The Modern Slavery

        The slavery has been happening for thousands of years. In ancient Rome there were more slaves than people who were not enslaved. Most people think that slavery was abolished in 19^th century and that we don’t have any slavery anymore. Other people think that it is only in other countries, but not in US. There is slavery in every country and more than 27 million people of any nationality are enslaved nowadays and it is more people than in previous century. The scariest thing is that the government and police are involved in it.

     Major Forms of Human Trafficking include:

Forced Labor - when employers exploit workers.

Sex Trafficking- when an adult is deceived, forced or coerced into prostitution.

Bonded Labor- also referred to as “debt bondage,” workers around the world become victims of debt bondage when traffickers or recruiters unlawfully exploit an initial debt the worker assumed as part of the terms of employment.

Involuntary Domestic Servitude – it is a unique form of forced labor of domestic workers, whose workplace is informal and not often shared with other workers. Service providers and investigators find many cases of untreated illnesses and widespread sexual abuse in domestic servitude.

Forced Child Labor - forced labor of a child include situations where the child is in the custody of a non-family member who forces the child to perform work that financially benefits someone outside the child’s family and does not allow the child to leave.

Child Soldiers - it involves an unlawful use or recruitment of children – through fraud, coercion or force – as combatants or for labor or sexual exploitation by armed forces. Perpetrators may be rebel groups, paramilitary organizations or government forces.

Child Sex Trafficking – around two million children are used for prostitution in the global commercial sex trade nowadays.

        Facts:

-statistically 32 billion dollars a year is generated from human trafficking and it is a second most profitable business after the drug business. 

-2 children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation. 

-an estimated 2 million children are trafficked annually. 

-over 100,000 U.S. children are forcefully engaged in prostitution or pornography each year. 

-around 80 percent of human trafficking victims are women and girls.

-around 50 percent of human trafficking victims are minors.

-the average lifespan of a child forced into prostitution is 7 years.  

-$90 is the average cost of a human slave around the world.

        There is the fact that Kenya is trafficking people till this day. Countries which formally banned slavery most recently include Saudi Arabia, The Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Countries where children can still easily be bought and sold, although slavery is illegal are Vietnam, India, Kenya, the Sudan, and countless other countries. 

        You can find an actual interview with a former sex slave that was rescued from sexual bondage in an Eastern European brothel in the following website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3071966/ “. . . Natasha estimates she was forced to sleep with more than 1,000 men during her nine months in Velesta. Besides the Albanians and Macedonians, there were men from “France, Germany, and the United States,” Natasha said, referring to soldiers from the NATO peacekeeping mission in Macedonia and nearby Kosovo . . .”

        The results of slavery include long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including AIDS/HIV), drug addiction, malnutrition, social ostracism, unwanted pregnancy and possible death.

    
         Politically independent organizations are based in the U.S. that are doing significant work to rescue slaves, educate vulnerable communities and prevent victimization, also help victims of slavery to live freely and recover.

         One of the registered public charities that works toward the abolition of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children in the United States and Southeast Asia is Love146. This organization came up with their name after a child the organization workers found in in 2002 in a Southeast Asian brothel. Her name had been replaced with a number, like all the children in the brothel, but president and co-founder Rob Morris said, “There was still a fight left in her eyes.”
        Love146 uses a unique model of after-care. The “safe home” was built where children can recover after they have endured periods of exploitation and sexual slavery. The children are treated with cooked meals, loving home and intense psychological therapy.

       
        It is possible to end slavery in 25 years and everyone has a role to play – international organizations, business, government, consumers and YOU.