A new report published by the Australian-based Walk Free Foundation revealed that nearly 30 million people worldwide are forced into practices of modern slavery.
According to the Foundation, “’slavery’ refers to the condition of treating another person as if they were property – something to be bought, sold, traded, or even destroyed,” and includes sexual exploitation of women and children, forced marriage, child soldiers, organ removal, forced labor, forced begging, or forced servitude. These forms of modern slavery are driven by extreme poverty, gender inequality, ethnic divisions, systems of economic exploitation, and high levels of government corruption.
Almost half of the entire enslaved population lives in India with a staggering estimation of 14 million people. China follows with almost 3 million and Pakistan with 2.1 million people. West African country Mauritania has the highest proportion of slaves with 4% of its 3.4 million people enslaved, followed by Haiti where most of the country’s slaves are children.
A total of 160 countries were ranked and based on an estimated prevalence of slavery by population (accounts for 95% of total), measure of the level of human trafficking in and out of the country (2.5%), and level of child and early marriage within the country (2.5%).
The report explains “today some people are still being born into hereditary slavery, a staggering but harsh reality, particularly in parts of West Africa and South Asia. Other victims are captured or kidnapped before being sold or kept for exploitation, whether through ‘marriage’, unpaid labor on fishing boats, or as domestic workers. Others are tricked and lured into situations they cannot escape, with false promises of a good job or an education.”
The Walk Free Foundation provides the world’s first Global Slavery Index and hopes to solve these issues by building public awareness, using empirical evidence in the context of each country’s efforts in eradicating slavery, begin a global fund to implement anti-slavery interventions in countries most needed, and by working with business leaders to ensure best practices without enslavement.
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Written by Rachel Pozivenec