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Article

1 Dec 2015

Author:
Sib Kaifee, Channel News Asia

In Pakistan, forced labour remains widespread at brick kilns

In most of rural Pakistan, hundreds of labourers are tricked into accepting small loans to work in brick kilns. But often their debt balloons due to unfair terms. And they end up becoming bonded - a practice that violates Pakistan's labour laws..Brick kilns are a multi-million dollar industry in Pakistan with estimates suggesting there are 20,000 of them spread over the country. Most of them run on the labour of thousands of people who are forced to work on these sites and for whom freedom is a distant dream...But now civil activists are speaking up. The Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) has been fighting to end modern-day slavery in Pakistan and have helped release 80,000 workers from their influential brick kiln owners.