Slavery nowadays

Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society

Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 46 million

Modern slavery is all around us, but often just out of sight

No country is free from modern slavery

From the outside, it can look like a normal job. But people are being controlled – they can face violence or threats, be forced into inescapable debt, or have had their passport taken away and are being threatened with deportation.

Many have fallen into this oppressive trap simply because they were trying to escape poverty or insecurity, improve their lives and support their families. Now, they can’t leave.

Domestic Servitude

Domestic Servitude

Victims of domestic servitude may appear to be nannies or other domestic help, but the moment their employment arrangement transitions into a situation whereby they cannot leave on their own free will, it becomes a case of enslavement.

Sex Trafficking

Supply and demand have increased through the years partially due to the internet

Sex trafficking

Men and boys are sent overseas to work in construction and agriculture but are also forced to perform commercial sex acts. Women and young girls may be offered jobs as models, nannies, waitresses or dancers.

When sex trafficking victims are caught, they might be detained and prosecuted for criminal activity. However, a legal charge is only one area of concern. Sex trafficking has devastating consequences for the trafficked individual.

Forced Labor

It is the type of enslavement used across the world to produce many products in our global supply chains

Forced labor

When public governments exploit individuals’ bodies for their own gain, it’s a form of enslavement.

Child soldiers fall into this category of enslavement.

Bonded Labor

Bonded labor is designed to exploit workers. The cyclical process begins with a debt, whether acquired or inherited, that cannot be paid immediately. Then, while the worker labors to repay the debt, the employer continues to add on additional expenses

Bonded Labor

Oftentimes this debt is passed down from generation to generation, making it eerily similar to chattel slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries

Bonded labor is used across a variety of industries in order to produce products for consumption around the world.

Child Labor

Production processes that require certain physical attributes, such as small stature and agility, lead to the employment of children

Child

Labor

Poverty leads these children to accept the job, or their parents ask them to work to supplement the family income

Today, child labor is present in many industries - from the carpet sector in Afghanistan to the cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast.

Forced marriage

Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will.

Force Marriage

Forced marriages still take place in various cultures across the world, particularly in parts of South Asia and Africa.