 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
$32 billion
annual profit from global human trafficking
27 million
slaves worldwide
125,000
Sri Lankan women migrate to the Middle East as domestic workers annually
17,500 - 20,000
persons trafficked to the U.S. annually
80%
of trafficking victims are women and children
2nd
most profitable international crime
Slavery: forced work, without pay, under the threat of violence
Human Trafficking: transporting a person from one place to another for the purpose of exploitation
|
|
|
Slavery is perhaps one of the most prolific human rights abuses today. An estimated 12 to 30 million people are currently enslaved (the most common estimate is 27 million), more than at any other time in recorded history. This means that millions of men, women, and children around the world are forced to work, without pay, under the threat of violence, often in fear for their lives or the lives of loved ones. Slaves are often mistreated and abused, enduring beatings, starvation, verbal attacks and threats, exposure to illness and disease, and sexual assault. The term "human trafficking" is often used synonymously with modern day slavery, and refers to the transporting of a person from one place to another for the purpose of exploitation. Today, human trafficking and modern day slavery is the 2nd most lucrative international crime, behind the trafficking of drugs. It exists on every continent, in every country.
Contemporary slavery is manifest in a variety of forms, most commonly:
Chattel slavery: a person is bought, sold, traded, inherited, or given as a gift, considered "property" (Sudan, Mauritania)
Debt Bondage: someone is forced to work, held as collateral against a debt they or a relative owe (India, Nigeria, Florida)
Sex Slavery: mostly women and girls forced to have sex with "clients," often without protection (Thailand, former Soviet republics, United Kingdom)
Forced Labor: including forced domestic work, construction work, work in restaurants, night clubs, and many other types (Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Brazil)
|
"Migrant workers from Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia have died in unclear circumstances in several Middle Eastern countries, and others have been subjected to severe punishments."
-- International Labour Office (ILO), Fact Sheets on Forced Labour in Asia
"Domestic workers are facing new forms of coercion. Sometimes, an initially freely-chosen job later becomes an exploitative trap, while in other cases, women and girls are trafficked into forced domestic service overseas. Forced labour situations can develop when workers are confined to the employer's home, subjected to physical, verbal or sexual abuse, and their freedom to leave the job is denied - particularly when passports and other identity documents are confiscated."
-- ILO, Fact Sheets on Forced Labour in Asia
"Labor migration is extremely lucrative for Sri Lanka. In 2006, Sri Lanka’s mobile labor force brought in US$2.33 billion in remittances -more than 9 percent of the gross domestic product….In the 1990s, 84 percent of all migrants from Sri Lanka to the Middle East were women, most of whom were domestic workers."
-- Human Rights Watch (HRW), "Exported and Exposed"
During an evacuation of over 5,000 Sri Lankan migrant workers from Lebanon, the International Office for Migration (IOM) reported that "at least half of those being helped are escaping without their papers or salaries from employers who don’t want to let them go. Many more are still trying to get away."
-- IOM, "Lebanon: More Funds Needed to Evacuate Stranded Migrants"
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|