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revealing her personal potential, professionally
assisting in the realization of civil and social rights
Modern slavery: how to find a job and not become a victim of human trafficking
16.08.2024
The problem of human trafficking is much more widespread than commonly thought. It is possible to be recruited into slavery not only while on vacation abroad, but even in your own city where you have lived all along. Moreover, modern slavery is not always about working without a passport, without food, under threat or with violence and without the ability to leave (although such options are also common).
Victims of labor slavery may be subjected to psychological manipulation, not paid wages but constantly promised payment, forced to pay "mandatory contributions" under threat of dismissal. We tell you how you can find legal and safe employment.
1. On various popular job search sites, such as hh.ru and others, you may come across fake job offers. Typically, such vacancies do not require work experience, list extremely simple responsibilities, while promising implausibly high salaries.
After talking with an "HR specialist," you may be asked to pay under any pretext: training, purchasing materials necessary for work, equipment, etc. Even if you do not end up in slavery, you will most likely become a victim of fraud or fall into a pyramid scheme, where you will receive wages at the expense of the next person who falls for the tempting job offer.
2. Recruiters for labor slavery can literally wait for their victims near employment centers. Typically, such recruiters offer work related to physical labor, such as in the construction industry. Do not accept a job offered by someone standing on the street near a place where those who struggle to find employment on their own usually go. A person with financial difficulties, desperate to find a job, is an easy target for traffickers.
Typically, such recruiters operate according to the following scheme: they offer you a "hot job" abroad, for example, in Russia, which you must either accept now or never, as departure is tomorrow and there will be no other opportunity to get this job. This way, a person looking for work is not given the chance to stop and think.
Next, the recruiter continues to talk about the benefits of the job, which are actually a scam. Decent salary and working conditions, meals, accommodation and transport paid by the employer. Even the paperwork is official, but due to the rush, all documents promise to be signed on site upon arrival. As a result, the deceived person faces illegal gruelling work without rest, living in trailers, sleeping on bare mattresses, lack of salary or minimal payments that barely cover subsistence.
So, here are the red flags to watch out for:
• excessive haste, which makes you accept the job right now (and go to work in another country the next day);
• the employer is not interested in your education or any other proof of your competence;
• all agreements exist only in words: you have no confirmation of good working conditions and that you will be officially hired, and the employer has no confirmation that you are really suitable for the job.
Such cases of involvement in labour slavery happen everywhere, including in Belarus. We have already talked about one such story: a man was recruited right on the street, having been promised good work as a builder, but as a result, he had to live in poverty and work in the rain even during a serious illness.
3. Social networks are the face of the company. Of course, even in our time, not everyone has them, but many companies are actively maintaining popular social networks (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, some may even have Tik Tok or Twitter). If you see that the company is «alive» and publications constantly appear on social networks, this reduces the likelihood of deception. Pay attention to the publication dates: if the oldest posts were published only a month ago, then there is a possibility that this is a fictitious one-day company. If the publications are regular and the profile has been active for more than a year, then most likely the company is real.
It's a good idea to look for reviews about the employer, both recent and old. If there are photos in the reviews, social networks, or on the company's website that are presented as photos of the office, employees, etc., run them through Google or Yandex Images. If exactly the same pictures are on photo stocks or on the website of a completely different company, you should think about the reliability of the employer.
4. After the COVID-19 pandemic, remote or hybrid work formats (a combination of working from home and working in the office) became popular. Thanks to this, it became easier for people to maintain work-life balance. But if this is not a world-famous company, it's more difficult to figure out whether the employer is reliable when working remotely.
Trust your intuition, don't miss red flags, and don't share personal information and data that are not publicly available if the company seems illegal or not transparent enough to you. Carefully check companies even before you respond to a job vacancy.
If you have questions about employment abroad, safe and legal migration, assistance to victims of human trafficking and their relatives, as well as children's safety on the internet, use the information posted on our website!
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