Contemporary slavery
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Contrary to popular belief, slavery still exists in the world today. With over 27 million slaves fueling a global slave industry worth $32 billion annually, contemporary slavery is one of the largest criminal industries in the world today.[1] By definition, a slave is “anyone forced to work- through mental or physical threat; owned or controlled by an ‘employer’, usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse; dehumanized, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as property; physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement” [2]
Officially speaking, Mauritania was the last nation to abolish slavery, doing so in 2007.[3] However, slavery is prevalent in many forms today, all over the world.
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Types Of Contemporary Slavery [edit]
Bonded Labour [edit]
Millions of people today work as bonded laborers. The cycle begins by being tricked into taking extreme loans for small, everyday necessities. The debts for these necessities are paid back by working intensively for long hours, in extreme conditions, with no breaks or days off. This “loan” is proven to never quite be paid off, and is often passed down for generations and generations.
Early/Forced Marriage [edit]
Mainly driven by the culture in certain regions, early or forced marriage is a form of slavery that affects millions of woman and girls all over the world. When families cannot support their children, the daughters are often married off to the males of wealthier, more powerful families. These men are often significantly older than the girls. The females are forced into lives whose main purpose is to serve their husbands. This often times fosters an environment for physical, verbal and sexual abuse.
Forced Labor [edit]
Everyday, people all over the world are illegally recruited to work through intimidation or threat of violence. When trafficking of these people is involved, they often find themselves without any identification and therefore are unable to leave. Sometimes, their employers are governments or political parties that operate under the threat of legal penalties.
Slavery By Descent [edit]
Stemming from bonded labor, slavery by descent is one of the many ways slavery is still alive today. Loans taken generations ago are passed down, as is the “slave status”. These people become their own social class, one that is ridiculed and discriminated against.
Trafficking [edit]
Often times, people are tricked, taken advantage of or kidnapped and are taken far away from their homes.Mainly women and children are transported from one area to another for the purposes to be traded.
Forms Of Child Labor [edit]
Children comprise a shocking majority of the people employed as slaves today. Most are employed as domestic workers in cocoa, cotton or fishing industries. Many are even trafficked and sexually exploited. In many worn-torn countries, child have been kidnapped and sold to political parties to be used as child soldiers.
Causes And Effects [edit]
Many people are astonished to learn that slavery still exists today, let alone in their own backyard. Some argue that is this is the biggest cause as to why it still exists. For example, 50, 000 people are trafficked every year in the United States alone [4]. Without people being aware of the issues, they cannot help.
Overpopulation and a scarcity of jobs in many developing countries creates a labor market that is unfavorable to the growing number of unskilled workers. This pressure leads to more disadvantaged people doing more work and being offered less pay. As they compete for jobs, they become more willing to do more unfavorable work. Employers may begin to consider workers as interchangeable and disposable. Viewing workers as commodities instead of human beings is a key characteristic in the conversion of low wage earners into slaves. See also Marx's theory of alienation.
Slavery can be quite profitable and corrupt governments will tacitly allow it, despite it being outlawed by international treaties such as Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery and local laws. Some governments will even overtly make use of slavery by recruiting child soldiers.
Unfortunately, slavery is often seen as a by-product of poverty. The lack of education, poor societal structure, weak rule of law, and economic freedoms leads to an environment that fosters the acceptance and propagation of slavery.
Economic Factors [edit]
Speaking economically, slaves today are “short term, low-capital investments with incredibly high rates of return” [5]Some have argued that capitalism and free trade, especially in developing nations, is to blame for the growing slave market. The growing popularity in these self-regulated markets in developing countries has set the stage for the most unfair slavery in all of human history. American slaves in 1809 were sold for around $40, 000. Today, a slave can be bought for $90. [6]
One way that slaveholders are able to do this legally is by a loophole in the economic definition of “ownership”. Debt slavery is often caused by illegitimate and illegal contracts where the economically vulnerable party undertakes a loan and is then forced through coercion and violence to work for excessive hours and marginal wages. Improper accounting, unregulated interest rates and threats to job security are also economic factors that contribute to slavery today.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
External links [edit]
- UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of slavery
- The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery, CNN
- Slavery collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- Slave Labor collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Slave Labor collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
- Report on trafficking in human beings in Europe European Commission
