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Human Slavery Thriving in the Shadows
UNITED NATIONS - "Dora", a young Mexican woman, was helped by another Mexican woman to cross the U.S. border in the promise of a good job there. She ended up in Texas, working in a sweatshop and not allowed to go out or even take a shower.
"Sandra" was sold as a child for 400 dollars to a pedophile, who repeatedly raped her for four years.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates 2 million as the yearly net addition to the total number of slaves worldwide. Subtracting the number of people rescued or who die annually, the total number is thought to be over 10 million. Both were victims of a global trafficking network that has ensnared an estimated 10 million people, although hard data about the underworld of human slavery remains elusive - partly because of the reluctance of some countries to cooperate with investigations.
"We have a big picture, but it is impressionistic and lacks depth," admitted Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which just released its annual Global Report on Trafficking in Persons on Thursday.
"Although we can talk with specific numbers about drug trafficking, for example, we do not have an estimate for this area of crime [human trafficking]," Costa said.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates 2 million as the yearly net addition to the total number of slaves worldwide. Subtracting the number of people rescued or who die annually, the total number is thought to be over 10 million.
However, the actual number of known trafficking victims is only 22,500.
"We are not able to segment today's slave markets into their components. We must - but cannot - catalogue different types of slavery. Exploitation through child-begging in Europe is different from what goes on in a brothel, or in a street corner in Australia," Costa noted.
"Preventive measures must also be adapted to take into account that an Asian father sells his underage daughter under circumstances different than what pushes an illegal immigrant at a sweatshop in the Americas," he explained. "If we do not overcome this knowledge crisis, we will be fighting the problem blindfolded."
The report is based on data gathered from 155 countries. Of these, 125 have signed the U.N. Protocol against Trafficking in Persons. However, not all of those who ratified it are enforcing the provisions of the treaty - 40 percent of the countries in the sample did not convict anyone for trafficking in the past year.
Overall, the number of convictions for human trafficking is growing, says the report, notably in a handful of countries, but it is still much lower than the estimated number of victims.
Many large countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran remain uncooperative and provided no data.
The most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation (79 percent) followed by forced labour (18 percent). Forced labour is detected and reported less because it is frequently goes unnoticed, especially in big cities.
Nearly four in five victims are women and girls. Including boys, 20 percent of all trafficking victims in the world are children, but in some parts of Africa and Asia's Mekong region, children are the majority.
The report also reveals that intra-regional and domestic trafficking are the major forms of trafficking in persons. "Criminals prey on their own kin, something even animals don't do," Costa said.
The report shatters some illusions about victims and victimisers. Although generally speaking, most crimes are committed by young men, when it comes to trafficking, women perpetrators play an important role. In 30 percent of the countries that provided evidence on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion.
In regions like Eastern Europe and Central Asia, women trafficking women is the norm, according to Costa. Psychological, financial and coercive reasons often induce former victims to become traffickers.
Mira Sorvino, an actress and UNODC Goodwill Ambassador, shared stories of trafficking victims that she had met.
Dora's trafficker threatened that if she ran away, her family would be killed. "Here in Texas you are lower than a dog," she would tell Dora. "People here actually care if a dog is abused. No one cares about you."
Dora managed to escape, but even years later, she is plagued by nightmares and afraid for herself and her family. The woman who enslaved her was punished with one year of house arrest.
Sandra, sold as a child, was forced to sleep on a black magic "altar" that her "owner" had in his house. He claimed to be a sorcerer and would tell her that he could read all her thoughts. Eventually, he decided to exploit her economically as well, sending her to work at a factory and keeping her earnings.
Sorvino described Sandra today as "a burned out soul". "So much suffering in a person could only be encountered maybe in a Holocaust survivor," she said.
The report was unable to confirm that the number of victims is rising. However, based on intuition and experience, Costa said that the global economic crisis is likely affecting demand and supply, and making a greater number of people more vulnerable to predators.
Kevin Bales, president of the abolitionist group Free the Slaves, struck a more optimistic note. "Slavery as an institution is pushed to the end of its extinction," he said.
Never before has slavery represented such a small fraction of the global economy, he said. Bales believes that with sufficient commitment and resources, slavery is a phenomenon that can be eradicated.
To liberate and rehabilitate a slave in a poor country, the cost is around 400 to 600 dollars. Multiplied by the estimated number of slaves, the total needed would amount to 10.5 billion dollars.
"That is small change compared to the money spent on the bank bailout," he said.
Sorvino added that the term "trafficking" is really a euphemism. "It still should be called slavery so that people can't tune out the suffering that goes along with it," she said.
Two hundred years ago, a group of abolitionists in Britain sat down together and took action to end slavery. Twenty years later, slavery was abolished in Britain, he said.
"If 12 people can take it on and beat something perfectly legal at the time, are we so timid that we can't put an end to this crime?" Bales asked.
Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, the U.S. president who outlawed slavery in that country, a quote from him was echoed at the U.N. conference: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."
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14 Comments so far
Show All"To liberate and rehabilitate a slave in a poor country, the cost is around 400 to 600 dollars. Multiplied by the estimated number of slaves, the total needed would amount to 10.5 billion dollars......That is small change compared to the money spent on the bank bailout, he (Bales)said."
It is small change, but I suspect these criminals will keep coming back for more just like the banks are doing.
Criminals need to be punished - not rewarded.
FYI, a more nuanced take on the issue of "Human Trafficking" and also an audio debate on the matter.
"Here in Texas you are lower than a dog," she would tell Dora. "People here actually care if a dog is abused. No one cares about you."
