One of the world's leading workers' rights groups has revised upward its global estimate of the number of people working in forced labor.
Almost 21 million people are now in forced labor, according to the new study from the International Labour Organization.
That is up from a "minimum estimate" of 12.3 million in ILO's similar report in 2005 - but the group says the increase is down to better research methods rather than indicative of a trend.
It is not possible to know exactly how many people are enslaved - different experts have different numbers, partly because of different counting methods.
The ILO, a U.N. agency focusing on labor rights, said its figures show three in every 1,000 people worldwide are in some form of forced labor - from state-imposed work to forced sexual exploitation.
Beate Andrees, head of the ILO's Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, said that attention should now concentrate on better identifying and prosecuting offenses around forced labor such as human trafficking.
She said: "The successful prosecution of those few individuals who bring such misery to so many remains inadequate – this needs to change.
"We must also ensure that the number of victims does not rise during the current economic crisis where people are increasingly vulnerable to these heinous practices."
In a news release, ILO said that of the 20.9 million globally in forced labor, 4.5 million were sexually exploited and 14.2 million were exploited in industries such as construction and agriculture.
It said the Asia-Pacific region accounts for the largest number of forced laborers in the world – 11.7 million – and Africa the second highest number at 3.7 million.
ILO's report also said 9.1 million victims were moved either internally or internationally.
Andrees said: "We have come a long way over the last seven years since we first put an estimate on how many people were forced into labor or services across the world.
"We have made good progress in ensuring most countries now have legislation in place which criminalizes forced labor, human trafficking and slavery-like practices."
For this Freedom Project challenge, we invite you to create a dish using fair trade chocolate. Get started! Fair-trade chocolate challenge
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Sounds like there are more slaves NOW than there ever were in the 1700s – 1800s. Where's Al Sharpton on this? Where's Rev Wright? Jesse Jackson? Barack Obama??? The silence is deafening....
I agree 100 fold on that one
What got my attention is-I just knew they were talking about here in the U.S. Where are the politicians-sitting back spending all their funds from corporations? The U.S. is fast becoming the Banana Republic that the rich/corporations wish it to be. What they do not realize is- that they will probably have to leave this country to enjoy their wealth-"haves vs have nots"
You're under-estimating slavery's past.
where are you?
Just because YOU are ignorant doesn't mean tha these men take no action.
You sound like they should come running out of a phone booth with a red cape on.
President Obama spoke in Tokyo last November about the need for international collaboration in fighting against modern-day slavery.
Bart57November 13, 2011Let see what should we do. Free the lives of 250,000 inasvled kids that would just die if they were not working in the rug factorys. or take on Iran that has this little thing called the Nucular bomb. Hummmm I wonder. Aah the kids. and just let the Iranians drop their little bomb. That sound like a liberal thing to do.
How about you? What are you doing smart as s
21 million slaves!....sounds like the US economy is doing just fine.
That's because it's predominately a Chinese problem.
I consider "debt slavery" as a very serious issue. One that isn't brought up of course. Just not good business round here. Considering the humanity of people that come and comment on this. It might be nice to consider your own countrymen that are in debt. They go to work each day trying to get their debt paid nothing else is really much of a consideration and the focus of almost everything they do. Even they may not realize it. Until that debt is paid their is foundation for oweing. Some consider the bible the borrower is the slave to the lender. Some like me take a more foundational approach what you have is from the earth and it recognizes what is borrowed and who is the owner of the property, land or whoever that owner is. Some don't take this all that seriously when they should. Of course paying 30 years on a mortgage and all of the struggles it take to pay that mortgage. When the house itself in most cases took only three months to build. This country acts on its humanity. Yet it allows usury in its own land. Indeed the government owes which makes them debtors to. The government will even tell you and sell you on home ownership. Yet if you think a minute they can throw you out. If that can be done then you certainly don't own it. Credit cards. I call them revolvers and equity lines of credit all have endless interest. While your considering this story consider the pain of people that have suffered and struggled all their lives to keep others well off under debt that takes a really long time to get out from under. Until then they are captive to their debt.
