bonded labor

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A form of indenture in which a loan is repaid by work, the worker being unable to leave until the debt is repaid

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a practice in which employers give high-interest loans to workers whose entire families then labor at low wages to pay off the debt; the practice is illegal in the United States