Though called other names, the conditions of exploitation are similar. People are controlled against their will under threat of violence, sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and cannot walk away. They are forced into a life which is exploitative, humiliating and abusive and represents an appalling assault on the dignity of human beings. Women and children make up the vast majority of victims. Yet today like in the past many are committed to fight slavery, so that all human beings may live in freedom and dignity.
Slavery is the reduction of human beings to being mere commodities that are sold and bought for profit as are any other “goods”. Modern slavery is symptomatic of the capitalistic system where profits are more important than human beings and where some people are ready to profit from the exploitation and suffering of other humans.
Forced labour, debt bondage, human trafficking, forced labour, domestic servitude and labour camps are today’s hidden institutions of slavery and the euphemisms used to hide the reality of “slavery”. This contributes to the general ignorance of slavery in our society. All are aspects of forced labour, where actual coercion (often with violence) is exercised by a third party to force the slave to undertake a work or service against his/her will. Forced labour and human trafficking are closely linked. However, while most victims of trafficking end up in forced labour, not all victims of forced labour are in this situation as a result of trafficking.
Currently, the price of human beings
has reached a historical low! While at the beginnings of the 18th century
a slave cost about $40,000 in today’s money, the current rate for a human slave
is $90. The boom in the world’s population and the huge number of those living
in poverty and vulnerable circumstances has increased the supply of people for
the slave trade, thus reducing the price. On the demand side the search for cheap labour and services, and the profits from
forced labour contribute to the persistence of slavery. Due to the illegal nature of the trade, there is no certitude about
the figures of those enslaved and the extent and
magnitude of the slave “industry”, which is second only to the drug trade. The
benefits from the slave market are valued at $32 billion. Of these about $10 billion derived from the
initial “sale” of individuals, and $22 billion represent the estimated profits
from the activities or goods produced by the slaves.
All over the world millions of children and adults slaves
are forced to carry out activities such as;
soldiers, prostitution, domestic servants, camel jockeys, farm workers, rug weavers, stone
breakers, loggers, fishermen, child actors in porn videos, forced marriages,
mining, road constructions, quarries, textile mills, sweatshops, the list is endless. Anywhere where slaves
can be hidden, the law is not applied and slave owners reap big profits. The victims are the most vulnerable in society –
children, women and girls trapped in debt bondage, families in extreme poverty,
and migrants.
Some of the root causes of slavery can be found in the
economic policies that have pushed family farmers to shift from food production
to growing cash-crops for export. This favours the importing of food. The
current trend of leasing or selling land and water to foreigners deprives
millions of rural people of their livelihood, pushing them into poverty and
often forcing them to migrate. Their vulnerability makes them an easy prey for
slave traders. Poverty, vulnerability, corruption, crime and the absence of
rule of law facilitates the slave trade and about 800.000 people are trafficked
every year across international borders. Many of them end up in the USA and in
Europe.
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| Pope Leon XIII |
Begoña Iñarga, MSOLA
