"Forced labour: Malta's modern slavery", 2 August 2019

Forced labour has become the most prevalent form of modern slavery in Malta, according to the CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services.

“In the early 2000s, it was mostly Eastern European women who were victims, and organised prostitution was the issue. Now there’s been a shift to labour exploitation” ...

This trend of forced labour could be understood in the context of the growing foreign workforce, Identity Malta senior manager Ryan Spagnol told the seminar. 

Fifty-eight per cent of local companies employ one or more foreign workers, he said. 

Migrants originating in countries with a lower standard of living were more vulnerable to falling prey to exploitation, he added...

A campaign is to be launched to inform foreign workers of their rights...

“Still, of course more needs to be done. Labour officers could be introduced to monitor certain sectors as the cleaning, construction and caring industries, where exploitation tends to be more prevalent,” she [Lara Dimitrijevic, director of the Women’s Rights Foundation] said.

“The way some people are brought here to work is like you’re ordering goods. These are human beings and there needs to be better regulation in the industries they work in” ...