The first Global Slavery Index, created with the aim of raising
awareness about the persistence of slavery and helping governments
tackle it, estimates that 30 million people are today living as slaves.
Many of these modern-day slaves have been trafficked into sex work and
unskilled labour.
According to the report, 10 countries account for 76 percent of that
figure - India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
In
terms of countries with the highest proportion of slaves, Mauritania,
where four percent of the 3.4 million-strong population is said to be
held in slavery, tops the list, followed by Haiti, Pakistan, India and
Nepal.
| Think of this in terms of an epidemic. If we don't have the right
kind of epidemiological information - where the problem is, the extent
of the problem, the types of slavery that we face, as well as the
appropriate … intervention ... - how are we are going to be able to
solve this? And if we can't measure over time whether or not we are
making progress, then it's going to be a very tough problem to solve. So
the index is going to work like a yardstick and make sure that we are
able to know year on year if we are making progress and to learn what
are the best ways to fight slavery. |
India is home to almost 14 million slaves, many of whom, the report
says, are enslaved by other Indians through debt bondage and bonded
labour.
But what does slavery mean today?
A slave is defined as someone who is forced to work through mental or
physical threat, owned or controlled by an employer, dehumanised,
treated as a commodity or bought or sold as property, or anyone who is
physically constrained or has their freedom of movement restricted.
Slavery can take on different forms, including debt bondage, where
people become bonded labourers to pay off a loan for which the amount
owed, in most instances, never depreciates. Others are born into slavery
with the status passed from mother to child in what is known as
descent-based slavery, while many are trafficked into slavery.
It is something that effects men, women and children. Many child
slaves are used as domestic workers, forced into labour, trafficked for
sexual exploitation or used as child soldiers. Then there are the women
and children forced into marriage. This category is often also coerced
into sexual and domestic work.
Slavery exists in one form or another in almost every country.
Gulf countries - particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE - have
been accused of exploiting migrant workers, stripping them of their
rights and forcing them into hard labour.
In parts of Africa, young boys are often sold as child soldiers and the girls as prostitutes.
In
Eastern Europe, crime gangs have tricked - or sometimes simply abducted
- young women and smuggled them into places like Britain and Italy,
where they are forced to work in brothels.
So, just how hard is it to stamp out such a lucrative business?
To discuss this, Inside Story, with presenter Jane Dutton is
joined by guests: Kevin Bales, the lead author of the Global Slavery
Index; Monique Villa, the CEO of Thomson Reuters Foundation; and
Benjamin Skinner, an investigative journalist who has infiltrated
trafficking circles.
"I believe that slavery should belong to history books, and most of
the people around the world think it still belongs to history books. But
in reality that is not at all the case. Slavery is growing by the year
.... Now that we will have more and more data we will have more means to
fight slavery.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
