The faces of modern-day slavery – in pictures | Global development | The Guardian:
According to official estimates there are 21 million people trapped in some form of slavery. From people enslaved by debt to migrants trapped by labour and child brides, we explore the reality of slavery for many people in the modern world
Showing posts with label Kevin Bales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin Bales. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
Modern slavery - ABC Queensland - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Modern slavery - ABC Queensland - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):
Modern slavery
Modern slavery
21 July 2014 , 3:10 PM by Amanda Dell
Slavery seems like it should be a relic of the past, but our clothes, our food and our service industry could all be tainted by the forced labour of people who are kept captive by others.
Hear about the slaves who may be working near you, and why the fishing industry is tainted by the enslavement of workers.
Listen here:
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
384,000 Burmese people live in slavery | DVB Multimedia Group
Source: REUTERS and DVB
Nearly 30 million people are living in slavery around the globe, many of them trafficked by gangs for sex work and unskilled labour, according to a global slavery survey released on Thursday.
The survey by anti-slavery charity Walk Free Foundation ranked 162 countries on the number of people living in slavery, the risk of enslavement, and the strength of government responses to combating the illegal activity.
Continue:
http://www.dvb.no/dvb-video/384000-people-live-in-slavery-in-burma/33604
Nearly 30 million people are living in slavery around the globe, many of them trafficked by gangs for sex work and unskilled labour, according to a global slavery survey released on Thursday.
The survey by anti-slavery charity Walk Free Foundation ranked 162 countries on the number of people living in slavery, the risk of enslavement, and the strength of government responses to combating the illegal activity.
Continue:
http://www.dvb.no/dvb-video/384000-people-live-in-slavery-in-burma/33604
Friday, September 6, 2013
Kevin Bales: The shocking scale of modern-day slavery is revealed - Columnists - Yorkshire Post
Source: Yorkshire Post
Kevin Bales:
IN outlining her plans for new anti-slavery laws, the Home Secretary Theresa May was right to say that prosecution rates for human trafficking are “shockingly low” across Europe. Recent research suggests that the reality is actually far worse than she knows.
Continue reading:
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/debate/columnists/kevin-bales-the-shocking-scale-of-modern-day-slavery-is-revealed-1-6015761
Kevin Bales:
IN outlining her plans for new anti-slavery laws, the Home Secretary Theresa May was right to say that prosecution rates for human trafficking are “shockingly low” across Europe. Recent research suggests that the reality is actually far worse than she knows.
Continue reading:
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/debate/columnists/kevin-bales-the-shocking-scale-of-modern-day-slavery-is-revealed-1-6015761
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The Future of Anti-trafficking Efforts | Bernish Communications, LLC
http://bernishcommunications.com/2013/03/17/the-future-of-anti-trafficking-efforts/
Source: Bernish Communications, LLC
Source: Bernish Communications, LLC
A week after returning from a national conference on human trafficking hosted by the Denver-based Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT), I’ve finally had time to gather my thoughts about what I saw and heard, and to speculate a bit on the future of this vexing human rights issue.
I had been largely absent from the anti=trafficking battle for the last two years and in that time, I learned, there’s been a surge of committed and effective advocates in this cause. Many attended the conference; what struck me was the variety of efforts underway by these people — some working virtually alone, others as part of state and national NGOs, plus a number of people representing government and the law and justice system. The conference attendees, in fact, were impressive for their breadth of knowledge of the issue, and their passion.
The main point of the conference was LCHT’s unveiling of a long and detailed research project on trafficking at the state (Colorado) and national levels. The project’s goal is to create a replicable model of data-driven research to enable states and communities to fix a baseline of promising anti-trafficking practices and to understand what works — and doesn’t – in the areas of prevention, protection, prosecution and partnerships — the “4Ps” that have become a common reference point for the cause. A summary of the project’s findings is due later in the Spring. Whatever else it uncovers, LCHT is to be saluted for attempting to use data from interviews and available records to define the issue more clearly and reliably.
Still, I left Denver feeling somewhat unsettled, and it’s taken me some time to sort out what prompted my unease. These are one person’s opinion, open to challenge, but at least heartfelt:
1. The anti-trafficking cause is still sorting out basic and essential definitions. What, precisely, does “trafficking” mean? Is it a modern form of chattel slavery, as many (including me) have argued? I’m not so sure on this point as I once was, and it was clear from the conference discussion that agreed-upon definitions of words like trafficking, victims, survivors and slavery (in the 21st Century context) remain elusive. If those deeply involved in this battle can’t define what they are fighting, it’s difficult to see how the general public will ever come to grips with the issue.
2. Sex trafficking is a huge tragedy, yet it’s not the only or dominant human rights tragedy. Many more people — men, women and children — are being daily abused as slaves in horrible working and living conditions the world over. These are the “disposable people,” in Kevin Bales’ memorable phrase. Estimates of their number range as high as 27,000,000, with sex trafficking accounting for roughly 20% of the total. The fact is no one knows for sure; what is happening is that sex trafficking is becoming the dominant face or image of the issue in the United States, and while that serves a noble cause, it may drown out the plight of millions of downtrodden, miserable laborers and families who will never know freedom.
3. Trafficking remains a hidden crime. Unlike AIDS, breast cancer, clergy (and coach) pedophilia, human trafficking is not a well known issue for the general public in this country, although it receives more media and public attention overseas in Europe, Southeast Asia and South America. A lot of money has been raised and contributed to anti-trafficking organizations to help them battle against trafficking; it is difficult to say with certainty that it’s made much of a difference in raising the issue’s profile with legislators, the media and the public at large. All 50 states now have anti-trafficking laws on the books, but they vary widely in scope and effectiveness, while the national law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) remains a work in progress and always subject to government funding cutbacks. Police and prosecutor awareness training is increasing, but even the most optimistic advocates concede that justice for victims and punishment for perpetrators are goals, and not yet realities.
Yet I see a promising path to move antitrafficking efforts forward. When all is said and done, trafficking in humans is a market driven phenomenon. Traffickers in women, small boys, and destitute laborers enjoy little risk and big profits. This explains in part why drug traffickers have diversified into human trafficking; it’s another profit center, and much less vulnerable to undercover stings and multi-agency enforcement task forces.