**wow-picking on another victim class who cant defend itself to highlight your own victimization. That's obscene. There are dogs all over the US that are taken away from their mothers and put in mills(like run by the Amish) or left on chains their ENTIRE lives. If they are lucky, the "owner" loosens the chain as the dog gets older, if not, the chain gets embedded into the dog's skin.
There are dogs used in experimentation--some people may care, but they cant stop it.
Same with dog fighting.
In Spain old hunting dogs are strung up by trees and made to endure what they call the typewriter death(their feet tap the ground as they strangle). Sometimes they are injected with oven cleaner to make it more painful.
Two small terrier dogs in England were blamed for killing a 3 month old infant left unintended. So to prevent those evil dogs from, i dont know, mauling someone's toe, they had the dogs euthanized(rather, they probably just wanted revenge--at the same time they wouldnt have the death penalty for someone who raped a 3 month old).
A thief in the US robbed a house and before he left, placed one of the resident's two small dogs in an oven and left it on. The man did go to jail-but not for burning the dog to death.
In Canada a woman wanted to teach her dog a lesson so she tied the dog to her car and dragged it along a gravel road. Not only did she escape jail time, but she is allowed to have another dog(but that's Canada for you).
To suggest dogs have it better is a joke. A farce.
For every dog that is pampered their are another 10 that are abused or rotting in a shelter.
When someone in a victimized position sees fit to mock or condemn compassion for anyone else who is also in a victim class, it makes their claims of victimization suspicious.
She could have easily said: "in Texas you are lower than a mentally retarded human. People here actually care if a mentally retarded person is abused. No one cares about you."
Its the same type of comment.There are many people who face terrible abuse and they dont feel they need to condemn how others allegedly get better treatment.
"To be humane is to be cruel, vicious and unrestrained, like humans.
To be inhumane is to be compassionate, restrained, moderate, like non humans."
Webber,
Thank you for being a persistent voice for animal rights and sovereignty...
I would be unaware about atrocities in our midst without your posts...
This is probably the most appropriate topic to raise this issue,...
As too many dogs are just surrugate slaves for a cheap home security system...
And an easy target for playing out dominance master/slave roles and scenarios...
It is the same perverted mindset as a plantation master or pedophile preist...
Yes, there are bestial people in society. But you must admit that when those events that you describe happened, the society did not accept the behavior as normal. The very abnormality is what got the stories reported. And to suggest that torture of a dog or cat is tantamount to the total denial of dignity and respect to a human being denies the very difference that would hold us responsible for such behavior.
On a national scale we have congressmen and senators who favor a legal system that has no minimum wage, has no worker safety protections and no worker benefits. They would deny having such attitudes but their voting history belies them. They ,in effect, would create a society in which the difference between man and canine would be erased.
...
There is no such thing as progress.
Slavery in the US is detested and severely punished, when detected. The suggestion contained in this article, that it is a particularly American problem is a flat-out lie. A Pakistani immigrant family on Long Island, a relative of the ibn Saud in Florida, have been caught in recent years and punished with fines, imprisonment, and deportation. There are many, many look-the-other-way countries in the world. America isn't one of them.
End the War on Drugs...Begin the War on Slavery.
Aren't we all slaves? I'll admit to being one of the hourly wage variety. That's not to diminish what happens to people overseas, but how can Americans denounce what happens in poor countries when we still haven't come to terms with our own history of slavery and have yet to rectify it? We have yet to achieve true gender parity here as well.
Our elites create the poverty and desperation that causes human trafficking to exist throughout the world.
And you sleep on a lice-infested straw pallet, and are regularly whipped? You have to live on the slave diet (Bowl of mush for breakfast, bowl of mush for lunch. No dinner)?
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
This article fails to mention child slavery in western Africa. Children enslaved to pick the cocoa beans. None of the major chocolate manufacturers are completely slave free (Nestle, Hershey, Mars, etc).
Happy Valentines Day.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12754
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_cocoa_production
http://www.foodrevolution.org/slavery_chocolate.htm
http://www.theworldly.org/ReadByRegion/AfricaFrameSet.html
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"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.", Albert Einstein.
Ed note: white phosphorous, dense metal super weapons, nuclear stick-up, missile defense, bailouts and propaganda!!
The article says:
"Dora's trafficker threatened that if she ran away, her family would be killed. "Here in Texas you are lower than a dog," she would tell Dora. "People here actually care if a dog is abused. No one cares about you."
Dora managed to escape, but even years later, she is plagued by nightmares and afraid for herself and her family. The woman who enslaved her was punished with one year of house arrest."
ONLY 1 year and only in the form of "house arrest", the punishment or penalty was?! It illustrates perversion of the justice system! The trafficker should have received prison and plenty of years of it; and her accumulated finances should have been used to help Dora, by providing her with enough income to live for considerable time, as well as for outside help from parties capable of helping such victims with their memories, the impact on them psychologically and emotionally. This would not be unjust penalisation.
Some compensation could also be provided to Dora's family, for the suffering they have been put through with this crime against their daughter and themselves.
UNITED NATIONS - "Dora", a young Mexican woman, was helped by another Mexican woman to cross the U.S. border in the promise of a good job there. She ended up in Texas, working in a sweatshop and not allowed to go out or even take a shower. "Sandra" was sold as a child for 400 dollars to a pedophile, who repeatedly raped her for four years.....
This superficial and dishonest article beings as above, though the 2 events mentioned have absolutely nothing to do with slavery. Certainly these are accounts of different types of abuse, but... slavery? Not exactly.
The first case is exploitation of labor in the normal capitalist labor market while the second case is one of illegal pedophile abuse of a child. Hardly cases of chattel slavery. Why does Common Dreams feel it necessary to publish sensationalistic fluff like this?