14 Freed From Slavery In Indian Rock Quarry

BANGALORE, INDIA – Today, a young father and thirteen other former slaves are free following an IJM Bangalore operation in collaboration with local authorities. The slaves were trapped in a rock quarry, where they were held against their will and disconnected from the other labourers in the facility because they did not speak the local language. Using threats and physical intimidation to isolate and control the victims, the owners beat, threatened and verbally abused them.

Dangerous Conditions

Life in the quarry was gruelling. The victims were forced to break boulders using hand mallets and spent their days carrying heavy rocks. So terrible were the conditions that the labourers found ways to make contact with the outside world, despite the fact that leaving the facility without permission could result in a severe beating or other violent attack from the owners.

Freed slaves show their official government release certificates, which entitle them to generous assistance as they build new lives.

The inside of the quarry where 14 labourers were held in slavery In early August 2008, two slaves managed to escape from the facility. The owners reacted by holding two other victims, a young father named Sadeepan and another man, responsible. The owner beat Sadeepan, bound him with a yellow rope, took him to a small cement room and locked him inside. At night, the owner beat him again and locked him up in a small room. Sadeepan's days and nights became an endless transition between cages.

Isolated from his wife and the other labourers, Sadeepan spent each night in the cement prison. He was let out each morning to work, but supervised at all times. There appeared to be no way for him to escape.

However, IJM investigators discovered the quarry and determined that the owners were enslaving their workers. IJM investigators conducted covert surveillance and interviewed victims. The IJM team then presented evidence of slavery to the local authorities, who committed to partner with IJM to release the slaves. Concerned about the possibility of violence, the local government also committed to send several dozen police officers for the operation, thus ensuring the safety of the labourers in the quarry, and the IJM staff and government officials conducting the operation.

Freedom from the Quarry

In the days leading up to the operation, several more victims escaped from the quarry, but Sadeepan and six other labourers remained trapped inside. On September 11, 2008, IJM, the local government and over forty police entered the rock quarry to rescue the labourers who were still held there. After working with the police and government officials to rescue the seven remaining slaves, IJM continued to work with the government to ensure that those who escaped in the days leading up to the raid were also officially released according to the law.

The local government provided official release certificates to Sadeepan and the rest of the victims, entitling each of the 14 former slaves to government rehabilitation funds that will greatly assist them as they move into free lives outside the quarry.

In the quarry, the workers were forced to work and were brutally beaten. Today they stand without chains, sleep without cages, eat in freedom and work without force.

All the victims brought to freedom in this raid will also receive assistance through IJM’s aftercare programs, designed to help them transition to secure employment and education. IJM will continue to pursue justice in the legal case, supporting the relevant authorities in the pursuit of criminal charges against the perpetrators of this abuse.