The developed world is
waking up to the ongoing nastiness of modern slavery which has emerged once
again as a criminal enterprise fueled by the liquidity of the drug trade. The problem is demand not been satisfied by legal alternative
sources.
1
Farm labor is a
nasty problem because the legal operators have a serious economic disadvantage
working in competition with operators using far cheaper slave labor. Thus the slave user can sell product below
his competitor’s cost. Only part of this
problem can be solved by regulation.
Rather it needs to be solved by a licensing arrangement that identifies
farm workers and makes it all subject to inspection and punitive fines. This also allows for some training and actual
evaluation which naturally discourages slavery.
2
Perverse sexual
exploitation. This will not end simply
because some needs are damaging to the victim and causing harm which can never
become legal. Yet it can be minimized
and better yet isolated outside a regulated and again licensed sex industry.
3
Household
domestics is also problematic mostly because it often imports both master and
slave into a situation where the slave is trapped by language and culture.
This general problem has
expanded as we recruit immigrants from backward regions and import the problems
as well. We have so far turned a blind
eye to what has been going on. This must
end. I personally have gone from been
oblivious while mildly suspicious because opportunity was obvious to the
present where the problem is a solid order of magnitude beyond all my
expectations. It is noteworthy that it
is now gaining the necessary press.
Global
Human Trafficking, a Modern form of Slavery
Global Research, April 15,
2014
Url of this article:
Steve McQueen, director of
this year’s Oscar winner for best film “12 Years A Slave,” mentioned in his
acceptance speech last month that 21
million people are
living in slavery today. That quoted figure comes from the 2012 report issued
by the United Nation’s International Labor Organization (ILO) that has been
attempting to gather international data for over a decade now. In the
Asia-Pacific region where most of the world’s forced laborers come from at 56%,
an estimated 11.7 million people, followed by Africa at 18% or 3.7 million
people live in bondage. Considering that at the peak of America’s slavery prior
to the Civil War that ultimately declared it illegal, the total was four
million people,
fathoming that over five times that number are currently suffering in slavery
here in the twenty-first century, casts some serious doubts on whether us
humans are evolving as a species at all.
The following statistics
come from the 2012
ILF report. The
global economic meltdown in recent years has only given rise to conditions ripe
for escalation of modern slavery. A total of 18.7 million people or 90% become
forced laborers in the private sector of individual homes or private enterprise
as opposed to the 10% or 2.2 million people that suffer state-imposed forms of
forced labor. Of those 18.7 million forced to work in private settings, 4.5
million (or 22%) are forced into sexual exploitation while 14.2 million (or
68%) are victims of forced labor such as in agriculture, domestic work,
construction or manufacturing.
The most concentrated area
of forced labor victimization is in central and southeastern Europe at 4.2
humans out of 1000 followed by 4 out of 1000 in Africa. Slavery is lowest in developed nations and
the European Union at 1.5 per 1000 people. The world average is 3 people in
every 1000 are forced into labor.
An appalling 26% of all
modern slaves or 5.5 million are children under 18, the majority underage girls
forced into child prostitution and pornography. Other children are forced into working in sweat shops while young
boys 12 and older are frequently recruited and forced to become child soldiers.
The majority at 56% (11.8 million) of the world‘s forced laborers remain in
their home country. As an example India has been identified as a nation where
many of its own poor citizens are forced into slave labor. However, of the 44%
(9.1 million) that are forced into labor across borders, the vast majority
being women and children are sold into the highly profitable sex trafficking
trade often operated by organized crime rings.
Though slaves around the
world today may not be legally beaten, shackled or sold as property like
African American slaves suffered for over two centuries between 1619-1865, an
estimated 32
billion dollars is
generated annually in an underground industry classified as a type of slavery –
human trafficking. Many sources estimate profits far greater than the United
Nations total of 32 billion. Only guns and drugs are more lucrative criminal
enterprises.
According to the UN, transporting individuals from their
homes to another location against their will into involuntary servitude or
forced labor involves at least 2.5 million human trafficking victims worldwide
at any given time. Seventy nine percent of victims of the human trafficking
trade fall into the slavery category of sexually abused women and underage
children. Female victims are both women and girls snatched up from their only
familiar environment, forcibly taken across borders, and there all alone in a
strange land surrounded by cruel, depraved strangers speaking in foreign
tongues, they are forced into prostitution although some become domestic work
as nannies, maids, cooks or factory workers. Fifteen percent of human
trafficking victims are men most often forced into conditions of hard labor.
Because many nations
neither have the will nor the formal mechanism in place to assess how many
humans are slaves, actual numbers have been difficult to attain. Plus due to
the common perception of slavery being so stigmatized with shame, along with
fear of potential immigration problems or violent retribution from slave trade
perpetrators, many victims understandably resist going to authorities and
reporting this largely invisible crime against humanity. Some are victims of
the Stockholm syndrome where they actually identify with their enslavers.
Of course the illicit
nature of both slavery as well as prostitution as part of the seedy underbelly
of a brutally violent industry covertly run by organized crime, also acts as a
formidable barrier resulting in severe underreporting and relatively few cases
ever being brought to prosecution. All of these factors have contributed to a
growing international problem that has been slow for organizations of both
victim advocacy as well as national and transnational law enforcement agencies
to effectively come together to tackle its immensity.
