Wednesday, 18 June 2008

• Global Slavery Today

  2008 is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in America. This is a wonderful thing to celebrate, but what many people fail to realise, myself included until very recently, is that slavery persists today in the modern world at an alarming rate.

  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948 states that “slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” But the numbers prove that these admirable words are only rhetoric.

  Here are some very sobering points:

  1. There are more people in slavery now than at any other time in human history.

  In its 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade is estimated to have shipped up to 12 million Africans to various colonies in the West. 12 million people in 400 years.

  Compare that to today. Conservative estimates have 28 million people in slavery throughout the world this very day.
  

  2. The value of slaves has decreased.

  A slave in 1850 in the American South cost the equivalent of approximately $40,000 today. The cost of a slave today averages around $90, depending on the work they are forced to carry out.

  A young adult male for menial labour might only fetch $40, whereas an HIV-free female might attract a price of up to $1000.

  Because slaves today are so cheap, people have become disposable and their living conditions are worse than ever before as a result of their value.

  3. Slavery still exists in the Western World

  In America, estimates by the US State Department suggest up to 17,500 slaves are brought into the US every year. The total number most likely exceeds 1,000,000 people in the US today.
  

  4. To buy all slaves out of slavery could cost as little as $40 per family.

  The $40 figure was provided by the Center for Global Education, New York. To put this into perspective, all slaves in the world today could be bought and freed with one week's cost of the war in Iraq.

  
  

  Here is an eye-opening recent article

  
  

  
  

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