nstein was an earth bound human being just like the rest of us. even as his minds wandered through the limitless cosmos. rob reynolds, al jazerra calabasas, california. and you can keep up-to-date with all the news on our website. aljazerra.com. >> it's christmas eve and u.s. soldiers are preparing for their last month in afghanistan. about 40,000 are still here. by the end of the year there will be just 8,000.

we traveled to afghanistan in the midst of this transition. but on the base, we found a story that isn't being told. the people doing the day-to-day work here are mostly civilian contract workers. men frommen india and nepal who travel to a war zone gist for a promise of a good job. or many of them that promise turned out to be a lie. they ended up deceived and indebted victims of human traffickers who thrive on military contracts . front line investigates the american military has come to rely on an indentured workforce. camp marmel is the largest base

in northern afghanistan. nato's mission here centers on training the afghan national army. >> the complexity sometimes is when we first got here is i started thinking about it, it but -- >> this is the u.s. regional garrison commander responsible for daily operations in the north. >> there are a lot of great contractors who come up here local nationals third country nationals u.s. ex-pats and they all work together. >> what are they doing? >> everything you can think of. they work in the dining facilities. they help maintain the living facilities. what it does is it allows the soldiers to concentrate on their primary mission rather than having a lot of extra duties. we could not do our mission without them. they do a good job for us. >> two american companies manage

the military's facilities in afghanistan. the floor corporation and dine-core international. the these are called direct contractors because the u.s. government hired them directly. >> they serve us really, really good food. >> most of the contractors work for smaller companies, subcontractors, which floor hires to do basic task force cooking cleaning and laundry. >> there is the issue of watching your food being prepared right in front of you. >> the people here work for subcontractors. christmas dinner, on the face of it, it's a little odd. american and european troops being served by indians and

nepalese in afghanistan. the workers line up separately for indian food. when we requested to film here the u.s. military had to ask for permission from floor. floor denied our request. but i did speak to some on the base. it wasn't long before i heard about a unique aspect of their employment. to get these jobs they all had to pay fees to recruiting agencies. recruiting agents.

>> i asked several people if they would talk to me, most were hesitant not wanting to jeopardize their jobs. but a few hours later, i got a message. >> one of the workers in the dining hall has contacted me. he wanted to contact us about his story. it isn't easy to speak about his story because it's right here so we tried to find a place to meet.

the worker asked us to conceal his identity and disguise his voice. we will call him ronnie. we met him after his shift. robbie told us he was tricked to working in asks for a salary less than half what he was promised. they told him for a hefty fee he could get a job in afghanistan working for dinecore. he would fly dubai and connect with dinecore and go to afghanistan. there was a catch the job at dinecore didn't actually actually exist. instead, the agent housed robbie in a work camp in dubai, and the

man said for an additional fee he could get him a job. >> i saw my contract it was only $500. >> you were promised a job at dinecorp and then you got a job at echo log. >> i said i didn't want to go for $500, it wasn't enough for me. he said i do not want to give you back. i didn't have a choice. 500 is better than nothing so that's why i came. >> how much money did you pay the agent? >> i paid totally $4,000 u.s., and when i came first i got $500, you could see how much i had to work to get that money back, it is at least eight months and the interest so it's like one year. >> robbie had been recruited under fraudulent terms to work

for one year simply to pay off his debt. according to the united states this is human trafficking and illegal under international law. >> everybody they have the same salary. >> what percentage of workers paid fees to agents in order to get you. >> 99.99. >> for more "faultlines" check out on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines.

>> we wanted to talk to more people who had worked these jobs. but to do so we had to go far outside the war where they could speak more openly. we found them in the rural heart land of southern india, in the state of tamal nadu. >> the main issue when we talk about trafficking, we can call

it as a bonded labor, it all start because they have to pay an amount to get the job. >> sindu used to work for a subcontractor in kuwait. now she advocates on behalf of migrant laborers. over the last eight years she's interviewed hundreds of contract workers in iraq and afghanistan. >> that will make you work anywhere. doesn't matter it's a war zone doesn't matter if you are going given good food or conditions. men are ready to sacrifice. >> a village of several thousand people,en several hours from the closest airport. locals estimate that 70 to 80% of the men have worked in afghanistan. >> you may get 500 rupees a

month. the agents promise you to get $800 a month. i would consider moving there to get a job. >> we went to a tea shop and word spread we were looking for people who had worked on bases. it turned out this man serving tea, had worked in afghanistan for supreme , working for nato. >> whether they made it to

afghanistan or not, everyone had a story about how they had been cheated. this man paid $3,000 for 3,000 to an agent, for a job in afghanistan but when he arrived he was told he would be working for a much lower salary. at bagram, the largest u.s. base in afghanistan, worked for echo log, the same company robbie had told us about. one of the most prominent subcontractors, working on flor floor and dinecorps contracts.

it's public health controlled on fear. the fear of losing the job and the fear of losing the job is because they are in debt back home. losing the job is like you're coming back to shame and debt and what my future after that? you're here, you, i own you, and you work here or if you don't want to you go back home. but what about the money you paid? you didn't pay me. you pay to the agent. i didn't know about the money you paid. you have a paper to show? >> being fired is especially daunting because most people borrowed to pay their recruit recruiterrer at interest rates of 25 to 40%. he had to come up with $2500. at the time he earned just $2 a day.

he paid for a job in afghanistan for a subcontractor called prime projects international or ppi, they assigned him to a job in an entirely different country. >> he worked at camp dewire in afghanistan, make $800 a month.

in the entire year he worked there he only made about $2,000. the rest went to pay the agent. is he was strung long by five different agents, each of whom charged a fee. the department of defense requires that contractors ask

workers whether they paid recruitment fees. but it isn't hard to see why so few people are comfortable telling the truth. >> do the contractors not know that their employees were trapped in debt or do they condone the abuses because they benefit in some way? to figure that out we have to retrace the path to the city. >> for more "faultlines" check out on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines.

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