A trucker's road - from one slaveholder to another

The Alternative's activists helped a trucker from Russian republic of Bashkortostan return home. He spent 2,5 months in labor slavery in Dagestan.

Radik Kazin, 54, tells that he came to Moscow to make some extra money. He couldn't find a job in his field of profession, so he started to work as a welder on a construction site in Malakhovka, a village in the outskirts of Moscow. However, his employer wasn't paying him, so Radik quit. He was left with no money and no documents (having lost his passport). On the Kiev rail station Radik met a man who offered him to work as a welder in Kaspiysk for 45,000 roubles per month. The recruiter also promised him housing and three meals each day.

This is how Radik became a labor slave in Dagestan. The living conditions were horrid, the workers were fed once a day and, of course, there was no payment at all. But there were absolutely no possibilities to run away. Radik's plight could have lasted for a long time, but one day a man named Ilya came to the factory where he was working. Ilya bought Radik from his owner and drove him away, giving Radik a new job - building greenhouses. Some time had passed, and Radik asked Ilya to let him go home.

"Go wherever you want", - suddenly said Radik's owner. One other worker was also able to leave with Ilya after spending 6 years on the factory. Maybe the owner was thinking that the men wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

But they managed to get to Makhachkala, where Radik was recruited once again - this time, by a group of Gypsies. When he was left alone, Radik ran away and went to the police. The policemen handed Radik over to our fixer in Dagestan, Zakir Ismalilov.

At the present moment, while Radik is safe, all the efforts are aimed at restoring his documents, so that later he can go back to Bashkortostan where his family is waiting. Radik plans to get back to normal life and forget the horrible slavery experience that he had to face.