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Comment by toast76 | Hacker News Reader

Wow, such a flippant response...

Workers from Africa/Asia are lured to the middle east for the promise of a good wage and the possibility of helping loved ones back home. When they get there, they have their passport taken, are given jobs which aren't remotely like those they were offered and are essentially forced to work as slaves in appalling conditions with no hope of ever leaving.

Google "qatar slavery world cup" and do some reading. Just one of many examples of this happening in the modern world, Dubai is another.

So, really what you're asking is "why should I care about slavery?"

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I deleted my post. not because I'm not standing to my opinion. But "why should I care about slavery?" is a complete misinterpretation about what I said.

My point was that I think this should be fixed where the modern slaves come from. And not where they are.

My point was that fixing the symptom doesn't fix the cause, apparently no one got that or I did a terrible job at explaining it. I still stand by it though.

Society is capable of addressing more than one social issue at once. The social issues in Qatar that make it possible for these crimes to take place should not be neglected because there is oppressive poverty in the countries that Qatar sources their slaves from. Both need to be addressed.

I would like to stress that slavery in Qatar is not a mere symptom of social issues in the Philippines. It is symptomatic of deep flaws in Qatarien. How can I assert that with confidence? Because many other countries that are not Qatar do not condone keeping Filipino workers as slaves. How many passport deprived, exit-visa restrained migrant workers died during the construction Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London? It sure as shit wasn't 900. It was none.

I did not read your original post, but I guess by "should be fixed where the modern slaves come from" you are talking about poor countries or poverty in general. If so:

Poverty is not the cause of slavery as a symptom, the symptoms of most poverty in the world today are bad working conditions, low pay, etc which workers do voluntarily, they mostly don't have another option than taking mean jobs, granted, but they can switch their employer, try to build a small business, etc. They can't do that if they are de facto slaves, living in a country where they have almost no rights and which they can't leave. My point is: bad jobs are a symptom of poverty, slavery is a symptom of very bad politics, despising human rights.

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