VOA慢速英语2009-Development Report - Putting a Price on the

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
　
Adults drink tea as a child laborer² works in Bangalore, India, last June.

A new report estimates the cost of forced labor¹. Millions of workers worldwide are denied more than twenty billion dollars a year in wages. And that does not even include people forced to work in the sex industry.

The report is by the International Labor Organization. The United Nations agency gives two main reasons for what it calls "the cost of coercion³."

First, people in forced labor situations receive wages that are lower, sometimes far lower, than the market rate. Long hours of overtime⁴ work may go unpaid⁵ or underpaid. Also, victims may be overcharged for their housing, food and other items.

The second major cost mainly involves human trafficking. It includes the money that workers pay to be taken to another country.

Four years ago, the labor agency estimated that more than twelve million people were in some form of forced labor. About two and a half million cases were the result of trafficking.

The earlier report estimated profits from trafficking alone at more than thirty billion dollars a year. It said criminals earned all but four billion of that from the sex trade.

Experts say Asia has three-fourths of all forced laborers⁶. A million are in Latin America and the Caribbean. But the problem affects almost all countries. Around fifty-six percent of people in forced labor are women and girls. Forty to fifty percent are under the age of eighteen.

Most countries have laws that make forced labor a serious crime. Yet the new report says in Africa, for example, it has generally received limited attention. Sometimes there is a strong focus on slavery but weak punishments, says I.L.O. official Roger Plant. He says child labor is an especially serious problem in West African countries.

Around the world, industries such as agriculture and the building trades are commonly considered at risk of forced labor. They have lots of temporary work and difficult conditions. But the report says the risk extends to all kinds of industries with long supply chains for the goods used in their products. Huge companies might not use forced labor, but they might work with smaller ones that do.

Why would people take a chance on getting involved with forced labor? The International Labor Organization points to increases in the unemployed⁷, the working poor and people whose jobs are likely to be cut. In such times of economic crisis⁸, it says, people take more risks.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson, with Lisa Schlein in Geneva. I'm Steve Ember.

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 laborer   

n.劳动者，劳工

参考例句：

• Her husband had been a farm laborer.她丈夫以前是个农场雇工。
• He worked as a casual laborer and did not earn much.他当临时工，没有赚多少钱。

3 coercion   

n.强制，高压统治

参考例句：

• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions.既不诱供也不逼供。
• He paid the money under coercion.他被迫付钱。

4 overtime   

adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地

参考例句：

• They are working overtime to finish the work.为了完成任务他们正在加班加点地工作。
• He was paid for the overtime he worked.他领到了加班费。

5 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

6 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

7 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

8 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。