Forced to pick cotton, grow cannabis, prostitute
themselves, fight wars or clean up after the wealthy -- some 35.8
million people are currently trapped in modern-day slavery, a new report
said Monday.
The 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI), in its second
annual report, said new methods showed some 20 percent more people were
enslaved across the world than originally thought.
"There is an assumption that slavery is an issue from a
bygone era. Or that it only exists in countries ravaged by war and
poverty," said Andrew Forrest, chairman of the Australian-based Walk
Free Foundation which produced the report.
The foundation's definition of modern slavery includes
slavery-like practices such as debt bondage, forced marriage and the
sale or exploitation of children, as well as human trafficking and
forced labour.
The report, which covers 167 countries, said modern
slavery contributed to the production of at least 122 goods from 58
countries.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates
profits from this forced labour are $150 billion (120 billion euros) a
year.
"From the Thai fisherman trawling fishmeal, to the
Congolese boy mining diamonds, from the Uzbek child picking cotton, to
the Indian girl stitching footballs... their forced labour is what we
consume," read the report.
The biggest offender, with the highest proportion of
its population enslaved, remains the west African nation Mauritania,
where slavery of black Moors by Berber Arabs is an entrenched part of
society.
Mauritania has anti-slavery legislation but it is
rarely enforced and a special tribunal set up in March has yet to
prosecute any cases, the report said.
In second place was Uzbekistan where, every autumn, the
government forces over one million people, including children, to
harvest cotton.
Countries like Qatar in the Middle East were a major
destination for men and women from Africa and Asia who are lured with
promises of well-paid jobs only to find themselves exploited as domestic
workers or in the construction industry.
The countries doing the most to combat the problem were
the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, Australia, Switzerland,
Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Georgia, and Austria.
Europe, while at the bottom of the list -- with Iceland
and Ireland the best ranked -- has 566,000 people involved in forms
of modern slavery, with people trafficked into Ireland to grow
cannabis, or forced into begging in France.
"Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation
accounted for almost 70 percent of identified victims while trafficking
for forced labour accounted for 19 percent," read the report.
"The global economic crisis and austerity measures of
the EU have meant that increasing numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians
migrate in search of highly paid jobs. Some of these workers can be
tricked or coerced into situations of exploitation."
The highest numbers of modern slaves were found in India with an estimated 14.29 million enslaved.
However the Index said India had recently taken
important steps to combat the problem, strengthening its criminal
justice framework through legislative amendments and increasing the
number of its Anti-Human Trafficking Police Units.
Africa faces some of the biggest challenges, the report
said, with armed forces and rebel groups from Somalia to the Central
African Republic using child soldiers to mineral-rich Zambia, Angola,
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo forcing children and adults
to "labour in dangerous mines."
Nigeria is a major source of human trafficking to
Europe. In one example, Nigerian women get trapped in a cycle of debt
bondage in the Italian sex industry.
"These findings show that modern slavery exists in
every country. We are all responsible for the most appalling situations
where modern slavery exists and the desperate misery it brings upon
our fellow human beings," said Forrest.
-SAPA
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