Trafficking in humans has many causes, but ultimately, what matters is that it is a crime. The nations of the world need to go after it as a crime, in the same way organized crime and hate groups like the Klan were infiltrated, disrupted and eventually weakened to impotence by a concerted law enforcement efforts. That means even tougher laws, and the means to combat the bad guys. Right now in the United States, those means are lacking. Prosecutors, for example, have so far not been able to obtain court permission under existing anti-crime statutes to wire teenage sex workers as a way to listen in on and nail pimps. If law enforcement and prosecutors are to attack the business model underlying trafficking, the bad people will get out of the business. Yes, there will still be trafficking; it’s unlikely ever to be completely abolished as long as economic disparities exist and continue to widen. But as dedicated people advocate for survivor rights and rehabilitation, I argue that we also should be bolstering efforts to raise the risks to traffickers (and their customers) for profiting on the backs of vulnerable — disposable — people .
Survivors, after all, represent the sorrowful consequences of a crime. It is time to aggressively step up the destruction of the crime itself.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Slavery beyond the sex trade - TrustLaw
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/slavery-beyond-the-sex-trade/
Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:00 GMT
Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:00 GMT
A 19-year-old trafficking victim from central Myanmar who, two years ago, managed to escape two brokers who promised a job in a nearby town but instead took her to a town in the far north and tried to get her to become a sex worker. October 12, 2012. REUTERS/Minzayar Oo
By Katie Nguyen
LONDON (TrustLaw) - In Haiti, it's the little girl who is kept home from school and forced to clean her sister's house or else be beaten with electric cables.
Thousands of miles away in India, it's the shy, young woman left at the mercy of an agent who finds her a job as a maid but takes her earnings. In Bahrain, it's the Filippino domestic worker who, abused and exploited by her employer, cannot leave.
Millions of people around the world today are trapped in slavery, like seven-year-old Wisline was in Haiti.
"My sister came to get me at my mother's house, saying she would put me in school but when I got to her house, she started making me work and cook for her and she began mistreating me," says Wisline, who now lives in a refuge with other former child slaves outside of Port-au-Prince.
Exactly how many people are enslaved is impossible to know.
Estimates range from 27 million, cited by advocacy group, Free the Slaves, to the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) figure of 20.9 million people - of which about 2.2 million are forced labourers of the state, for example, working in prisons.
While women and girls account for the greater share of 21st century slaves, coverage of their plight has been dominated by stories of sex trafficking and lurid tales of being forced to sell their bodies in brothels and on street corners.
Yet data from the ILO suggests that far more women and girls are victims of domestic servitude and other types of forced labour than they are of the sex trade.
Of the estimated 11.4 million women and girls in forced labour globally, around 4.4 million are subjected to sexual exploitation in foreign countries, according to the ILO.
That leaves some 7 million trapped in labour exploitation. Unlike sex trafficking, most of it is taking place in the victims' own countries.
DESPERATE FOR WORK
Although the ILO gives no breakdown, campaigners say forced labour involving women and girls includes everything from being enslaved in private homes as servants, cooks and nannies to working in factories, farms and textile mills, and even, according to some reports, nail bars and cannabis farms.
Another notable trend has been the trafficking of women into forced marriages in regions where men outnumber women. For example, 70 percent of the trafficking cases in Myanmar in 2011 involved local women being lured into neighbouring China - often on the pretext of finding work - only to be forced to marry Chinese men.
"Today you don't have to kidnap people, use violence to pull people into slavery," said Kevin Bales, co-founder of Free the Slaves. "There are so many people who are desperate for work ... that you just have to offer people a job."
Despite the scale of the problem and the suffering it causes, eradicating modern day slavery has proved elusive.
One of the hurdles is identifying victims.
Those in domestic servitude - whether migrant domestic workers or not - are less visible than in sex trafficking, which is one of the reasons why the sector has been overlooked, activists say.
So-called domestic slaves tend to be isolated and hidden from view, with abuses usually occurring behind closed doors.
DOMESTIC SERVITUDE
In the privacy of their own homes, employers are often able to get away with violations that amount to enslavement, activists say. It can start with them confiscating their maids' passports and identity documents or not paying them - and escalate to not feeding them, insulting them verbally and beating them.
"There are so many cases of adults and children being fed scraps, having to sleep under the dining room table, being at the beck and call of their bosses," said Anti-Slavery International spokeswoman Elizabeth Muggleton.
"With child domestic workers, they might just look like another member of the family. It takes a slightly keen eye to recognise that there's only one child who's carrying the shopping bags," she said, referring to "Cinderella-style" cases of children forced to look after other children, and being badly mistreated.
In recognition of their particular vulnerability, governments adopted ILO's Convention 189 to protect domestic workers last year in a boost for millions of exploited women. To date, three countries - Uruguay, the Philippines and Mauritius - have ratifed the treaty.
Yet at the same time, many countries like Britain and the majority of Arab states have tied work permits for domestic workers to a single employer.
It's a policy that exposes workers to the risk of forced labour because it leaves them with few alternatives but to stick it out with a potentially abusive employer, experts say.
The fight against slavery has been championed recently by the United States with what advocates say was a landmark speech by President Barack Obama in September.
Calling it "one of the great human rights causes of our time", Obama announced a string of initiatives to combat the problem including an executive order designed to strengthen U.S. efforts to stamp out slavery from federal contracts.
While giving credit to countries such as Brazil and the United States for taking the lead in addressing forced labour, Beate Andrees, head of ILO's special action programme to combat forced labour, said: "We don't have the critical masses yet."
"There are many leaders and governments who can deny (it) and don't want to address it, so we are still a long way from eliminating the problem," Andrees told TrustLaw in a telephone interview from Geneva.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO END SLAVERY?
Besides political will, tackling corruption, pushing governments to enforce their anti-slavery laws and companies to scrutinise their supply chains would go a long way to ending slavery, experts say.
So would boosting the number of convictions for trafficking.
"The very numbers of identified victims or convicted traffickers remain very, very low," Silke Albert, a crime prevention expert for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told TrustLaw.
Last year, 946 trafficking cases were referred to the British authorities, yet only eight human trafficking convictions were secured in England and Wales.
"Trafficking is a very complex crime," UNODC's Albert said. "Many victims are for example in illegal situations. They have been brought in illegally or they have not been employed legally ... so they fear the police instead of turning to the police, and of course, they are badly controlled by their traffickers."
