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Slavery was eradicated centuries ago with the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic trade, right?
WRONG.
There are more than 27 Million slaves in the world today, more than there were at the height of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
What types of slavery exist today?
- Bonded Labor: also known as “debt bondage.” Workers fall victim to debt bondage when traffickers or recruiters unlawfully exploit an initial debt the worker assumed as part of the terms of employment. Workers may also inherit debt from family members.
- Forced Labor: results when employers exploit workers made more vulnerable by high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict, or cultural acceptance of the practice. Immigrants are particularly vulnerable. Victims are often sexually exploited as well.
- Sex Trafficking: occurs when an adult is coerced, forced, or deceived into prostitution. Sex trafficking can also occur within debt bondage, as women and girls are forced to continue in prostitution through the use of unlawful “debt” purportedly incurred through their transportation, recruitment, or even their crude “sale,” which exploiters insist they must pay off before they can be free.
- Child Soldiering: involves the unlawful recruitment or use of children-through force, fraud, or coercion-as combatants or for labor or sexual exploitation by armed forces. Perpetrators may be governmental forces, paramilitary organizations, or rebel groups. Many children are abducted to be used as combatants, while others are forced to work as cooks, guards, servants, or spies. Child soldiers are often sexually abused and are at high risk of contracting STDs.
- Child Sex Trafficking: Roughly two million children are commercially sexually exploited worldwide. The use of children in the commercial sex trade is prohibited under US law and by legislation in countries around the world. Child sex trafficking has devastating consequences for minors, including long-lasting physical and emotional trauma, disease, drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and possible death.
- Involuntary Domestic Servitude: A form of forced labor where domestic workers are exploited by their employers. Their workplace is informal, connected to their off-duty living quarters, and not often shared with other workers, an environment that is conducive to nonconsensual exploitation. Cases of untreated illnesses and sexual abuse are often symptoms of involuntary servitude.
- Forced Child Labor: involves the sale and trafficking of children and their entrapment in situations in which they are forced to work. Often, the child appears to be in the custody of a non-family member who has the child perform work that financially benefits someone outside the child’s family and does not offer the child the option of leaving.
Information from US Department of State
The Columbia University I Am an Abolitionist Campaign seeks to raise awareness and funds to combat the 27 million dirtiest secrets in our world. Join us this April.
