Investigation reveals systematic exploitation of homeless by big business and organized crime
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Private labor contractors in Japan are "recruiting" homeless individuals throughout the country, luring them to perform clean-up work in the areas near the destroyed nuclear power plant at Fukushima for less than minimum wage.
That's the finding of a new special Reuters investigation which says that shady business operators are employing men like Seiji Sasa to "prowl" train stations and other places throughout the country targeting "homeless men" who are "willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the $35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong."
The investigation found a shady but systematic labor scheme—much of it run by organized crime but also involving some of the nation's top construction firms—in which day laborers are exploited by contractors receiving state funds to clean up areas near the plant.
"We're an easy target for recruiters," said 57-year-old Shizuya Nishiyama, a homeless man recruited at a train station in the city of Sendai. "We turn up here with all our bags, wheeling them around and we're easy to spot. They say to us, are you looking for work? Are you hungry? And if we haven't eaten, they offer to find us a job."
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