Slavery Today

Background Info Modern Day Slavery is not like the traditional form of slavery. It is in every country in the world in some shape or form.

Slavery in the Global Economy Fact: Slavery is outlawed in every part of the. It is an illegal activity. The reality is that 27 million slaves are being held against their will across the globe today, almost the population of Canada. The number of enslaved people grows by 700,000 each year. - iAbolish: The Anti-slavery Portal

What is modern slavery? When we mention slavery, most people’s initial thoughts are of the Transatlantic Slave Trade or the Maafa, a Kiswahili word meaning the great disaster. This was a very specific type of slavery with plenty of legacies. Britain passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which made trading in enslaved people illegal and slavery was abolished in all parts of the world by the end of the 19th Century. Slavery past: captured Africans were transported to the West Coast of Africa for sale to Europeans. Slavery present: child doing domestic work in the Philippines.

Some characteristics of slavery forced to work -- through mental or physical threat; owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse; dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as 'property'; physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement. By looking at these laws we can draw out common characteristics that distinguish slavery from other human rights violations. A slave may be: forced to work -- through mental or physical threat; owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse; dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as 'property'; physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement. One or several of these characteristics may be present in a case of slavery.

Slavery in the Global Economy Modern Slavery is also called “Human Trafficking” or “The White Slave Trade.” Profits are second only to profits made by drug smuggling and illegal arms. -Free The Slaves (http:ww.freetheslaves.net)

Old Versus New Slavery Old Slavery New Slavery Legal Ownership Asserted High purchase cost ($40,000 equivalency) Low profits Shortage of potential slaves Long-term relationships Slaves maintained Ethnic differences important New Slavery Legal ownership avoided Very low purchase cost ($90) Very high profits An almost “limitless” supply Short term relationships Slaves disposable Ethnic differences not important -Free The Slaves (http:ww.freetheslaves.net)

Forms of slavery today Forced Slavery Chattel Slavery Debt Bondage child labor Sex Slavery Different forms of slavery occur in the modern world and Anti-Slavery International works against a range of these abuses. First of all, Bonded labour affects millions of people around the world. People become bonded labourers by taking or being tricked into taking a loan for as little as the cost of medicine for a sick child. To repay the debt, they are forced to work long hours, without rest days. They receive basic food and shelter as 'payment' for their work, but may never pay off the loan, which can be passed down through several generations. One example of this is whole families bonded into agricultural work in Nepal. Forced labour affects people who are illegally recruited by governments, companies or private individuals, and forced to work - usually under threat of violence or other penalties. The Burmese government is notorious for perpetrating this kind of abuse. The unconditional worst forms of child labour are defined in ILO Convention No. 182 as slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour; forced recruitment for use in armed conflict; prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities.These practices affect millions of children around the world. An example here would be children, forced to work in dangerous factories, producing carpets or silk, without being able to leave, in parts of India. Commercial sexual exploitation of children falls under these unconditional worst forms of child labour. Children are exploited for their commercial value through prostitution, trafficking and pornography. Anti-Slavery International is a member of the ECPAT Coalition which works specifically against these abuses (see www.ecpat.org.uk for more information). Descent based slavery involves people being enslaved on the basis of caste or ethnicity. They may be inherited, given as gifts or sometimes bought and sold from their homes. This still occurs in countries such as Niger and Mauritania in West Africa. Early and forced marriage affects women and girls who are married without choice and are forced into lives of servitude often accompanied by physical violence. Girls are forced to marry in a number of regions, including parts of Africa and South Asia. Human trafficking – see next slide.

Forced Labor This form of slavery often results when individuals are lured by the promise of a good job but instead find themselves subjected to slaving conditions, working without payment and enduring physical abuse, often in harsh and hazardous conditions. Victims include domestic workers, construction workers and migrant workers.

Chattel Slavery When one person is completely owned by another and can be inherited as property. Traditional type of slavery used when Africans were enslaved.

Chattel Slavery The most known form of chattel slavery in today’s world comes from wartime in certain countries. Countries experiencing troubled times result in militia and raider attacking villages and then kidnapping and enslaving children and women. Examples: Sudan, parts of North Africa, The United Arab Emirates – children are kidnapped to become camel jockeys

Debt Bondage Slavery A person enters debt bondage when their labor is demanded as a means of repayment of a loan, or of money given in advance. Debt bondage keeps society’s lowest classes in debt to their masters.

Debt Bondage Slavery Bonded laborers must work for however long the master says and must ask permission for their every move. These people are paying off debts of $10-$50 but the interests are than they can pay and therefore are passed down throughout their generation.

