SCI
page 4 / 4
In 1974, Hubbard established the Rehabilitation Project Force (or RPF), a forced labour and re-education program against reputedly delinquent members of the Sea Org, which involves long days of hard labor, restricted food, and substandard living conditions. Ex-members have reported physical abuse and that members are prevented from leaving with threats and coercion. Children as young as twelve years old have been assigned to the RPF, and there have been reports of children laboring for considerably longer than eight hours a day, and physical and sexual abuse of minors. Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of David Miscavige and author of Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, stated that as a child she often worked 14 hours a day and only got to see her parents once a week, if that.
== Analysis ==
Several scholars, writers, and former members have compared the Sea Org to a paramilitary group. In Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography (2008), Andrew Morton called it a "fraternal paramilitary organization", and wrote that members are instructed to read The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and On War by Carl von Clausewitz. He wrote that Scientology leader David Miscavige created an elite unit within the Sea Org called the "SEALs", named after the United States Navy SEALs, who receive better lodging, sustenance, and uniforms than other Sea Org members.
Lawrence Wright wrote in The New Yorker in 2011 that the Sea Org used small children drawn from Scientology families for what he described as forced child labor. The article described extremely inhumane conditions, with children spending years in the Sea Org, sequestered from mainstream life.
== Lawsuits ==
There have been several lawsuits filed by former Sea Org members, alleging abuses which include human trafficking, coerced abortions, ongoing mental abuse, forced labor since childhood, repeated sexual assaults, and forced marriage after sexual assaults. For more information, see these cases:
Headley v. Church of Scientology International
DeCrescenzo v. Church of Scientology International
Haney v. Scientology
Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology
Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter
== See also ==
Scientology ethics and justice ยง Sea Org ethics
Scientology officials
List of Scientology organizations
Zion's Camp and Fruit of Islam
== Notes ==
== References ==