modern day slavery essay examples

modern day slavery essay examples

Modern Day Slavery: A Hidden Reality

1. Introduction

Slavery was abolished as an institution of legal ownership of people in 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. It defined the African slave trade as “heinous” and “odious,” a repudiation of the “violations of the universal rights of the human.” Despite this ridiculous description, there is more slavery today than at any time in human history. The United Nations reported that slavery, human trafficking, and forced labor may be the third largest criminal activity in the world. There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This includes more than a quarter million children in the Ivory Coast who are forced to harvest cocoa, which we will eat, for no pay and many times no food. Slavery has many definitions and encompasses many meanings. Human trafficking has been linked with slavery and is an important aspect to examine on its own. The Trafficking Protocol, which is a portion of the Palermo Protocol, defines human trafficking as the “recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” This definition of human trafficking very closely mimics the actual act of enslavement of a person. In response to human trafficking, the United Nations general assembly held a convention in 2000 to agree on a set of rules to internationally suppress human trafficking. This globalized issue is evidence that slavery is still a very relevant issue to address in the global community.

2. Forms of Modern Day Slavery

The group defines current day slavery as “work compelled and constrained through power and the danger of punishment and for which the employee does not volunteer and cannot avoid.” Any form of enslavement may be managed by systematically isolating the slave and removing his ability to leave the work arrangement. Debt bondage is the most common slavery instrument used throughout the world. A person enters debt bondage when their labor is accepted as the security for a debt. The value of their service is invariably greater than the original sum of money “borrowed”. Most workers do not realize the actual nature of the arrangement they are entering and it often carries on, sometimes for generations, in an oppressive status of involuntary servitude. The above mentioned forms of slavery are typically controlled by some form of violence and always involves coercion of the victim to work. Much of this violence takes form in its physical and emotional attributes, but often includes subtler forms such as the manipulation of debt contracts or the use of the legal system to deny the rights of enslaved.

A recent report by Anti-Slavery International highlights that slavery can occur in many different forms but the common elements are that one person is exploited by another and that they have lost their freedom. This can include the trafficking of people in which victims are traded into the sex industry, forced marriages or child domestic labor, they can all be identified as forms of modern day slavery. This often occurs as with domestic servitude i.e. a live-in maid, when working conditions are below standard, pay is not adequate and the employer uses their position of power to mistreat and force labor. Bonded labor is probably the most common form of modern day slavery, occurring predominantly in places with poor education and a lack of awareness to workers rights. Here a person will borrow money they cannot repay and will effectively work to repay the debt, but the conditions of the debt are loaded against them and the work may continue indefinitely and often in squalid conditions for no pay.

The rest of this paper aims to show how slavery and its multiple forms have been hidden in the shadows of global and local economies and how exploitative relationships were maintained by slaveholders and those capitalizing from cheap labor can still be seen today in many of the world’s industries. Modern day slavery is not merely a problem of the past and the groups works today in many ways are mimicking their reconstructs of bondage in the struggle for cheap and especially free labor.

In understanding that the entrapment and coercion of slaves must extend to a condition where they have lost free will and the power to dictate the terms or their work. Anti-Slavery International have posed a series of questions when examining the existence and forms of slavery today, they ask ‘can a person refuse this work? Can they stop it once begun? Are they being coerced? Is the pay inadequate? Are they dehumanized and subjugated to the will of another?’ All these questions are relevant to identifying people held in slave like conditions and will provide a consistent benchmark when reviewing how well or how poorly the world has tackled the problem of slavery in modern times.

3. Impact on Individuals and Society

Debt bondage simply represents the most common form of enslavement today. Involving at least 12 million adults and children, debt bondage is found in numerous industries. A closely related practice is debt bondage, the world’s least known and most widely used method of enslaving people. It is a means of survival for millions of people (mostly women and children) in a number of countries. The International Labor Organization says that there are 8.1 million to 20.7 million people trapped in debt bondage.

Often referred to as bonded labor or debt bondage, it is when people take loans under the condition of work in the place of repayment. With interest rates usually too high to ever pay off the principal, and no other way to repay the loan, it becomes an inescapable vicious circle for the bonded laborer and their dependents. The “loan” is often times an advance on wages to the laborer and they are rarely allowed to re-negotiate the terms. The high interest rates can be coupled with inflated prices and low wages for the work – perhaps 3-5 times less than the original loan and going back into growing interest. This continues until people are reduced to working only to pay off interest, with the principal a mythical amount that is constantly out of reach. Bonded labor constitutes the largest sector of forced labor, and the least known.

For more than 50 years rubber tappers from the Northern states of Brazil were contracted and held in debt bondage for an average of 333 days per year. They had to take an advance payment on the rubber collected from the plantation owner. This advance would usually be the total amount of wages to be paid in one year, and it was given before the work began. When it did, the tappers were paid so little that they had to take advances on future rubber crops to make ends meet. They eventually were removed, and Oxfam had the pleasure of being a part of the liberation movement.

4. Efforts to Combat Modern Day Slavery

At the international level, in 1999, in response to a campaign by Anti-Slavery International and a parliamentary report on child labor, Britain’s government introduced a package of measures designed to combat child bonded labor in Brazil, which resulted in Memorandums of Understanding with state governments in Brazil. Britain has continued to tackle bonded labor systematically at local levels in source countries, sometimes with excellent results. For example, in 2001, Indian NGOs and local government in Andhra Pradesh liberated 272 bonded families as a result of pressure from the British government. In 2001, labor activists and government officials from five Asian countries formed the GMS-CLRAP (the Greater Mekong Sub-region Country Level Agreement on Labor and Related issues) to directly tackle the issue of Cambodian and Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. Other countries, such as the United States, are also involved in similar actions. If you want me to write more and give you some background on these different actions and their levels, let me know, Adam.

In recent years, there has been a push from governments, international organizations, labor unions, and grassroots movements to eradicate the practice of slavery. Some of these efforts have produced results, while others have served to raise greater awareness of the issue or to organize and focus resources more effectively.

5. Conclusion: Working Towards a Slavery-Free World

Slavery may seem like a thing of the past, but it is very much a hidden reality. This global issue has many complex causes and effects, and occurs in many different forms. Governments, businesses, and individuals all play a role in allowing and preventing slavery. Since being aware of the issue is a key component of addressing it, more research should be done to determine the scope and scale of contemporary slavery. The results suggest that there is much to be done policy-wise. NGOs play a significant role in anti-slavery efforts and can use these results to better shape their policies and focus for future goals. But governments are the key to change and must be pressured to take the steps necessary towards addressing and resolving forced labor in its various forms. Primary considerations should focus on policy coherence and consistency in legislation to address those sectors indicated as high risk for slavery. The international community has a significant responsibility to act on obligations outlined in international covenants and should consider creating new international instruments specific to forced labor and modern slavery. The world has not moved beyond the need for forced labor in any era, and policy responses will always need to combat the evolving nature of this practice. However, recourse results highlighting criminal justice efforts and those to empower and protect the most vulnerable groups suggest that it is indeed possible to effectively target modern forms of slavery. Any realistic goals will require a sustained, dynamic policy response. Much work is still needed to achieve a slavery-free world, but this can be considered a positive start.