Women are both the victims of trafficking and the perpetrators, according to a UNODC report in 2009, which said female offenders had a more prominent role in present day slavery than in most other crimes.
It is unclear whether that is because women have been coerced into recruiting other women or because they can more easily approach and gain the trust of their victims.
What's certain is that women and girls will continue to suffer - and slavery will continue to thrive if its root causes are left unaddressed.
"The root causes of slavery are in social injustice, in discrimination, in poverty," Gulnara Shahinian, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, told TrustLaw. "Where all of these things are existing in a country, slavery will exist."
This article is part of a Thomson Reuters Foundation special report ontrafficking and modern day slavery.
Trafficking and modern day slavery will be high on the agenda at the Trust Women conference, Dec 4-5
Monday, November 12, 2012
Omidyars’ Fight to End Slavery Featured in Forbes Magazine
Omidyars’ Fight to End Slavery Featured in Forbes Magazine:
One of the most important things to happen to the anti-slavery movement in the past decade has been an infusion of resources from philanthropists who’ve decided they don’t want to live in a world with slavery in it.
And no one has been more generous than Pam and Pierre Omidyar.
Their story is featured in the latest edition of Forbes Magazine. The article’s title: “Inside eBay Billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s Battle to end Human Trafficking.”
The story reveals that the Omidyars’ have donated $115 million to their foundation, Humanity United, which in turn funds 85 anti-slavery groups including Free the Slaves. They pledge to invest $50 million more.
The creation of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), of which FTS is a founding member, has been made possible by funding from Humanity United. ATEST has been instrumental in coordinating the efforts of America’s top anti-slavery groups to advocate for a stronger commitment from the U.S. government.
“Having the Omidyars’ names attached to the cause has helped legitimize it,” FTS co-founder Kevin Bales says in the Forbes article. “If you want a politician to pay attention to anything, put a billionaire’s name on it.”
Read more in Forbes about how a billionaire’s optimism (“all people are basically good,” says Pierre) has helped kick start the effort to free slaves worldwide.
One of the most important things to happen to the anti-slavery movement in the past decade has been an infusion of resources from philanthropists who’ve decided they don’t want to live in a world with slavery in it.
And no one has been more generous than Pam and Pierre Omidyar.
Their story is featured in the latest edition of Forbes Magazine. The article’s title: “Inside eBay Billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s Battle to end Human Trafficking.”
The story reveals that the Omidyars’ have donated $115 million to their foundation, Humanity United, which in turn funds 85 anti-slavery groups including Free the Slaves. They pledge to invest $50 million more.
The creation of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), of which FTS is a founding member, has been made possible by funding from Humanity United. ATEST has been instrumental in coordinating the efforts of America’s top anti-slavery groups to advocate for a stronger commitment from the U.S. government.
“Having the Omidyars’ names attached to the cause has helped legitimize it,” FTS co-founder Kevin Bales says in the Forbes article. “If you want a politician to pay attention to anything, put a billionaire’s name on it.”
Read more in Forbes about how a billionaire’s optimism (“all people are basically good,” says Pierre) has helped kick start the effort to free slaves worldwide.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The Fight Against the Booming 21st Century Slave Trade | The Truth Pursuit
http://thetruthpursuit.com/society/society-feature/fight-against-booming-21st-century-slave-trade/10666
Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Nov 25, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz7R4qSdJB0&feature=player_embedded#!
>AJE Video> Rageh Omaar> The Lincoln Memorial, commemorating the 16th president of the US, sits at the heart of the National Mall in Washington. Inside the imposing marble building, lined by huge columns, is the even more striking figure of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln sits brooding in his chair, looking out across the stretch of land that leads to Capitol Hill in the distance. There is no triumphalism on his face; instead the statue wears a look of exhaustion and weariness that is perhaps fitting for the man who presided over a nation that tore itself apart in a civil war in which the abolition of slavery was a defining theme.
That was one of the reasons why the great civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King, chose the Lincoln Memorial as the setting for his "I have a dream" speech, which not only defined an era but still stands as one of the defining speeches of the 20th century as Black Americans overcame intolerance and racial segregation.
It was fitting that the Lincoln Memorial was also the site of our first day of filming for our new eight-part series looking at modern slavery, because today slavery is very far from banished from our world, or even from the US.
Inconvenient truths
In fact, there are believed to be more slaves in the world today than there were at the height of the transatlantic slave trade between Africa and the colonies in southern and northern America. For 300 years, until its abolition in the 19th century, more than 12 million men, women and children were forcibly taken from Africa to the Americas. But this trade in humans did not end there.
In fact it is now bigger than ever before. Today, the most widely accepted international figure for the number of slaves is 27 million people. Not only that, but, staggeringly, international experts, such as academic and campaigner Kevin Bales, believe evidence reveals that it is cheaper to own a slave today than it was during the 19th century.
Bales says that in the mid-19th century if you went to a place like Alabama in the southern US, you would pay around $1,200 for a slave, which in today's money is about $40,000 to $50,000. "That price," he says "has just fallen and fallen and fallen, and today the average price around the planet [for a slave] is about $90."
The US fought a civil war to end slavery almost 250 years ago. But, despite that, the US government today believes that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the country from overseas and enslaved each year. It is a measure of the scale of the crisis that this can happen in the world's richest and most powerful nation and a country which is undoubtedly leading the global fight against slavery.
One of the reasons why slavery is now bigger than it has ever been is that it is ingrained in the globalized economy and is part of our everyday lives. It is more than likely that when you buy a piece of clothing, a toy for your child, a pair of shoes for your friend, or just make a call on your smartphone, some part of that product will have been produced by slave labor.
The US recently initiated the largest human trafficking legal case in its history against a US-based Israeli businessman, Mordechai 'Motty' Orian. His company, Global Horizons, as well as several Thai and US associates are accused of conspiring to hold 600 Thai workers "in conditions of forced labor".
When one thinks of modern slavery, it conjures up images of people being smuggled secretly into countries and working in hidden sweatshops. But the reality is that in the globalized world, slaves often fly into their destination countries on the same commercial airlines as tourists and businessmen and have valid passports and visas.
