Russia is undergoing change at a phenomenal pace the economy has boomed over the last two decades and a new affluent class arose together with the new cathedrals of glass and steel put down on the ground in the shadow of that wealth the shadow economy was also being flourishing and with it exploitation and modern slavery on a massive scale now stephanie i was scared theyd kill me if i ran away. You know i had freedom hope ok the victims are completely at other peoples mercy the church of the good of how did this appalling situation or wrong just come tumbling. Out although the politicians are doing little to address the problem we meet the people who are taking. Actually. 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 dogs 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 us raves as we learn here modern day slavery doesnt necessarily involve chains and whips. This is alexei he works for an enduro that frees forced labor us. 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 which i like say i asked 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. Lost the Church People think if someone is not locked up or in change then theyre not a slave even if they have to work harder to get out. The man has suffered physical abuse as he now reveals to his family. Its unbelievable what goes on in. Here. 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 at all 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 a 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 the old travel back to their respective homes but many of these stories of exploitation happened to begin in must go itself sashas night mass started on Komsomolskaya Square a busy hub home to three railway stations rural migrants gather on the square looking for work. Zappa was one of them. And use it but 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 a stranger then everything went down and the next thing he knew he was in an illegal brickyard hed been drugged and kidnapped. Sasha had been enslaved like an estimated one million other people in the Russian Federation. Of nastiness and 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. There were mountains all around where you yes yes and i was shocked at the locals only know each other very well with other years i see the world the flag the style and the course as an outsider without knowledge of the area you can forget about escape was on his last me as a chuckle up to his legend zakia doesnt have a fixed address he sleeps at friends homes and these borderline homeless man like him are as 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 trying to get away and youll 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 ole know each other. They simply switch back and skate workers but the most that i knew is lets hear the anger they bought them after old lady with the money that they called her travel costs can you tell us about it and im better than that asshole that. 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 maybe two months old. And i really missed a lot. Was able to get in touch with the. Tenor tiva on a borrowed phone the activists working for alternatives freed him with the help of the local police. Headquarters 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 the jews. In dagestan 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. But isnt 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. Rasher you have and i am still rocking at sixty five that is how i managed to care for myself and support him a bit too you were in love with your family you know what else could i do on top of this youre not paying taxes or anything towards your pension dont intend to. End your pension you dont think about your future theyll steal it from me anyway rubbish moscow wasnt built in a day either my uncle in moscow you got out of the democracy in america and europe also took time you cook your food out of a very. Average going to steal your pension where arguing again because you dont think about your future. What but orgon. Were never going says ive been shaped by the soviet era hes a democrat as an opposition mentality. And. Shes worried her sons now thirty one but in term 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 douglas than has one of the smallest and weakest economies in the Russian Federation. On paper the republic is independent as regards domestic policy but he can only claim its completely aligned to russia most girl guarantees military security and in return and joyce access to the oil reserves here. Alexei undesigned a tentative us representative in darkest on out looking for slaves in a brickyard some of the victims have been here for years they fear reprisals from their bosses by years conditioned to go huge the victims tell us were too scared to talk. Sometimes they beat us or lock us up. But when you approach us its ok. For me to go do it. With become 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 at us to jamess leadership the kist which we have to build up trust first. Before we can get them out of that question very quickly theyre going to. Endless fields of bricks give 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 cell phone. Was one of them i can hardly breathe because of the smoke you know as you know the brick yards zakia 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 result of foreman arent afraid of any consequences if i dispose method bodies of those. Zakia cautiously approaches to workers but. When laws are coming come in and show you some pictures of them with us whether we want to know if youve seen the people on them before this post was a counter was i dont. I dont do that you dont. Like you do you know any of these people weve had they work in breakouts too. But she no i dont know any of them theres a soldier here to. It sure is many people are missing but theres a couple more but the event just the tip of the iceberg it took me there used. To like 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 theres you understand a little more in conspicuously question some of the people without getting seen theyll throw some light on all of those and there are four or five hundred yards in their area maybe one of the people youre looking for is that good but i havent told everyone. Now for. Many workers are former prisoners others have lost their old lives some of them have been here for almost twenty years. Dont all of the most lames 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 eighteen years and not trying to escape that old go there and they go which. They told sit. And they sit down you will see did. This apparent lack of willpower seems to be the result of years of oppression zakia 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 men from out a not t. V. Or didnt have any luck not here. Back in moscow two thousand kilometers from the break yards a new tower block is rising on the skyline story by storing. 