10. Bangladesh
Moyna sits outside her home in thetown of Kalora, Bangladesh. As a 14-year-old, she found herself working
in an Indian brothel after being tricked into believing she had taken a job in a steel factory
Hong Kong (CNN) -- A new report claiming to be the most comprehensive look
at global slavery says 30 million people are living as slaves around the world.
The Global Slavery Index,
published by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation,
lists India as the country with by far the most
slaves, with an estimated nearly 14 million, followed by China (2.9 million) and Pakistan (2.1
million).
The
top 10 countries on its list of shame accounted for more than three quarters of
the 29.8 million people living in slavery, with Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia,
Thailand, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Myanmar and Bangladesh completing the list.
In
terms of countries with the highest of proportion of slaves, Mauritania in West Africa topped the table, with about 4% of its 3.4 million people enslaved, followed by Haiti,
Pakistan, India and Nepal.
The
index, whose authors claim it contains the most authoritative data on slavery
conditions worldwide, is the product of Australian mining magnate and
philanthropist Andrew Forrest's commitment to stamp out global slavery.
Forrest,
ranked by Forbes as Australia's fifth richest man, with an estimated net worth
of $5.7 billion, adopted the cause after his daughter volunteered in an
orphanage in Nepal in 2008, coming into contact with child sex trafficking
victims. Forrest is a signatory to the Giving Pledge started by billionaire
investor Warren Buffett, whose members commit to donating at least half their
wealth to philanthropic causes.
The
index, which draws on 10 years of research into slavery conditions around the
world and was produced by a team of 4 authors supported by 22 other experts and
advisers, is the inaugural edition of what will be an annual report into
slavery. It ranks 162 countries according to the number of people living in
slavery, the risk of enslavement and the robustness of government responses to
the problem.
Walk
Free policy and research manager Gina Dafalia told CNN the report was intended
to shine a spotlight on the issue, and quantify the extent of the problem in
different countries before programs were put in place to tackle the problem. So
far, she said, Walk Free -- and its partners Humanity United and the Legatum
Foundation -- had pledged a total of $100 million to stamp out the practice.
"When
we started working in this area we realized that we didn't have a good
understanding of what exactly the situation of slavery is in the world,"
she said. "We needed that information before we started doing any
interventions."
The
index gives a higher estimate of the global number of slaves than other reports
-- a report by the
International Labor Organization last year pegged the number at 20.9 million.
Dafalia
said this was a result of the Global Slavery Index using a broader definition
of slavery, which included human trafficking, forced labor, as well as
practices such as forced marriage, debt bondage and the exploitation of
children.
"Our
definition of modern slavery includes, for example, forced and servile
marriage, a concept not included in the ILO estimate, given the focus on
'forced labor,'" she said.
The
explicit definition used in the report was "the possession and control of
a person in such a way as to significantly deprive that person of his or her
individual liberty, with the intent of exploiting that person through their
use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. Usually this exercise will be
achieved through means such as violence or threats of violence, deception
and/or coercion."
Asked
why 30 million continued to live in conditions of slavery in 2013, Dafalia said
the reasons varied from country to country, but one constant was that it
remained a "hidden problem."
In
some of the worst-hit countries, the report said, the affected parties were
citizens ensnared in endemic, culturally-sanctioned forms of slavery --
"the chattel slavery of the Haratins in Mauritania, the exploitation of
children through the restavek practice in Haiti, the cultural and economic
practices of both caste and debt bondage in India and Pakistan, and the
exploitation of children through vidomegon in Benin."
In
other examples, including Nepal, Gabon and Moldova, it was migrants who were most
vulnerable to exploitation. In many examples, noted the report, child and
forced marriage was prevalent and child protection practices weak.
It
noted that in India, the country with the most slaves, the risk of
enslavement varies markedly from state to state.
The Middle East and North
Africa, it said, showed the highest measured level of discrimination
against women, with one result being a high level of forced and child marriages
within the region, and widespread exploitation
of trafficked women as domestic workers and prostitutes. Vulnerable male
migrants also frequently found themselves in exploitative working conditions.
Myanmar construction workers carry baskets of stone during the construction of a road in Naypyidaw in 2006.
Despite the UN's labor agency lifting restrictions against Myanmar this year over its failures to act on complaints
of forced labor, around 380,000 people remain enslaved in the country, according to the Global Slavery Index.
8. Democratic Republic of Congo
Modern slavery in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo reflects centuries-old patterns of enslavement,
often based on colonial conflicts and injustice exacerbated by contemporary armed conflict, the researchers
behind the index say.
7. Thailand
Tourist destinations that are popular for the adult sex trade, such as Thailand's Pattaya, are said to be
centers for child sex trafficking. Thai women are also trafficked as sex slaves to many other countries.
Countries with the most 'slaves'
The countries of the former Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan, where this sex worker is pictured outside a brothel, have been a source of trafficked women. In Russia, researchers estimate more than 500,000 people exist in conditions of modern day slavery, its large economy drawing vulnerable workers from former Soviet Republics and Eastern Europe.
5. Ethiopia
Some 650,000 people live in conditions of slavery in Ethiopia, according to the Global Slavery Index.
4. Nigeria
Dozens of slave children ride in the back of a police vehicle after they were apprehended at Seme Border, Nigeria.
Much slavery in Nigeria and neighboring Benin involves the trafficking of women and children for sexual
exploitation, domestic work or forced labor.
3. Pakistan
A group of Pakistani bonded laborers including women and children sit with their belongings after their release
in a village Kahpro, some 280 kilometers east of Karachi. The country, with large populations of displaced
people and weak rule of law, has an estimated 2.2 million slaves.
2. China
Wang Bangyin breaks down as he hugs his rescued son at a welfare center for children in China's Guizhou province
in 2009. The boy was among 60 children rescued by police from human traffickers. Nearly 3 million people in China
are victims of forms of modern slavery, including forced marriage, sexual exploitation and forms of forced labor
such as domestic servitude, forced begging and forced marriage.
More than 14 million people in India, like this child laborer in Mumbai, live in conditions of slavery,
according to the Global Slavery Index. "While this involves the exploitation of some foreign nationals,"
reads the report, "by far the largest proportion of this problem is the exploitation of Indian citizens within India itself, particularly through debt bondage and bonded labor."
No comments:
Post a Comment