“I began working when I was 15,” said one of the underage slaves. “I came here with my brother. We work 12 hours a day.”

It is thought that around 2,000 children work as slaves in factories similar to this one throughout Russia, and without proper regulation and enforcement the problem will keep on growing. Over the past several years, there has been an increasing movement to combat human trafficking, but despite these efforts there are still basic issues that need to be tackled.

“We propose to toughen responsibility of employees, first of all, it should be criminal responsibility with serious administrative fines for the use of illegal workers,” said the Director of Moscow’s Bureau of Human Rights, Aleksandr Brod. “Second, the law enforcement agencies should work well and very precise procedures should be conducted on the state borders, as we are aware of corruption when law enforcement officials openly provide protection for such factories. They just receive money illegally for such services and close their eyes.”

In the past few years, the number of cases investigated has remained low and the number of people who are sentenced is even lower.

For the time being, these boys have escaped a life of modern day slavery, but there remain thousands of other children still caught in the trap.