🇺🇸🇵🇰 A man from the US flew to Pakistan and paid $4,000 to free a family that had been enslaved for 140 years.
The family's bondage started in the 1880s when an ancestor took out a small loan. Under Pakistan's "peshgi" system, kiln owners issue advances to workers. Then manipulate accounts, add interest and arbitrary fines, and declare the debt a family obligation passed to children and grandchildren.
Kids as young as 4 or 5 work to help "repay" it. The math is designed to never reach zero.
Pakistan banned bonded labour in 1992. Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands remain trapped across the country's 20,000+ brick kilns.
Enforcement is nearly nonexistent. Kiln owners have political connections, police frequently collude, and families who try to leave face armed guards, false arrests, or violence against relatives left behind.
Aaron Hutchings paid $4,000. One family. 140 years. Done.
Source: @visegrad24