How can slavery be modern?

Today's slaves may not wear chains, but their status has not moved on. Hull in print explores just a few examples of 21st-century slavery.

"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."
This is a statement drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which all members of the United Nations have agreed to uphold.
Despite this agreement and the work of Wilberforce 200 years ago, millions of men, women and children are still victims of slavery across the globe in the 21st century.
"Today, slavery survives for many reasons," says Professor David Richardson, of the University of Hull's Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), on Hull's High Street.
"Poverty, lack of enforcement of, or respect for, human rights legislation, and people's willingness to exploit the most vulnerable, all combine to ensure that slavery remains with us. There's also a level of social acceptance in some circumstances. But however large the problem, solutions are possible."
The following examples of modern slavery are not exhaustive; there are numerous case studies, as well as countries, from which examples can be drawn, including the UK.

Human trafficking

Millions of people are trafficked throughout the world using coercion, deception and violence.
Young women from Eastern Europe, for example, are smuggled to Britain to work as prostitutes (see page 17).
Lured by gang members, women are sold the image of a new life overseas, working in hotels and shops. Days after arriving, it is common to find they have been raped and forced into prostitution in brothels, saunas and massage parlours in numerous UK cities.
Often women are sold as sex slaves between gangs and face extreme violence if they refuse to work or attempt to escape.
If these victims ask for help from the police or other authorities, the police promise they will receive appropriate care and protection.

Women in bonded labour in the Sindh Province of Pakistan. The United Nations estimated in 1999 that some 20 million people were held in bonded labour worldwide. (Picture: Shakil Pathan/Anti-Slavery International).
Left and right: Anti-Slavery International sent a photographer to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to photograph child camel jockeys. Despite the Government's repeated statements that this practice had stopped, these photographs, taken at a racecourse in Dubai, proved otherwise. (Picture: CDP/Anti-Slavery International).

Child labour

In the Gulf States, slavery is rife in a traditional sport. Boys as young as three years old are abducted from families and forced into camel jockeying in countries such as Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Kidnapped from countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, the boys are kept in brutal conditions and deprived of food to keep their weight low for racing.
Children have died as a result of their treatment and from falls during races.
Although the UAE has now made this practice illegal, there are concerns about the lack of prosecutions since the reforms, and about the other countries that have not changed their laws.

Bonded labour

Debt can be a form of slavery. Poverty can force people into entering a cycle of financial loans to survive, but in repaying the debt many are forced into a lifetime of work. Literally.
In Pakistan, India and Nepal, for instance, debt can be passed from generation to generation. Entire families can be tied to their jobs in stone quarries and brick kilns, or as domestic servants.
In Brazil, thousands of men are trafficked from impoverished areas to agricultural estates in the Amazon.
Motivated by the promise of well-paid jobs, workers are transported and fed along the way. But when they arrive at their destination, they are told that they are already in debt for the cost of food and transport, for the tools they will use and the tents they will sleep in.

Forced labour

In the Upper Volta region of Ghana, young girls are sent to live in shrines with priests as reparation for crimes committed by a past or present family member. The family believes that they will receive bad luck if they do not offer the girl to the priest.
Although the girl did not commit the crime, she is forced to labour for the priest and to have sex with him. Under the practice, known as "Trokosi", priests have multiple girls. Sometimes the girl is kept for life and sometimes she is exchanged for a younger girl from the same family.
Although this practice is illegal in Ghana, up to 1,500 women and girls are estimated to be involved.

Forced marriage

Not to be confused with arranged marriage when, largely speaking, women have some control over who they marry. Forced marriage refers to those girls and women forced to marry a man against her will, unable to influence the decision, and locked into a life of servitude often dominated by violence.
Women from North Korea, for example, are trafficked to China with the promise of help, food, work or shelter.
Once there, the women are threatened or physically assaulted if they refuse to marry a man or work in the sex industries.
The Chinese authorities imprison the North Korean women in detention facilities, where they are held in horrific conditions. After being forcibly repatriated to North Korea, these women are sent to labour camps.

Anti-Slavery International Girls and women in Albania who have been trafficked can get help from social workers at The Hearth of Vlora Women (left), set up in 2001. It was the first organisation to help such women. (Picture: Sarah Williams/Anti-Slavery International). Most of the information in this article is from Anti-Slavery International, a human rights charity founded in 1839 by the same abolitionists in Britain who led the campaign in 1807 to abolish the slave trade. To find out more about their work to end modern slavery, visit www.antislavery.org or telephone 0207 5018920.

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