Yet since last month’s
Oscar winning film delving into this enormously important subject matter, more
recent developments just in this last week alone are beginning to shine a
sliver of light and modest reason for optimism on this long overlooked and
indelible human stain. Last Thursday the pope many believe comes closest to
embodying the spirit of the most famous saint Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis
himself met privately with four ex-slaves to top off a two-day global conference bringing much needed attention to the
blight of modern slavery. The pope is calling for an orchestrated
partnership and two pronged approach between churches around the world offering
spiritual guidance and compassion to victims and international law enforcement
spearheading the coordinated investigative crackdown necessary to arrest what
Francis calls this “scourge” on humanity from spreading beyond its current
worldwide operation.
Police chiefs from the continents of North and South
America, Africa, Asia and Europe were all in attendance, including countries
where the problem of human trafficking has been most severe – Albania, Brazil,
Nigeria and Thailand. It was reported that this rather weighty topic of global
slavery was discussed in the pope’s meeting last month with President Obama.
This first time conference
on slavery in the twenty-first century comes fresh on the heels of the pope’s
apology to
the world for all the damage his religion has inflicted on the thousands of
innocent victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by pedophile Catholic priests and
clergymen through the ages. In the US alone from 1985 to 2000 an
estimated 1,400 sexual abuse lawsuits were filed against priests
resulting in billions of dollars in settlements reached. Papal critics and
abuse advocates view the pope’s personal apology as a genuine first big step in
the right direction toward bearing some responsibility for the sins of his
church. But many still await the pope’s specific concrete plan of action to
substantively tackle and begin making further inroads toward resolving this
endemic pandemic he inherited.
Benjamin Skinner wrote in
his eye-opening landmark book A Crime So Monstrous (Free Press, 2008)
that “there are more slaves today than at any point in human history” – six
years ago citing 27 million people living in bondage – a full six million more
than ILO’s latest 2012 count. The estimated variance of numbers is a
testimonial to the enormity of difficulty compiling and accurately tracking
slavery’s pervasiveness in the modern world. It seems highly unlikely that at
such an early stage of still organizing a global commitment toward its
eradication that slavery is actually decreasing in the ensuing years since
Skinner’s book was published. If anything, the human trafficking industry has
been expanding both its area and scope of operations, particularly in east
Asia.
Less than a month ago at
the Vatican a new initiative released by multiple faiths represented announced
a Memorandum of Agreement and Joint Statement establishing the Global
Freedom Network designed
to abolish modern slavery and human trafficking by 2020. Its statement on
slavery:
“The physical, economic and sexual
exploitation of men, women and children condemns 30 million people to
dehumanization and degradation. Every day we let this tragic situation continue
is a grievous assault on our common humanity and a shameful affront to the
consciences of all peoples.”
In efforts to educate and
inform the public about modern slavery and human trafficking, a series of
ongoing articles have been covered by such newspapers as the Observer and
Guardian, both announced as UK winners of the Anti-Slavery
Day Media Awards last
week. The Guardian launched a series called “modern day slavery in focus” that
depicts the atrocious conditions of Nepalese
workers in
the Middle Eastern nation Qatar in preparation for the 2022 World Cup.
Similar to the Sochi
Olympics, a common pattern has emerged with construction of massive stadium
complexes for major international sporting events that under pressured
deadlines pre-set the stage for inhumane work conditions with high potential
for human trafficking of forced slave laborers. The Guardian tells the tragic
story of a sixteen
year old boy from
Nepal attempting to escape poverty back home arriving in Qatar to work in a
cramped forced labor camp exploited by a trafficking broker that produced a
forged passport claiming the boy was 20. Instead of receiving the promised pay
wage, the 16-year old was forced to sign his life away in indentured servitude
but within two months was dead. Nepal’s foreign employment board estimates that
726 Nepalese migrant workers died overseas in 2012, marking an 11% increase
from the previous year. More foreign workers abroad especially from Asia are
being misled and lured into this world of exploitation, corruption and
deception that increasingly results in slavery and death.
In a related matter, the UK
Parliament is in the throes of drafting Europe’s first modern anti-slavery bill
calling for lifetime sentences for convicted human traffickers. Debate centers
around simplifying the law to increase the rate of conviction. Last week Oscar
winning director Steve
McQueen weighed
in his criticism calling for the bill to be rewritten so as to not turn victims
of slavery themselves into criminals. A revised reworking is underway.
Even a publicity
stunt was
just announced of an April 15th Guinness record breaking event of a whirlwind
7-city tour across Europe in just 24 hours emphasizing awareness of human
trafficking to raise money for the leading US anti-trafficking policy
organization ECPAT-USA. This week also marks the third annual human trafficking
awareness week atChico
State University
in California. Last weekend a bi-national
conference with
delegates from El Paso, Texas and across the border city Juarez held a joint
conference on modern slavery and human trafficking to reduce its occurrence
between Mexico and the US.
It appears that lawmakers
and church faiths alike from the local to international level in conjunction
with local, national and Interpol policing agencies are mobilizing task forces
like never before to generate momentum in addressing the plight of modern
slavery. A number of advocacy organizations in recent years have been fighting
to make this destructive and sinister human rights violation among the worst
kind a global priority and it appears their efforts are finally now just
beginning to pay off. But real progress towards eradicating slavery requires a
lot more than just an ephemeral, “flavor-of-the-week” cause and mindset.
These recent small steps
only highlight humanity’s seminal starting point in the modern era to
collectively exercise the political will to prioritize, fund and coordinate a
concerted effective global effort and campaign over the long haul to ultimately
end slavery on this planet once and for all.
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former Army officer. His
written manuscript based on his military experience examines leadership and national
security issues and can be consulted at http://www.redredsea.net/westpointhagopian/.
After the military, Joachim earned a masters degree in psychology and became a licensed therapist working in the mental health field for more than a quarter century.
Copyright © 2014 Global
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