A sweatshop was discovered where 200 migrant workers were making clothes, but it was not just an underground factory. It was a little town! There were dorms where the workers slept, cafes, a movie theater, casino and even a chicken coop!
This worker town was discovered underneath the site of the former Cherkizovsky market, which was one of the largest markets in Eastern Europe until it was closed in 2009. Most of the workers were illegal immigrants from central Asia, and they were all arrested when the police raided their underground living space.
Nine million migrant workers entered Russia in 2011. Many of them come from former Soviet republics in Central Asia, which have been left in poverty after the break-up of the USSR in 1991. Workers from satellite republics often end up in Russia in poor living conditions with low paying jobs because they are easily exploited.
“Migrants are constantly in a state of danger…they are in a constant state of stress. But they are needed and are beneficial to those that keep on exploiting them,” said Svetlana Gannushkina of the human rights group Assistance for Citizens.