That is what happened to the Thai workers sent to states all over the US to work as farm laborers by Global Horizons. The workers were given temporary US visas, but had to pay illegally high "registration fees" which effectively meant they were trapped in a huge debt. They were promised three years of work to pay that off and make a profit, but the promised work rarely came.
Worlds apart
On my journey across the world to investigate the modern-day slave trade, I witnessed many more direct parallels with the transatlantic slave trade of 300 years ago.
In Pakistan, I saw three generations of one family - a grandfather, his son, his son's wife and their children - being forced to work as enslaved labor in a field ankle deep in mud from which they were making bricks for the kilns. The illiterate son had signed a loan agreement that he could not read. The terms meant that he could effectively never pay it off and so his entire family, including his children, was forced to work.
As he spoke to me, his 'owner' stood no more than 10 yards away. The man had become so desperate to try to pay off the debt that he had sold one of his kidneys to his 'owner's' brother. But even that was not enough.
On the other side of the world and at the opposite scale of wealth and development, one country, and one city in particular, has become synonymous with prostitution: Amsterdam. In 2000, the Dutch government legalized prostitution. Its intention was to stop the trafficking of women into the trade and to ensure that the industry was not driven underground where it would be harder to regulate. But legalization has had completely the opposite effect.
The opening up of Europe's borders to countries in the former Soviet bloc, where living standards are much lower than elsewhere in Europe, has seen a huge rise in the trafficking of young women from countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova. Again, just like the Thai workers in the US, they arrive on commercial low cost airlines in their thousands to be exploited horrifically in open sight in a major European city.
I walked around Amsterdam's famous red-light district with Toos Heemskirk who runs an outreach program that helps the prostitutes. As we looked into the large shop windows where the barely dressed and heavily made up young women were paraded beneath bright red lights, she told me how abused and absurd the system of legalized prostitution had become. It was one thing if a Dutch woman wanted to self-employ as a prostitute but, she added, "how can a girl from Albania, out of a village find her way to Amsterdam, know where to live, how to rent a window? There must be organized crime behind it".
Every year the US government produces its Trafficking in Persons Report - a global overview ranking the efforts of nations to stamp out the modern slave trade. Tier 1 countries are those that are considered to be doing the most to combat slavery. And, much to the disappointment of John R Miller, the US' anti-slavery 'Czar' from 2000 to 2007, Holland continues to enjoy Tier 1 status.
Speaking of the legalization of prostitution in Holland, Miller says: "I think all that's happened is that the Dutch government has become the Super Pimp."
He says that arguing that legalizing prostitution was a forward-thinking measure, when the evidence showed it was being abused by gangs who were enslaving young women, was akin to the arguments Dutch traders had made during the transatlantic slave trade.
"The Dutch believe that they're being very sophisticated and regulating. The interesting thing is this is the exact same approach they took back in the 17th century. The Dutch used to boast about how they had the healthiest slave ships, they had the best ventilation, they had the best rations ... but slavery went on and on," Miller says. "All their talk about regulation was an excuse to avoid abolition."
Modern slavery - a 21st century evil - is alive and thriving across the world, whether in wealthy and powerful nations like the US and Holland or fragile, conflict and natural disaster stricken states like Pakistan and Haiti. And, unless every country begins to enforce their laws against slavery, it is a practice that will continue to undermine our pledges and aspirations for human progress.
AJE
Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Nov 25, 2011
Luis C d'Baca from the US State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves; David Batstone, president of Not for Sale; and Joy Ezeilo, UN Special Rapporteur for Trafficking in Persons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz7R4qSdJB0&feature=player_embedded#!
Lincoln sits brooding in his chair, looking out across the stretch of land that leads to Capitol Hill in the distance. There is no triumphalism on his face; instead the statue wears a look of exhaustion and weariness that is perhaps fitting for the man who presided over a nation that tore itself apart in a civil war in which the abolition of slavery was a defining theme.
That was one of the reasons why the great civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King, chose the Lincoln Memorial as the setting for his "I have a dream" speech, which not only defined an era but still stands as one of the defining speeches of the 20th century as Black Americans overcame intolerance and racial segregation.
It was fitting that the Lincoln Memorial was also the site of our first day of filming for our new eight-part series looking at modern slavery, because today slavery is very far from banished from our world, or even from the US.
Inconvenient truths
In fact, there are believed to be more slaves in the world today than there were at the height of the transatlantic slave trade between Africa and the colonies in southern and northern America. For 300 years, until its abolition in the 19th century, more than 12 million men, women and children were forcibly taken from Africa to the Americas. But this trade in humans did not end there.
In fact it is now bigger than ever before. Today, the most widely accepted international figure for the number of slaves is 27 million people. Not only that, but, staggeringly, international experts, such as academic and campaigner Kevin Bales, believe evidence reveals that it is cheaper to own a slave today than it was during the 19th century.
Bales says that in the mid-19th century if you went to a place like Alabama in the southern US, you would pay around $1,200 for a slave, which in today's money is about $40,000 to $50,000. "That price," he says "has just fallen and fallen and fallen, and today the average price around the planet [for a slave] is about $90."
The US fought a civil war to end slavery almost 250 years ago. But, despite that, the US government today believes that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the country from overseas and enslaved each year. It is a measure of the scale of the crisis that this can happen in the world's richest and most powerful nation and a country which is undoubtedly leading the global fight against slavery.
One of the reasons why slavery is now bigger than it has ever been is that it is ingrained in the globalized economy and is part of our everyday lives. It is more than likely that when you buy a piece of clothing, a toy for your child, a pair of shoes for your friend, or just make a call on your smartphone, some part of that product will have been produced by slave labor.
The US recently initiated the largest human trafficking legal case in its history against a US-based Israeli businessman, Mordechai 'Motty' Orian. His company, Global Horizons, as well as several Thai and US associates are accused of conspiring to hold 600 Thai workers "in conditions of forced labor".
When one thinks of modern slavery, it conjures up images of people being smuggled secretly into countries and working in hidden sweatshops. But the reality is that in the globalized world, slaves often fly into their destination countries on the same commercial airlines as tourists and businessmen and have valid passports and visas.
That is what happened to the Thai workers sent to states all over the US to work as farm laborers by Global Horizons. The workers were given temporary US visas, but had to pay illegally high "registration fees" which effectively meant they were trapped in a huge debt. They were promised three years of work to pay that off and make a profit, but the promised work rarely came.