See another part of this is that people really believe that Chinese work for a dollar a day which they probably find hysterical. Your living in denial if you don't face yourself and understand your tied to a life of debt. You call it getting somewhere however when you borrow your digging a really deep hole for yourself. Consider this its worse than being poor because then your free to do what you want. Your not. Your stuck. You have to labor and worry. If poor is zero than your minus zero. Yes but I eat. Is it worth it to grovel and obey like you have to? Give up being a man for a little food? It is it appears. You can fool yourself all day long. However your on a leash and that leash is your debt.
Still eating chocolate? Made a small donation to the free the slave fund lately? I don't ask what others are doing, I simply ask if I am doing whatever I can. By the way, unlike the America's where open slave auctions where held, many of these countries "hid" and/or outright lie about the condition of these forced workers. Far to many of these forced workers provide labor for US owned companies so why don't we start asking what they are doing to enforce fair labor practices. (any misspelled words are due in part to my not wearing my reading glasses....guess I should tell my slave to go fetch them for me – smile)
Aa0second protest has been set aldeary for next Saturday, June 4 at noon, once again at the Jefferson Memorial. (Facebook invite) Neither Edward Dickey nor the U.S. Park Police could be reached for a comment on the incident.
Naw...you are trying to denounce what slavery was here, slavery was not the only thing that happened to black people here...all the rape, murder and torture that also went on as well...then along came JIM CROW. Which is another form of slavery, as under JIM CROW blacks could not VOTE, SERVE ON JURY DUTY, DENIED THE RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE, TO OWN PROPERTY, and everything else. JIM CROW IS A SPIN OFF FROM SLAVERY!
They are all in debt dude. Hey you don't get on that television unless you owe. The more you owe the happier they are. Debt servitude is the next best thing to slavery ask anyone that owes.
@ NotALemming I fail to understand why Al Sharpton, Rev Wright, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama’s ‘alleged’ silence on this issue is being questioned? First, check your facts, all these individuals have addressed the issue of modern day slavery/forced labour. Second, modern day slavery is a human rights violation & not an African American civil rights issue. Victims originate from, and are exploited in nearly all countries around the world, including the US. Eliminating the exploitation of others for profit is a criminal offence that can only be addressed by a concerted effort of the entire global community- everyone needs to get involved.
Not a USA problem. Let the world solve it. We have other things to focus on.
And behind the "true slaves" we have a very large group of people who a working and abused under conditions similar or close to slavery. Just 2 examples:
1) Guest workers in Middle east. They are paid but have no rights att all. They can´t strike, they can´t form unions, they can´t protest against working canditions at all. If they do that they are sent home.
2) An army of children around the world who works 7 days a week for very low saleries and have no rights att all.
These and simular groups are combined much larger than 21 million who are "true slaves".
Reading this made me miss my father, who died bsucaee of liver-related disease/ Bit I think t'was cancer as well, they just hid it from me. They already have the idea how long will my father stay, they chose to hid it, until that day that totally broke my heart. Yung eksenang akala ko sa movie lang nagyayari, nakita at naranasan ko ng personal. it was my entry to Pagbabago contest, pero when I wrote it, buhay pa sya..-comicallydramatic
Now that is really funny. Coming from the Anti-Union Party.
Anti union people create laws to protect workers. Unions only care about lining their own pockets and are nothing but a cancer on society.
Thank Unions for:
Having weekends off...
Non-discrimitory pay...
Child labor laws...
Minimum wage...
Federal holidays...
The 40 hour work week...
Overtime pay...
Employer provided health care...
Employer provided pensions...
Need I go on?
Union dues are necessary so that the Unions have the money to fight legal battles, and draft policy to get lobbied.. It's actually VERY expensive.
Unions = Democracy in the workplace.
No Unions = See above article.
And BTW the "anti Union" people DON'T draft laws to protect workers.
Anti-Union legislators (GOP) UNIVERSALLY are pro-corporation not pro-worker.
Look up their voting records on legislation if you don't believe me.
You sound like Wal-mart.
you are for sure a republican.
And Joe B corporations create jobs, unions do not create any jobs. Big difference.
But it is a USA problem – just ask those of the 47% who want to work whom have to depend on government assistance because they can"t find good paying jobs – they are slaves to the government
Where are the good paying jobs for them -
No one cares because Apple is not involved.
exactly.
