- 10 million children
- 25 million people in forced labor
- 15 million people in forced marriage
- 5 million people in forced sexual exploitation
Someone is in slavery if they are:
- forced to work—through coercion, or mental or physical threat;
- owned or controlled by an "employer," through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse;
- dehumanized, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as "property";
- physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement
Many forms of contemporary slavery exist:
- Forced labor
- Debt bondage – the world's most widespread form of slavery, often entire families are forced to work for nothing to pay off generational debts
- Human trafficking
- Descent-based slavery
- Child slavery – different from child labor (much worse), includes child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage, and child domestic slavery
- Forced and early marriage
More numbers:
- 30 million people are in slavery in the Asia-Pacific region, mostly in bonded labor
- 9 million people are in slavery in Africa
- 2 million people are in slavery in The Americas
- 1.5 million people are in slavery in developed economies
- 16 million slavery victims are exploited in economic activities
- 4 million people in slavery are exploited by governments
- US $150 billion – illegal profits forced labor in the private economy generates per year
No country is immune to modern slavery. We must not think that modern slavery only exists in developing countries—it is also happening near us. The numbers are staggering and disturbing.
2 comments:
This is a really important point, Jun. I think a lot of people, and perhaps Americans in particular, often hear of slavery and think of what happened specifically in this country. While it is important to recognize what has happened, is is import as well to recognize what is happening. These numbers are horrifying, and I think it is really important that people are aware of this.
I agree, y’all. Jun’s point here is really important. These statistics just make our daily complaints seem so immature. They make me wonder where to even start, and what we could possibly do. I was reading a little about slavery in Libya (https://www.cnn.com/specials/africa/libya-slave-auctions); one CNN article alleges that people are literally auctioned off. These people are often migrants and refugees captured by smuggling rings. However, Libya officials are also asking questioning GLOBAL SUPPORT is so lacking.
Your comments also make me think back to one of your posts last week, Jun. It was about post traumatic slave syndrome. Although of course slavery has been declared illegal in the United States for over 150 years, the effects and ingrained racism still haven’t faded out. I agree with Elizabeth that we should recognize our past, but also that we should remind ourselves of the present and realize that we still have many barriers to surmount.
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