While every country in the world has abolished the legal ownership of people, amazingly almost half have yet to make enslavement a legally defined crime. At the same time, despite being illegal, slavery continues to be a problem in many modern states. While we may believe that every person on earth has the right to a free life, unfortunately this is not the reality for everyone. Right now, millions of children and adults are being held hostage in a life that is not of their own making.
There are many reasons why modern slavery is still happening to this day, be it exploitation, entrapment, coercion or government corruption. External circumstances can push people to make radical choices in the search for a better life and possibilities and they then find themselves trapped in situations that exploit them.
What is slavery?
To gain a better understanding of the issue at hand we should begin by defining the term slavery itself.
The fundamental definition of slavery could be described as the “controlling of another person as one would possess a thing. Having established such control, the powers attaching to the right of ownership will include the buying, selling, use, management, profit, transfer, or even the destruction of a person held in slavery.”
What is modern slavery?
Slavery has evolved to form the ranks of modern slavery but there is a distinction to be made between the two. Whereas slavery is the indefinite ownership of someone, modern slavery covers a set of specific legal concepts such as forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, sexual slavery, and human trafficking. These are the umbrella terms that modern slavery encompasses.
Modern slavery exploits people for personal or commercial gains that are realized by trapping a person into labor or forcing them to perform certain kinds of services such as sexual exploitation against their will.
Did you know that at this very moment over 40 million people have become trapped in different forms of modern slavery?
What is even worse is seeing how statistically women and children are at a higher risk of being exploited into modern slavery. UN figures show that “almost 80 million children aged 5 to 17 are subjected to hazardous work which is classified as a contemporary form of slavery.”
Types of modern slavery
🔹 Sex Trafficking
Sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals perform commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud or coercion. Sex trafficking is among the most widely used forms of human trafficking.
🔹 Child Sex Trafficking
According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the sex trafficking of minors is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing or solicitation of a person under the age of 18 for the purposes of commercial sex acts. In the case of child sex victims, minors are sold for sex services in exchange for something of value.
🔹Forced Labor
According to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) adopted by the International Labor Organization, forced or compulsory labor is “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily.”
Compelling someone to work under threats of physical threats or violence, psychological coercion, abuse, or deception against their free will is considered forced labor.
🔹 Forced Child Labor
According to the ILO, the worst forms of child labor involve children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age.
Forced child labor is often defined as work that robs children of experiencing their childhood. This is conducive to harmful effects on the child’s physical and mental development. Not only are children subjected to work that is dangerous to their health but it also interferes with their access to education.
🔹 Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage
Bonded labor is designed to exploit workers. It occurs when a person is under a lease to provide services until their debt to their ‘employer’ has been paid in full. The only issue is that in most cases these debts continue to add up and additional expenses take the place of old ones. Once the worker is no longer able to work, the debt is inherited by other family members who are then forced into bonded labor themselves.
🔹 Domestic Servitude
Domestic servitude is a form of forced labor that can be seen as normal practice where a person acts as a live-in help but ultimately is exploited and controlled. The crime is when a domestic worker is not free to leave his employer, is underpaid if paid at all, and is subjected to abuse. Many domestic workers have their basic rights violated.
🔹 Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers
Children become part of an armed force or group for various reasons. Some are abducted, threatened, coerced or manipulated by armed actors. The unlawful use of children in military conflicts is a grave violation of child rights and international humanitarian law.
Which countries have modern slavery in 2022?
Modern slavery in China
- The Global Slavery Index, developed by an international human rights group, Walk Free, estimated that in 2016 there were over 3.8 million people living in conditions of modern slavery in China. This estimate does not include figures on organ trafficking.
- The 2019 DFAT report noted that ‘Modern slavery remains unregulated in China and people can be trafficked into bonded labor overseas.… Media estimates around 20,000 to 70,000 children are kidnapped and sold on the black market every year, and around 200,000 disappear annually.’
- According to the 2019 Global Slavery Index, an estimated 3,864,000 people in China are living in modern slavery.
Modern slavery in Brazil
- The Global Slavery Index estimated that in 2016 there were 369,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery on any given day in Brazil.
- Forced labor within Brazil is concentrated in rural areas where extractive or labor-intensive industries such as forestry, cattle ranching, coffee, and charcoal production create a demand for cheap labor.
- In the Brazilian Amazon, slavery is intricately linked with economic activities that are also causing environmental devastation.
- Low-income, illiterate men living in rural areas are at risk of forced labor and debt bondage in Brazil while low-income, poorly educated women and children are most often targeted for sexual exploitation or to work in the textiles industry.
- Child sex tourism remains a problem, particularly in resorts and coastal areas; many child sex tourists are from Europe and the United States.
Modern slavery in India
- The 2016 Global Slavery Index reported there were 18.3 million people in modern slavery in India.
- The latest available data from the National Crime Records Bureau indicates that there were 8,132 reported cases of human trafficking across India in 2016.
- According to a study on bonded labor practices in sandstone quarries in Rajasthan, workers become caught in lifelong debt bondage as they owe large sums of money to their employers or contractors and have to work for little or no pay until this is repaid.
- Indian women and girls from impoverished backgrounds are reportedly also lured by promises of marriage by younger men from urban areas but then forced into sex work once married.
Modern slavery in Saudi Arabia
- The Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery Index reveals that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia achieved the lowest ratings in response to modern slavery.
- Saudi Arabia has yet to implement laws to minimize the risk of modern slavery in public supply chains or to encourage businesses to practice due diligence.
- Bahrain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not criminalized slavery.
- Saudi Arabia and the UAE have a National Action Plan to combat some forms of slavery but neither of these countries has an independent body monitoring the plan’s implementation.
Conclusion
Modern slavery is a problem that affects the world at large to this very day. Its pervasive nature means that modern slavery is an issue that governments worldwide should aim to eradicate. One way of doing so is through the implementation of policies and regulations that aim to prevent and protect people from such forms of forced labor and abuse. Ensuring fundamental rights for all, addressing gender-related vulnerabilities, and implementing policies that offer protection to individuals may prevent cases of modern slavery in the future and represent one step closer to a free and safe world.