Worlds apart
On my journey across the world to investigate the modern-day slave trade, I witnessed many more direct parallels with the transatlantic slave trade of 300 years ago.
In Pakistan, I saw three generations of one family - a grandfather, his son, his son's wife and their children - being forced to work as enslaved labor in a field ankle deep in mud from which they were making bricks for the kilns. The illiterate son had signed a loan agreement that he could not read. The terms meant that he could effectively never pay it off and so his entire family, including his children, was forced to work.
As he spoke to me, his 'owner' stood no more than 10 yards away. The man had become so desperate to try to pay off the debt that he had sold one of his kidneys to his 'owner's' brother. But even that was not enough.
On the other side of the world and at the opposite scale of wealth and development, one country, and one city in particular, has become synonymous with prostitution: Amsterdam. In 2000, the Dutch government legalized prostitution. Its intention was to stop the trafficking of women into the trade and to ensure that the industry was not driven underground where it would be harder to regulate. But legalization has had completely the opposite effect.
The opening up of Europe's borders to countries in the former Soviet bloc, where living standards are much lower than elsewhere in Europe, has seen a huge rise in the trafficking of young women from countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova. Again, just like the Thai workers in the US, they arrive on commercial low cost airlines in their thousands to be exploited horrifically in open sight in a major European city.
I walked around Amsterdam's famous red-light district with Toos Heemskirk who runs an outreach program that helps the prostitutes. As we looked into the large shop windows where the barely dressed and heavily made up young women were paraded beneath bright red lights, she told me how abused and absurd the system of legalized prostitution had become. It was one thing if a Dutch woman wanted to self-employ as a prostitute but, she added, "how can a girl from Albania, out of a village find her way to Amsterdam, know where to live, how to rent a window? There must be organized crime behind it".
Every year the US government produces its Trafficking in Persons Report - a global overview ranking the efforts of nations to stamp out the modern slave trade. Tier 1 countries are those that are considered to be doing the most to combat slavery. And, much to the disappointment of John R Miller, the US' anti-slavery 'Czar' from 2000 to 2007, Holland continues to enjoy Tier 1 status.
Speaking of the legalization of prostitution in Holland, Miller says: "I think all that's happened is that the Dutch government has become the Super Pimp."
He says that arguing that legalizing prostitution was a forward-thinking measure, when the evidence showed it was being abused by gangs who were enslaving young women, was akin to the arguments Dutch traders had made during the transatlantic slave trade.
"The Dutch believe that they're being very sophisticated and regulating. The interesting thing is this is the exact same approach they took back in the 17th century. The Dutch used to boast about how they had the healthiest slave ships, they had the best ventilation, they had the best rations ... but slavery went on and on," Miller says. "All their talk about regulation was an excuse to avoid abolition."
Modern slavery - a 21st century evil - is alive and thriving across the world, whether in wealthy and powerful nations like the US and Holland or fragile, conflict and natural disaster stricken states like Pakistan and Haiti. And, unless every country begins to enforce their laws against slavery, it is a practice that will continue to undermine our pledges and aspirations for human progress.
AJE
Friday, October 7, 2011
Slaves -- going cheap! - In The Paper - Mail & Guardian Online
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
RAGEH OMAR Oct 07 2011 00:00
On my journey around the world to investigate the modern-day slave trade for a new documentary series on Al Jazeera English, I have seen many parallels with the transatlantic slave trade of 300 years ago.
Today 27-million men, women and children are held, sold and trafficked as slaves throughout the world. That's more than double the 12.5-million Africans who were forced into slavery during the several centuries of the transatlantic slave trade.
It's actually cheaper to own a slave today than it was in the mid-19th century. Academic and campaigner Kevin Bales says that, in Alabama in the United States, you would have paid about $1 200 for a slave, which in today's money is about $40 000 to $50 000.
"That price has just fallen and fallen and fallen," he says. "Today the average price around the planet for a slave is about $90."
This is a trade worth $32-billion a year, a trade that refuses to die and remains the most prolific evil in the world today.
Driven by desperation
In Pakistan, I saw three generations from one family -- a grandfather, his son and his son's wife, and their children -- being forced to work as enslaved labour in a field ankle-deep in mud from which they were making bricks for kilns. The illiterate son had signed a loan agreement he couldn't read. The terms meant that he could effectively never pay it off and so his entire family was forced to work, including his children. He became so desperate to pay off the debt that he sold one of his kidneys to his master's brother, who was sick at the time. But even that wasn't enough.
As he spoke to me, his owner stood no more than 10m away.
Slavery is illegal in every country and we have a widely accepted definition of what it means to be a slave in the 21st century -- it means being forced to work under threat of force, of not benefiting from the work that you do, and not being able to leave this condition of your own free will. The idea of owning another human being like this cuts to the very essence of our collective humanity, and not just to the values that define us as individuals but also as societies. It also undermines the idea of human progress -- that our age is wiser, more advanced and developed than previous ages.
No country is immune from modern slavery, as we've seen in the United Kingdom, where 24 alleged slaves were discovered early last month, living in "filthy, cramped conditions" in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire.
The US fought a civil war to end slavery almost 150 years ago but the American government believes that between 14 500 and 17 500 people are trafficked into the country and enslaved each year. A conservative estimate is that there are between 40 000 and 50 000 slaves in the US.
Global conspiracy
The US recently initiated the largest case of human trafficking in its history against a US-based Israeli businessman, Mordechai "Motty" Orian. His company, Global Horizons, and several Thai and American associates, are accused of conspiring to hold 600 Thai workers "in conditions of forced labour".
Temporary American visas were arranged for the workers but they were made to pay illegally high "registration fees", which effectively meant they were trapped by a huge debt. They were promised that three years of work would pay that off and earn them a healthy profit but that never materialised. Instead they were often threatened with violence, put under guard and had their passports confiscated.
When one thinks of modern slavery, it conjures up images of people being smuggled secretly into the countries in containers and being forced to work in hidden sweatshops. But what makes modern slavery so insidious is that much of it is done above board and in plain sight.
Slavery is not just a crisis in poor developing countries in South Asia, Africa and the Far East. From the women enslaved as prostitutes in the red-light districts of Amsterdam to farms in Hawaii, modern slavery is all around us.
