What happens after rescue from modern slavery, the third largest organized crime in the world? The mainstream perspective suggests that people can be rescued and set free from slavery. This article challenges this assumption by arguing that rescue inflicts more violence and sends workers back to exploitative labour. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic study of 31 workers in the informal sector (and 10 civil society and state officials) in India who have being rescued (under the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act 1976), this article shows that workers have been stuck/waiting in the legal process for up to 37 years. To demonstrate the same, the article engages with the concept of ‘waiting’. The notion of waiting emerges as a poignant illustration of the profound disjunction between the visions of freedom from slavery held by states (manifested through standard operating procedures) and non-governmental organizations (with their emphasis on rescue and rehabilitation), and the lived experiences of the workers themselves, who perceive the post-rescue process as an enduring state of limbo. By bridging the realms of literature on waiting with that of human trafficking, this article contributes to the field of critical slavery studies, bonded labour and multi-sited ethnography.

中文翻译：

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“现代奴隶制”拯救后会发生什么？在印度“等待”获救的抵债劳工案例


从世界第三大有组织犯罪现代奴隶制中获救后会发生什么？主流观点认为，人们可以被拯救并从奴隶制中解放出来。本文挑战了这一假设，认为救援会造成更多的暴力，并将工人送回剥削劳动。基于对印度 31 名非正规部门工人（以及 10 名公民社会和国家官员）的多地点人种学研究，他们被救出（根据 1976 年《废除抵债劳动制度法》），本文表明，工人已经被困在/等待法律程序中长达 37 年。为了证明这一点，本文涉及了 “等待” 的概念。等待的概念是一个尖锐的例证，说明了国家（通过标准操作程序体现）和非政府组织（强调救援和康复）所持有的摆脱奴隶制的愿景与工人自己的生活经历之间的深刻脱节，他们将救援后的过程视为一种持久的不确定状态。通过将关于等待的文献领域与人口贩运的文献领域联系起来，本文为批判隶制研究、抵债劳工和多地点民族志领域做出了贡献。