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 or registration papers they quickly fall prey to exploitation. Kuhlmann begun 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 look and sound treated at least on my version is it doesnt matter how good your qualifications are you wont find a good job with. The good salaries 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 a comin back a confusing notion. Forty years ago he studied in must go 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. Its rare for people my age to find employment it felt good to know that i had a job and that id be paid the next day. And thats how it wasnt first boarded. 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. The i dont want to. According to official statistics moskos Unemployment Rate is a mere one percent which sounds appealing for job seekers 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 i think regardless of what ethnic group you belong to or the knowledge. Everyone was the same one is the attack these days youre always told. We only employ our own citizens with the governess in a state similar in kyrgyzstans its not that everywhere people dont like it. But its. More than twenty Million People live in greater moscow 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 the exploitation the migrants are vulnerable because theyre desperate to earn money. Its no secret that a single migrant working here in russia can take care of up to three families that comes. And you had to do what i preach keep my money but that. They need every cent and your odds are thats how they end up as slaves they accept any job with or without a contract with their you set your vehicle they dont care if its off the books. Those are perceived. That puts many migrants in a great area if you have the courage to demand their rights that would mean the precarious step of revealing their status as an illegal economic migrant. The care his 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 coleman bank like many is a victim of systematic exploitation. Thats in the stars and action by employers dont start with holding wages right away they first want to win the trust of Migrant Workers which for me so much not in that lot then much but then it begins in the third or fourth month 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 lonnies and promises lines what mr they replaced their workers every month they dont pay them and they keep the money for themselves doing the 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 his daughter who come to support him. In court confronted with a queue of people and security personnel for some a microcosm of modern russia. Conducted on the few outside the court and what has become of us you cant sink any lower at least. Anyone wanting to bring their case of labor exploitation to court has to do so within three months both of the victims dont know theres. Just like. If someone doesnt find out about this right away via our organization or doesnt have money to consult a lawyer then that period simply expires. On cheshire silk a postcard thats all this time limitation serves only to protect employers come on back 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 since most things in their own laws that will likely be improved in the future. Quickly that would do no wrong. But its difficult at the moment to apply the relevant sections as they would have with it in the boy at least i have to prove in court that someone was actually employed them. Having your father the devil 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. Comes with. My boss already signed here. Back in and this. I had to show it when i entered the building the page. Would leak it was there when he knew according to their testimony the general director did the cleaning himself. We then had to leave the room but the judge agreed to hear the case. Over in red square tourists a mile of 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 a slave labor but it doesnt define a slave labor route were said it gave you no kudo 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 moon. But i wish i knew boy allegedly its a somewhat acute beach well 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 day similarly have a section one night one that refers to the use of slave labor but it goes further the use of slave labor and other forms of exploitation you need for a mixed lot doubtfully you look for exploded out if we had that formulation in russia lawyers would have an effective tool for taking action should go but it was bush darn it you lot you put i would give you honestly the. 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. Place where you. Feel like each provoke 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. That image appeals to us young makes us envious. C. A never mind the duty for jet blue all wants to have an affluent and comfortable lifestyle. But in practice most of this content change that by legal means to live. Options for new their youth was more thats why many people look for other options criminal options its just that Human Trafficking is a big part of that criminality even. He. Also told us that expectations had to be realistic that there were forces in the country working against reforms thats why the changes to the more he said would take a long time. This is another side to dagestan green and for thailand geographically and topographically a world away from the brick yards