What I found profoundly shocking about the red-light district was how parents took their children around it as if it was a tourist destination, peering in windows, as though they were at Madame Tussaud's or the Champs Elysses. The terrible truth is that many of the women they were looking at were trafficked and enslaved.
History repeating
There are horrific parallels between today's modern slavery in the red-light district and the Dutch involvement in the slave trade in previous centuries. Saban Baran ran a Turkish gang that trafficked more than 130 women, mostly East Europeans. The women were beaten, scarred, raped and enslaved to work as prostitutes. I heard stories of forced abortion and of prostitutes being forcibly tattooed with the name of their pimp, just as slaves transported from Africa to the US were branded with their master's name.
American ambassador John R Miller compares the Dutch argument that legalising prostitution was a forward-thinking measure to the arguments Dutch traders made during the transatlantic slave trade.
"The Dutch believe that they're being very sophisticated and regulating," he said. "This is the same approach they took back in the 17th century. The Dutch used to boast about how they had the healthiest slave ships, the best ventilation and the best rations … but slavery went on and on. All their talk about regulation was an excuse to avoid abolition."
Slavery has ingrained itself into the global economic system of production. It is highly likely that something you eat, wear or use today will have been tainted by slave labour. We need to wake up to this reality. Only then might the governments around the world follow up their unified stance on slavery with unified action.
Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, which Rageh Omar presents, will begin on Al Jazeera English on October 10.
A year in the making, this is one of Al Jazeera's most important global investigations. Shot on three continents and executive produced by South African Oscar and Emmy winner Jon Blair, this is the most in-depth study undertaken by a broadcaster on modern-day slavery. For more information, visit: http://english.aljazeera.net
RAGEH OMAR Oct 07 2011 00:00
On my journey around the world to investigate the modern-day slave trade for a new documentary series on Al Jazeera English, I have seen many parallels with the transatlantic slave trade of 300 years ago.
Today 27-million men, women and children are held, sold and trafficked as slaves throughout the world. That's more than double the 12.5-million Africans who were forced into slavery during the several centuries of the transatlantic slave trade.
It's actually cheaper to own a slave today than it was in the mid-19th century. Academic and campaigner Kevin Bales says that, in Alabama in the United States, you would have paid about $1 200 for a slave, which in today's money is about $40 000 to $50 000.
"That price has just fallen and fallen and fallen," he says. "Today the average price around the planet for a slave is about $90."
This is a trade worth $32-billion a year, a trade that refuses to die and remains the most prolific evil in the world today.
Driven by desperation
In Pakistan, I saw three generations from one family -- a grandfather, his son and his son's wife, and their children -- being forced to work as enslaved labour in a field ankle-deep in mud from which they were making bricks for kilns. The illiterate son had signed a loan agreement he couldn't read. The terms meant that he could effectively never pay it off and so his entire family was forced to work, including his children. He became so desperate to pay off the debt that he sold one of his kidneys to his master's brother, who was sick at the time. But even that wasn't enough.
As he spoke to me, his owner stood no more than 10m away.
Slavery is illegal in every country and we have a widely accepted definition of what it means to be a slave in the 21st century -- it means being forced to work under threat of force, of not benefiting from the work that you do, and not being able to leave this condition of your own free will. The idea of owning another human being like this cuts to the very essence of our collective humanity, and not just to the values that define us as individuals but also as societies. It also undermines the idea of human progress -- that our age is wiser, more advanced and developed than previous ages.
No country is immune from modern slavery, as we've seen in the United Kingdom, where 24 alleged slaves were discovered early last month, living in "filthy, cramped conditions" in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire.
The US fought a civil war to end slavery almost 150 years ago but the American government believes that between 14 500 and 17 500 people are trafficked into the country and enslaved each year. A conservative estimate is that there are between 40 000 and 50 000 slaves in the US.
Global conspiracy
The US recently initiated the largest case of human trafficking in its history against a US-based Israeli businessman, Mordechai "Motty" Orian. His company, Global Horizons, and several Thai and American associates, are accused of conspiring to hold 600 Thai workers "in conditions of forced labour".
Temporary American visas were arranged for the workers but they were made to pay illegally high "registration fees", which effectively meant they were trapped by a huge debt. They were promised that three years of work would pay that off and earn them a healthy profit but that never materialised. Instead they were often threatened with violence, put under guard and had their passports confiscated.
When one thinks of modern slavery, it conjures up images of people being smuggled secretly into the countries in containers and being forced to work in hidden sweatshops. But what makes modern slavery so insidious is that much of it is done above board and in plain sight.
Slavery is not just a crisis in poor developing countries in South Asia, Africa and the Far East. From the women enslaved as prostitutes in the red-light districts of Amsterdam to farms in Hawaii, modern slavery is all around us.
What I found profoundly shocking about the red-light district was how parents took their children around it as if it was a tourist destination, peering in windows, as though they were at Madame Tussaud's or the Champs Elysses. The terrible truth is that many of the women they were looking at were trafficked and enslaved.
History repeating
There are horrific parallels between today's modern slavery in the red-light district and the Dutch involvement in the slave trade in previous centuries. Saban Baran ran a Turkish gang that trafficked more than 130 women, mostly East Europeans. The women were beaten, scarred, raped and enslaved to work as prostitutes. I heard stories of forced abortion and of prostitutes being forcibly tattooed with the name of their pimp, just as slaves transported from Africa to the US were branded with their master's name.
American ambassador John R Miller compares the Dutch argument that legalising prostitution was a forward-thinking measure to the arguments Dutch traders made during the transatlantic slave trade.
"The Dutch believe that they're being very sophisticated and regulating," he said. "This is the same approach they took back in the 17th century. The Dutch used to boast about how they had the healthiest slave ships, the best ventilation and the best rations … but slavery went on and on. All their talk about regulation was an excuse to avoid abolition."
Slavery has ingrained itself into the global economic system of production. It is highly likely that something you eat, wear or use today will have been tainted by slave labour. We need to wake up to this reality. Only then might the governments around the world follow up their unified stance on slavery with unified action.
Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, which Rageh Omar presents, will begin on Al Jazeera English on October 10.