Bonded labour in agriculture Ricardo was offered the chance to take up well-paid work in the US and left Mexico to pick tomatoes on a farm in Florida. The contractor explained that they would have to work to pay back the money they owed for the expenses of arranging travel and employment. The work was backbreaking, a normal day lasted from 5.00am until 7.00pm. They ate badly and had to drink polluted water. Ricardo was paid $80, but immediately the contractor charged him $40 towards his debt, $30 for rent, electricity, water and food, and he was left with only $10. As this system of payment continued, the workers’ debts increased and it seemed the contractor would never let them leave. One of his co-workers tried to escape, but was caught. The contractor beat him and threatened to kill him if he attempted another escape. ‘This is when I realised that it was really slavery.’ Ricardo managed to escape during a supervised trip to buy food. He helped police to investigate the trafficker, which confirmed that workers were being enslaved on tomato farms. But most of the trafficked workers were treated as illegal immigrants and immediately forced to leave the country. The Mexican community contributes some US$82.1 billion a year to US gross domestic product and nearly US$9 billion was sent back to Mexico by Mexican nationals or persons of Mexican origin in 2001 alone. These figures do not take into account the irregular migration of Mexicans to the US. There are few opportunities for regular migration into less skilled jobs in the USA so many migrants try to cross the border illegally in search of work. Between 1998 and 2001, more than 1,500 migrants died while trying to cross the border. Some 1.5 million migrants each year are arrested on the US-Mexican border and forced to return home. Others may make it into the US only to find themselves compelled to work as forced labourers or in situations of severe exploitation. On average an undocumented Mexican migrant worker in the United States will find a job within two weeks of arriving. And Mexican migrants earn around nine times as much in the US as they did in their last job in Mexico.

Child Slavery Definition A child slave… is under the age of eighteen. receives extremely little or no pay. is controlled by violence or other threats. has no option to leave the situation. has no access to education or health care. Source: BBC

Child Slavery Basic Facts There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa during the entire 400 years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The price for a slave in 1850 in Mississippi was $40,000 (based on constant dollars). The average price of a slave today is $90. The majority of child laborers, an estimated 70%, work in agriculture. Around the world, over 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working. At least 60 million of these children are working under dangerous or abusive conditions. Source: Bales, Kevin. 2000. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. University of California Press. Source: Free the Slaves http://www.freetheslaves.net/Page.aspx?pid=301 Source: International Initiative to End Child Labor: http://endchildlabor.org/?page_id=20. Source: ILO Accelerating Action Against Child Labour (2010): http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_126752.pdf

Child Slavery Why Does It Exist? Poverty: Children who live in extreme poverty are most susceptible to enslavement. Tradition: Some parents view their children as property over which they have the right to control. Control: Children are attractive slaves because they are easier than adults to manipulate and control. Cheap and Replaceable: The average slave today costs less than $100. Overpopulation in some regions mean there is an abundant supply of children who are available as slaves. Physical Size: Because they are smaller than adults, child slaves are more desirable for certain tasks such as weaving rugs and picking cocoa.

Sex Slavery Women and children forced into prostitution are often lured by false offers of a good job and then beaten and forced to work in brothels. In other cases, victims pay tens of thousands of dollars to get to another country and are then forced into prostitution in pay off their own debts. In still others, women or children are kidnapped from their home countries. An estimated two million women and children are sold into sex slavery around the world every year.

Types of Slavery Sex Slavery Young girls are forced into prostitution: Sold by family members or kidnapped Forced to work in brothels Many are kept “until they contract AIDS then sent back to villages to die alone and in disgrace.” Examples: Asia, former Soviet Republics, European Union, U.S. Central and South America -Free The Slaves (http:ww.freetheslaves.net)

Sex Slavery The majority of people in the sex slavery industry are abducted. Mostly women and children are kidnapped and forced into the harsh conditions of prostitution.

Are We Involved in Slavery? Slave labor produces goods we use every day. Examples include: Sugar from the Dominican Republic Chocolate from the Ivory Coast Paper clips from China Carpets from Nepal Cigarettes from India

Current Hot Spots… ALBANIA: Teenage girls are tricked into sex slavery and trafficked by organized crime rings BRAZIL: Lured into the rainforest, families burn trees into charcoal at gunpoint BURMA: The ruling military junta enslaves its own people to build infrastructure projects, some benefiting U.S. corporations

Current Hot Spots… DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Haitians are rounded up at random, taken across the border, and forced to cut cane in sugar plantations GHANA: Families repent for sins by giving daughters as slaves to fetish priests INDIA: Children trapped in debt bondage roll beedi cigarettes 14 hours a day

Current Hot Spots… IVORY COAST: Child slaves forced to work on cocoa plantations MAURITANIA: Arab-Berber masters hold as many as one million black Africans as inheritable property PAKISTAN: Children with nimble fingers are forced to weave carpets in looms SUDAN: Arab militias from the North take Southern Sudanese women and children in slave raids

Current Hot Spots… THAILAND: Women and children become sex slaves for tourists UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Bangladeshi boys are transported and exploited as jockeys for camel racing UNITED STATES: The CIA estimates that 50,000 people are trafficked as sex slaves, domestics, garment and agricultural slaves