without getting seen you throw some light on all of this and there are four or five hundred yards in the area maybe one of the people youre looking for is that but i havent told iran right now for. Many workers of former prisoners others have lost their old wives some of them have been here for almost twenty years not all of the most laves but those who are often stay here and dont try to escape. What does a lot more than what we see which one we cant explain it how can you live here for a teen years and not trying to escape theyre told to go there and they go which. Theyre told sit. And they sit down and you will see did. This apparent lack of will power seems to be the result of years of oppression sakia and daleks a say its a reflection of the general mindset in society those who are right at the bottom have only themselves to blame. Today the man from alternative a didnt have any luck not here. Back in moscow two thousand kilometers from the brickyard a new tower block is rising on the skyline story by story. Most of the workers on these construction sites are Illegal Immigrants the new underclass in this mega city the people tend to come from the former soviet republics. Without work permits all registration papers they quickly fold prey to exploitation. Could mom vacant his granddaughters are among the estimated one point five million Illegal Migrants in moscow alone. Will cut. The i feel like a second class human being with will and sound treated at least in my version it doesnt matter how good your qualifications are you wont find a good job with. A good used list and its not. The sixty year old is from kyrgyzstan near the chinese border it used to be part of the soviet union today its an independent country which makes it a foreign country for comin back a confusing notion. Forty years ago he studied in moscow he also served in the soviet red army a year ago he came back here to help his daughter with her children here excepted a job as a cleaner he spent half a year cleaning ten hours a day for good money so he thought. My oldest. Its rare for people my age to find employment and it felt good to know that i had a job and that id be paid the next day ideas and thats how it wasnt first board. And thats when they paid me monthly but then it started to take longer and longer to get my money because then i continued working because i thought id be more likely to get my money that way one of them by quitting what is it i want to know what is at the end of. The going and you say i dont want to. According to official statistics moscows Unemployment Rate is a mere one percent which sounds appealing for jobseekers but common back is far from an isolated case even twenty five years after the collapse of the u. S. S. R. For the former soviet citizens moscow is their city it doesnt feel like a foreign country to them. Russia. In the u. S. S. R. You just had one passport until regardless of what ethnic group you belong to the knows. Everyone was the same one of these little these days youre always told. We only employ our own citizens. The governor sheena said similar in kyrgyzstans its not that everywhere people dont like us. But its. More than twenty Million People live in greater mosco the tough reality is tangible in order to regulate the labor market and migration an extra hurdle has been created for foreigners employers have to pay eight hundred euros in fees for every guest worker as a result migrants are now no longer officially employed illegal job market is flourishing and with it exploitation the migrants are vulnerable because theyre desperate to earn money. Yet. Its no secret that a single migrant working here in russia can take care of up to three families back home. I knew i had to do work i. P. H. Keep my money. They need every cent i knew i had thats how they end up as slaves they accept any job with or without a contract. You said you they dont care if its off the ball. Just. That. Puts many migrants in a grey area few have the courage to demand their rights that would mean the precarious stamp of revealing the status as an illegal economic migrant. Farm. Bag the kyrgyz grandfather is a brave exception. Not a bubba john mover is his attorney she specializes in labor law one day a week she works pro bono for an organization that fights for migrants rights with the support of the un. Like many is a victim of systematic exploitation. That. Employers dont start with holding wages right away they first want to win the trust of Migrant Workers which are nice and the plot but then it begins in the third or fourth months the migrant gets paid too little but at that point they dont realize whats happening they were paid initially after all that makes them uncertain and they dont look for a new job they just continue working and listening to the employers lies and promises lads what miss they replace their workers every month they dont pay them and they keep the money for themselves. Work it out. What if ten workers who were supposed to get fifty thousand roubles each. You got enough for a cost by the end of the year youre sitting on a lot of money at whats called. The sixty year old former administrator was unwilling to accept the injustice he has suffered for being a migrant hes filed a lawsuit against his former employer with the help of his attorney whose daughter has also come to support him. In court theyre confronted with a queue of people and security personnel for some a microcosm of modern russia. The that which you outside the court what has become of us you count sink any lower you or. Anyone wanting to bring their case of labor exploitation to court has to do so within three months most of the victims dont know this just as if someone doesnt find out about this right away via augen a zation or doesnt have money to consult a lawyer then that period simply expires. On top of god this time limitation serves only to protect employers bag is determined to demand his outstanding wages forty eight thousand rubles equivalent to seven hundred eighty euros the second major hurdle for claimants is the lack of precision in the laws regarding labor exploitation and slavery its just means that there are no laws that will likely be improved in the future. Quickly that would in norwalk. But its difficult at the moment to apply the relevant sections as a standard of what it is in the boy i have to prove in court that someone was actually employed. Senior fox the national. You put your name on this list every time you clean the Swimming Pool yes i signed every time. I voted and i need to have this letter notarized theres just two countries. My boss already signed here. And this. I had to show it when i entered the building. Here. With me. According to their testimony the general director did the cleaning himself. That. We then had to leave the room but the judge agreed to hear the case. Over in red square tourists a mile the famous building to use the grandiose setting for selfies with the soviet union doesnt just have a visual legacy there is still various loopholes in the legal system due to the huge and rapid changes in russia in the early one nine hundred ninety s. Why is it so hard to deal with exploitation and slavery in russia today. The leading prosecutor an expert in labor law explains. That yes section one hundred twenty seven subsection two refers to the use of slave labor but it doesnt define it slave labor. Were said to give you know could of is a research of the general Prosecutors Academy hes been working for years on improving legislation dealing with exploitation and slavery criminal employers have little to fear in the way of repercussions the protected by the vagueness of the law the ingenue boy who led units all the cute beach will go to tell you when you get. Every slave owner can just claim his slaves a free they choose not to leave the factory. Below she in the premier why do i say that in belarus they similarly have a section one night one that refers to the use of slave labor but it goes further you. Of slave labor and other forms of exploitation you need for a mixed lot doubtfully you make ford explode out if we had that formulation in russia lawyers would have an effective tool for taking action. Was bush learned you lot you put i would give you. The rooms in the academy a highly reminiscent of the soviet era the veteran legal expert doesnt think the primary reason behind the exploitation is a legal one hes as its down to a fundamental problem of society. For a book there is a kind of psychological provocation at work here. You see pictures of happy rich people all over the television and internet theyre sitting on their yachts drinking champagne gutters did you see that image appeals to us young makes us envious. That zero zero never mind the duty for jet blue couple we all wants to have an affluent and comfortable lifestyle. But in practice most of this content change that by legal means theres a line you. When you die you it was more than she is thats why many people look for other options criminal options its just that Human Trafficking is a big part of that yet we could get immunized even if you dont eat. He also told us that expectations had to be realistic that there were forces in the country working against reforms thats why changes to the more he said would take a long time. This is another side to douglas turn green and for thailand geographically and topographically a world away from the bric younes but this is also where we find the second major form of slavery in the federation farming alexei from the county Slavery Organization atena t. V. Has tracked down