A year in the making, this is one of Al Jazeera's most important global investigations. Shot on three continents and executive produced by South African Oscar and Emmy winner Jon Blair, this is the most in-depth study undertaken by a broadcaster on modern-day slavery. For more information, visit: http://english.aljazeera.net
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Jennifer Hamady: Free the Slaves
Source: Huffington Post
Related articles 
Jennifer Hamady
Posted: 8/31/11 04:00 PM ET
I recently began a column about artists making a difference with their creativity in their communities. And I've had the great pleasure of writing about some incredible men and women.
Yet there's more to art than art. Artistry and creativity are not just results on a canvas, page, or stage. They are aspects of the spirit and ways of walking through the world.
With that in mind, I've expanded my focus to include all artists in the conversation, beginning with an incredible woman whose entire life -- personally, professionally, and spiritually -- is nothing less than a masterpiece.
Having spent almost 25 years working with the Institute for Development Research (IDR, which has now merged with World Education), Jane Covey now sits on the board of Free The Slaves, founded by Kevin Bales, Peggy Callahan and Jolene Smith. Below is a bit of our conversation about her life, her work, and the joy and importance of making a difference.
You're in the middle of an incredible life story. How did it begin? What shaped and prepared you for where you are today?
"My father was a career military officer in Air Force, so we moved around a lot. Looking back, what stands out as important was having exposure at an early age to difference. At 8, for example, we moved to Japan during the occupation and I had the experience of being the stranger and the other. Being from 'away', as we say here in Maine, has given me a sensitivity to people who are on the edges.
"In our family, there was always a notion of service. It was assumed that's what you would do with your life. When I came out of high school in 1961, my options -- according to my family -- were therefore teaching and nursing. As the eldest of five kids, the idea of being around more young people wasn't too attractive, so I chose nursing.
"In the late 70s, I went back to school to get my MBA. Not necessarily for a specific professional goal, but rather, to learn, open doors, and see. It was a great experience and, following a move to India, I began working in the 80s for IDR which helped build the capacity of NGOs (non-government organizations) around the world. Thirty years later, that notion of service still feels right."
How did you get involved with Free The Slaves?
"A friend invited me to think about it. He'd been consulting with the organization and said he thought the board could use someone like me and the work I'd done, particularly given my international work. I had never heard of the organization, much less slavery in that particular frame. I had some meetings and was very impressed. Free the Slaves exits to end slavery worldwide; their work and contribution in the first 10 years has been tremendous. I went in rather ignorant and I am still in the early learning stages of what modern day slavery is and getting it integrated into my own experience."
We hear about sex trafficking, as well as bonded and child labor. But we don't seem to hear about or consider 'slavery' to be a modern, ongoing issue.
"Exactly. The language of 'labor' implies somehow -- even subconsciously -- that it is on some level a choice people have made. Even the word 'trafficking' speaks more to the trade than the experience of the people trapped within it. And this is deliberate. Slavery, and the people it its clutches, are very hidden. They're in every country around the world even though slavery is illegal everywhere. In the US, they're nannies, agricultural workers, landscape workers, restaurant workers as well as sex workers. And perhaps 99% of those we see are indeed there by choice. But there are those that aren't as well. Many are brought over from other countries with promises of jobs, education, and a better future for themselves and their children, only to become trapped by violence or the threat of violence. They have no options."
It's hard for many of us in the West to comprehend 'no options'. While perceptually or emotionally we've all experienced the notion of being trapped, to experience it as a concrete reality is a different matter entirely.
"In the US we have trouble understanding because we don't see how vulnerable people are who are poor and without education, without any hopes that their children's lives will be better than theirs have been. There are people around the world living marginalized lives. Not only for the lack of money, but because they do not have a place in their communities. They are on the fringes. They are essentially without value in their own societies. It's that vulnerability that responds when someone comes to the village and says, 'I can get your son a job so he can send money home to you.' That child, sometimes as young as 5 or 6 ends up weaving rugs in a dimly lit, locked shanty for twelve hours a day, fed only enough to keep him alive.
"As well, where poverty is absolute, people often have children they simply can't feed. In those cultures, children working is very common and necessary. The families are too poor to allow their kids to go to school. So the promise of a job where they can have a better life and send money home is like a dream. Sometimes, it's simply even a promise of their survival, of their being able to survive and live. In these circumstances, the choice is between desperation or false hope. The latter often occurs as a sensible choice."
How many slaves are there in the United States today?
The estimate is around 40,000 in areas including domestic workers, prostitution, agriculture, sweat shops, and landscape businesses.
What can we do? What can we read? What do we need to know?
"The most important thing, I believe, is to educate yourself. Books are a certainly a way to do that. Disposable People, Kevin's first book is a great start, as is his Ending Slavery, where Kevin has basically laid out a system and plan for the same, which our organization has taken on. We focus on partnerships with organizations and people in the most vulnerable countries, including Haiti, India, Nepal, The Congo, and Cameroon. We financially support those groups to liberate and then rehabilitate. Because if you've been enslaved, even when you're free -- if you have no other option -- you'll possibly go back.
"In the United States, Free The Slaves focuses on raising awareness and supporting anti-slavery efforts here and abroad. (The website is constantly updated with information and resources, as well as inspiring, personal stories about men and women who have reclaimed their freedom.) The United States has anti-trafficking laws and slavery is illegal. Still, like all over the world, these things happen. There are brokers that literally bring slaves in every area over, through both legal and illegal channels. Many states have abolitionist movements that you can get involved with. First though, is understanding that slavery does exist."
I'd now like to talk about how this work -- this type of work -- has impacted your life.
(Laughing) "I believe many people might say that I'm a bleeding heart liberal. A do-gooder person. And to some extent it's true. But the fact is that I have gotten so much more than I have given in this work. I literally view it as privilege to be involved. When I was working with IDR, I would go into communities, meet the NGO activists, get to know them and the people they were working with. And I was always stunned at the courage, the grace and intelligence, the strength and the basic goodness of the people. Whatever we did to help was more like a catalyst than anything else. The real change, hope and struggle was in those folks. To be part of and to witness that, and to be the recipient of the sharing of that has been amazing. A truly humbling and enriching experience."
What wisdom would you like to share with readers about your work, your life, and your journey?
"Having had the circumstances of privilege, such that I get to choose work based on my values and passion and my personal vision of how the world ought to be, the one I believe in, has just been an amazing joy. I can't think of having a better work or professional life than that. I know that circumstances are such that not everyone has the freedom to do that. But I also know that many that do, don't. People see themselves as not having the choice, or choose not to make it. And they're missing out on how fulfilling, satisfying and enjoyable that choice, that life could be."
