Modern Slavery
- Mafalda Oliveira
- Nov 26, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 23, 2021
Modern slavery is the severe exploitation of other people for personal or commercial gain.
Slavery dates back to ancient times and has left its trace across cultures and continents. Even though, slavery is now universally prohibited, with protections for individual rights enshrined in national and international laws, it still persists.
Slavery is most prevalent in impoverished countries and those with vulnerable minority communities, though it also exists in developed countries.
Slavery is all around us, but often just out of sight. Slavery victims can be any age, gender, nationality, and ethnicity. From the outside, they may look just like any other person with a regular job, but behind that external front, the freedom and dignity of people are being stripped away: violence or threats of violence on a daily basis; forced prostitution; domestic servitude or other forced labour for little or no pay; passports taken away; and unpayable debts. These are some of the ways through which modern slavery is perpetuated.
To lure their targets into being trafficked, traffickers often use violence, manipulation, or false promises of well-paying jobs or romantic relationships, which leads the victims into falling in this oppressive trap while they were trying to escape poverty or insecurity, improve their lives and support their families, and now they can't manage to find a way to get out of this situation.The COVID-19 pandemic has increased vulnerability to modern slavery. And the lockdowns, necessary for public health, have increased risks of exploitation and violence.
The Global Slavery Index estimated that roughly, 40.3 million individuals are currently caught in modern slavery, with 71% of those being female, and 1 in 4 being children. However, it is difficult to determine exact statistics since so many cases of human trafficking go undetected and unreported.
You might be wondering,what motivates traffickers to do such a horrible act. Well, a lot of money is involved in this industry, honestly I was in complete shock when I found out how astronomical the numbers were. More than $150 billion in profits are generated annually by businesses employing slavery and exploitation.To give you an idea, this is bigger than the revenues of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Exxon Mobil, and JP Morgan Chase combined!The modern slave trade is driven mainly by greed, ”This is an economic crime,” said Kevin Bales, a leading expert on contemporary slavery, in a TED Talk. “People do not enslave people to be mean to them; they do it to make a profit.”
What can we do stop it?
Modern slavery is a matter of human rights and dignity, and there are steps that all of us can take towards ending modern slavery.
You can begin by educating yourself and spreading awareness of the issue. Buy goods that are made with fair labor standards, there are ethical businesses worldwide who are doing everything they can to ensure freedom and equal rights at every level of their production, so choose to buy from one of them. Donate to an organization fighting human trafficking, and keep an eye out for suspicious signs of slavery around you.
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