"Nobody will be exposed to slavery or bondage: slavery and the slave trade in all its forms are forbidden." Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The next time you add sugar to your coffee, think of Prevot, a Haitian who was promised a good job in another Caribbean country. Instead, they sold it for eight dollars.
Prevot shared the situation of thousands of his fellow slaves forced to cut sugar cane for six or seven months for little or no money. These prisoners are kept in harsh and filthy conditions. After their personal items are removed, they are given machetes. In order to have something to eat, they have to work. If they try to escape, they can be hit.
Look at Lin-Lin, a Southeast Asian girl. He was 13 when his mother died. A recruitment agency bought it from her father for $ 480 and promised him a good job. The price paid for it was known as an "advance on your income," a surefire way to keep it in touch with its new owners forever. Instead of getting a decent job, Lin-Lin was taken to a brothel, where customers pay the owner $ 4 an hour for it. Lin-Lin is practically a prisoner as she cannot walk until her debts are paid off. This includes your fees for the brothel owner as well as interest and expenses. If Lin-Lin refuses to comply with her employer's wishes, she can be beaten or tortured. Worse, if you try to escape, you can die.
Freedom for everyone?
Most people think that slavery no longer exists. In fact, following several conventions, declarations and acts, it has been officially abolished in most countries. Hate slavery is widely known. National laws prohibit slavery and its abolition is enshrined in international instruments, particularly in Article 4 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, cited above.
Even so, slavery is alive and well, although to some it is a well-kept secret. From Phnom Penh to Paris, from Mumbai to Brasilia, millions of our fellow human beings - men, women and children - are forced to live and work as slaves or under conditions of slavery. Anti-Slavery International, based in London, the oldest observer of forced labor in the world, brings hundreds of millions of people into captivity. In fact, there may be more slaves in the world today than ever before!
Of course, familiar images of chains, whips, and auctions are not typical of modern slavery. Forced labor, servile marriage, bonded labor, child labor, and often prostitution are some of the most pronounced forms of slavery of our time. Slaves can be concubines, camel drivers, pipe cutters, carpet weavers or road builders. It is true that the vast majority are not sold at public auctions, but in reality they are no better than their predecessors. In some cases their life is even more tragic.
Who became a slave? How do they become slaves? What are we doing to help you? Is the Complete Abolition of Slavery in Sight?
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WHAT IS MODERN SLAVERY?
Even the United Nations have found it difficult to answer this question after years of effort. One definition of slavery is that given in the 1926 Slavery Convention, which states, “Slavery is the state or condition of a person over which all or some of the powers are exercised. related to property rights. "Still, the term is open to interpretation. According to journalist Barbara Crossette," slavery is a label attributed to low-income workers in the clothing and sports industries abroad and exploitation of factories in American cities condemning the sex industry and prison labor. "
Mike Dottridge, Director of Anti-Slavery International, believes that "as slavery appears to take on new forms, or as the word is applied to more conditions, there is a risk that its meaning will be diluted or even diminished". He believes that "slavery is identified by an element of ownership or control over another person's life". This includes movement restrictions and restrictions: the fact that "someone is not free to go to change employers".
A. M. Rosenthal, writes in the New York Times, notes: "Slaves live slave lives: murderous work, rape, hunger, torture, all humiliation." He added, "Fifty dollars buy a slave, so it doesn't matter [to the owners] how long they survive before their bodies are thrown into the river."
