Servitude and slave trade: the case of Bolivian immigrants who work in clandestine textile workshops of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Part of the Bolivian immigrant workforce in Argentina was recruited in their country of origin through local agents that belong to an organized network of human traffickers. They arrive to Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (BAMA) where they are submitted to exploitation of manpower in semi-slavery conditions in clandestine textile workshops This process implies three different types of crimes: 1) human trafficking; 2) human slave trafficking (“trata”) and 3) slavery. Our general hypothesis is that the trafficking networks are articulated through “migratory paths” that are used for two purposes: for gathering workers, and for their later retention in the clandestine textile workshops. These migratory paths expose migrants to certain structural processes and life experiences. This paper focuses on those pains and diseases suffered by this group of migrants that are linked to their work and their way of life in our society – among which tuberculosis stands out as a disease with a growing incidence.