The Extent of Modern Slavery

In 2007 the UN marked the 200^th anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The following year the international day of remembrance of the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade became an annual observance.

At its peak 80,000 people were being sold each year. Conditions on board the slave ships reflected the outsider status of the cargo; the sexes were separated, kept naked, packed close together, and the men were chained for long periods of time. 1 in 4 of those on board were children. Unfortunately the situation has not gotten better.

Today the UN estimates that there are 27 million people living in slavery in the world. That is double the number that came out of Africa in the entire history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

It is estimated that there are 800,000 people trafficked illegally per year. Nearly 18,000 people are trafficked within the United States alone.

Three out of four of those trafficked are female and half of the current population living in slavery are children. This bears repeating - in the world today, in the year 2013 there are estimated to be 13.5 million children living in slavery. That is greater than the population of London and its surrounding area.

I want to be very clear; I am referring to real slavery. This is not about lousy marriages and this is not about jobs that suck. This is about people who are forced to work without pay. People who are operating 24/7 under the threat of violence and unable to walk away. It is real slavery in the same way that slavery would be recognized throughout all of human history.

Can't imagine it?

"Rambho Kumar was rescued from a carpet loom in India where he was forced to work 19 hours a day with no pay. The loom owner and trafficker seduced Rambho’s mother with promises that Rambho would go to school and send money home to the family. Rambho’s father had just died and his mother could not feed the family. She sent Rambho with the trafficker. 

When Rambho’s fingers bled from overwork the slave owner would dip them in oil and light a match to them. He wasn’t allowed to play or go to school. He was never allowed to visit his family or leave the loom." - source freetheslaves

Rambho's story is not unique (unlike his name), nor is it limited to India which can so easily be dismissed as "over there".

So what is being done about this on the international level?

Unfortunately victims of child slavery cannot look to the United Nations Human Rights Council for help. In 2012 the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, reported to the Human Right’s Council that she is convinced that the mandate given to her does ‘not adequately cover all slavery practices, and the issue of contemporary slavery needs to be given greater prominence’.

Compounding Shahinian’s report is the human rights history of those who are currently on the Council or have been endorsed as candidates for the Council.

India is a sitting member of the Council but has the largest population in the world of people living in slavery. Malaysia and the Philippines, also member of the Council, suffer from vast internal enslavement in domestic services and trafficking into sexual exploitation into the Gulf States and Japan. The largest number of slaves in the world in Asia, estimated to be as high as 24 million.

In July 2012, the African Group endorsed the candidacy of Sudan in the upcoming UN General Assembly elections for membership in the Human Rights Council. Sudan has a long and bloody history of severe human rights abuses. Estimates of the number of people now enslaved in Sudan vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Slavery happens in nearly every country in the world, and the US and Europe are not immune. Research that Free the Slaves conducted with the University of California, Berkeley found documented cases of slavery and human trafficking in more than 90 cities across the United States.

In order to effectively eradicate slavery in all its forms, the root causes of slavery such as poverty, social exclusion and all forms of discrimination must be addressed. In addition, we need to promote and protect the rights of all especially the most vulnerable in our society. Where human rights violations have already been committed, we are called upon to help restore the dignity of victims.

You can calculate your slavery footprint here

If you were not aware of the extent of this problem, you are now. Ignorance can no longer be your excuse… nor mine.