Many people, when presented with the idea of 'being a contribution', have the perspective that they simply don't have the time or energy to step into the life you're describing and living. What would you say to them?
"I would say to do one little thing, whatever it is. Do that volunteer day that your corporation puts together. If you're a visual artist and someone asks you to put a piece into a community auction, do it. Giving just a small amount of time or effort, a part of what you do, makes such a difference. The opportunities for contribution that work for you are out there. For example, I've been very strategic now that I'm retired about what I'll get involved with, and how. People are afraid if they say yes they'll get sucked in beyond what they can do or handle. Don't let this take you out of the game. You can state your own terms. Just say yes. Just make it fit. As my granddaughters would say, 'give it a go'."
Visit www.freetheslaves.net for more information about the great work Jane and the organization are doing.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Modern Slavery: The loss of innocence : NL-Aid
Posted on | augustus 30, 2011 |
Modern Slavery: The loss of innocence : NL-Aid
The life of a child is often equated to that of mere dollars…over all people are comparatively cheaper than they were in the 1600-1800s, when slaves were purchased for life. Prices for these modern day slaves are at an all time low, while profits remain high, leading some to believe the problem is worse now than during the days of legalized slavery. Now ownership tends to last only a few months to a few years, making slaves cheaper to purchase and more easily disposable. In 1850 the purchase price of a slave in the southern US averaged the equivalent of $40,000 today. According to Free the Slaves, a slave today costs an average of $90. People have become a disposable commodity, cheap and easy labor one can just toss out when no longer needed. Globalization and the post-World War II population boom have increased access to, and lowered the cost of, transportation, which has in turn contributed to the increased levels of global slavery. Victims are often driven into slavery by severe poverty or acute need for economic gain. Additionally, the ethnicity of today’s slave is rarely important, however age and gender all too often are and thus women and children equate to the majority of modern slavery victims.
What is Modern Slavery
While human trafficking is often associated with poor countries, no state is immune – with every country across the globe categorized as a source, transit or destination for human trafficking. Modern slavery comes in various forms: sex trafficking and slavery; debt bondage/bonded labor; domestic servitude; involuntary servitude; child labor and child soldiering. In the case of sex trafficking, the victim is acquired for the purpose of sexual exploitation and/or commercial sex acts. Debt bondage, legally termed bonded labor, occurs when an unwarranted bond or debt, often inherited, is used to enslave an individual. Domestic servitude occurs when a person is enslaved in a private home and used for household chores and other violations. Involuntary servitude involves a situation in which laborers work under some form of physical or psychological force that prevents them from leaving. Chattel slavery is the long-term ownership of a slave and is most often racially based.
Staggering numbers
Estimates vary as to the number of modern-day slaves. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are 12.3 million adults and children who are trafficked around the globe for the purpose of forced prostitution, bonded labor and forced labor. Of these victims, the ILO estimates that at least 1.39 million are victims of commercial sexual servitude, both transnationally and within countries. The average age of entry into commercial sexual exploitation in the United States is 11-14 years-old.
Those most victimized by human trafficking are women and children, with 56 percent of all forced labor victims women and girls. Kevin Bales, modern slavery expert and president of Free the Slaves, estimates the number to be 27 million, a figure widely accepted by NGOs. UNICEF estimates there are some 250,000 child soldiers globally, while Human Rights Watch puts the number at 300,000, with the majority, some 200,000, in Africa. Child soldiers are actively fighting in at least 30 countries around the world, according to both Amnesty International and UNICEF, and PW Singer estimates in his book, Children at War, that 43 percent of all armed organizations in the world use child soldiers, 90 percent of whom see combat.
The entire global economy is impacted by the use of slavery in the production of goods, such as cotton, tea, silk, coca, sugar, steal, carpets, diamonds, etc. The ILO report, Combating Child Labor in Cocoa Growing , estimates that 200,000 children work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast alone.
The sale of humans for profit is growing steadily around the globe, and is estimated to be a $31.7 billion industry, according to the ILO – making it the second largest criminal industry in the world, larger than the drug trade and soon to surpass the arms trade.
How to win the battle and save our children
While many NGOs and governments have made strides to combat trafficking, there is a great deal of room for improvement in the global fight against child trafficking. Victims of trafficking need to first be seen as just that, victims, as opposed to criminals. Children are placed in juvenile detention centers, and are sometimes violated instead of protected. There are very few rehabilitation services for victims where trafficking remains high, and though there are some shelters, little effort is placed on the mental health of former victims. Many victims have not only endured sexual and physical abuse, but also drug addiction and sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
As poverty is the main contributor to sex tourism and trafficking, organizations and governments must work from the bottom up, putting resources on the ground in the areas most affected. If there are no economic alternatives for families and individuals, it will be near impossible to win the fight. Therefore organizations must educate communities about the realities of trafficking, as well as offer alternative solutions and economic opportunities, such as sustainable trade skills. Both children and adults in affected communities need to be part of the process of finding alternative solutions and prevention programs. In order to end the cycle of human trafficking, better, enforceable laws must be passed to prosecute those involved on every level of this heinous industry. Victims of trafficking need to be given the skills and knowledge that will keep them from being reintegrated into the trafficking market. But perhaps most importantly, victims need to have a place they can feel safe, where they can heal, and if they are lucky, learn how to be a child again.
To sustainably bring an end to modern slavery, four main areas of focus must be addressed. First is the demand for inexpensively manufactured goods and sex services, since this demand is met by the cheap – or free – labor of those who are acutely economically vulnerable. Second, gender inequality and bias must be addressed in all countries to reduce the stigma and abuse of sexual exploitation. Third, there must be a unified international response to strategies of prevention and awareness, and, fourth, impunity must end, for victims will continue to remain silent and not seek medical, psychological or legal attention if they feel there is no available retribution or safe care. History has clearly illustrated that impunity for traffickers only serves to exacerbate its use.
AUTHOR: Cassandra Clifford
URL: www.bridgetofreedomfoundation.org and http://children.foreignpolicyblogs.com
E-MAIL: Cassandra [at] btff.org
Modern Slavery: The loss of innocence : NL-Aid
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