Arturo Sarukhan said Mexican officials were kept out of the loop during the program(fastandfurious), which saw around 2,000 U.S. purchased firearms walked across the border only to fall into the hands of drug cartels. The guns are believed to have been used in the killings of hundreds of people in Mexico, including U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Hey, there's nothing wrong with this. The Bible totally support slavery after all.
okay, reverend wright.
what a troll.. ha ha. dont you think you should familiarze your self with the bible if you are going to use it as a weapon?
He is right, there is no problem with slavery in the bible
Joe....guess the B stands for BLOW right?
So what is wrong with my post, cnn? No expletives, unless you include "illegal alien invaders".
only libs/etc work for cnn........
so i've figured they also hire lib/etc censors.
cnn's view of fair and balanced.
One sentence at a time: Wonder how many incarcerated criminals are included in their stats.
hey..........
obama can take the 20+ million unemployed from here and replace these poor slaves........
yeah that would make sense given this regimes mentality.
Bush's tax cuts do create jobs after all!
I am a victim of forced labor too. its called providing for myself and my family. I'd rather be at home drinking a beer
"This post has brought out the liars in a big way. Sorry fealls, this is my field.You CANNOT have a plus 800 credit score with no debt and paying off your credit cards every month.A credit score is a profitability rating by the financial industry.Anyone that cares about their credit knows that you MUST keep your credit cards at around one third of their available balance and not pay them off to keep your credit score high. Closing a credit card account, regardless of other considerations, will dent your score significantly. Not having a motor vehicle permanently under finance (i.e. repeatedly "trading up")is very damaging.So yes, a high credit score does speak loudly to your character. It means you are a slave to debt."------------Wrong. I do have a credit score of 819, and except for a mortgage, have no debt. Anything I put on my cards are paid off in full at the end of the month. Nice try.
We need this in the US for all of the Welfare Dwellers.
Republican drones– please see the best, simplest post here– it's by Joe B– I copied and pasted for easy reference:
Joe B
Thank Unions for:
Having weekends off...
Non-discrimitory pay...
Child labor laws...
Minimum wage...
Federal holidays...
The 40 hour work week...
Overtime pay...
Employer provided health care...
Employer provided pensions...
Need I go on?
Union dues are necessary so that the Unions have the money to fight legal battles, and draft policy to get lobbied.. It's actually VERY expensive.
Unions = Democracy in the workplace.
No Unions = See above article.
You listed the nine makebelieve positives, now list the 79 factual negatives starting with number one. In a world survey unions as an organization is listed as the most corrupted organization in the world even ahead of the Talibans and Mexican Cartels. Stuff that in your dirt bag.
You want the reason why AMERICA's wages and employment rate suck? This article is the answer. And who are these slaves working for? Corporate America (Republicans).
Check the tag in your shirt. Yeah. That's what I thought.
Paul, you re absolutely right, we have "sweat shops" all over the place throughout the u.s. hell, there are loads of them out in California.
Don't kid yourself. We're all slaves.
If you know what a slave really goes through, you would not identify yourself as such. You are not being tortured, beaten, starved or raped... you are not being held against your will and forced to work for pennies or for free like slaves here in the past did...built this country free of charge and by force. That is what a slave is...unless you are THIS kind of slave, then a slave you are not.
We're all slaves, you should see my "Honey Do" list.......
They didn't include the people who are waaaay in debt. Those who are 'credit-worthy' are also slaves, of a different kind.
I am one of those people: forced in to labor so that I can feed my kids. Luckily Dear Leader is working on fixing that.
I did think they were talking about people in the United States. Aren't we all slaves to our employers. See how long you last without a job or some type of income.
A slave is one that is forced to work for NOTHING and completely without any BENEFIT.
The GOP solution: Turn all the Old, Sick, Poor, Non-white, Non-christian, Unemployed, and Gay people into slaves. Then whip them until they are Young, Healthy, Rich, White, Christian, Employed, and Straight. Or until they are dead. Then turn them into Soylent Green to feed the military.
Soylent Green – I loved that movie!
We are all slaves to the almighty dollar.
What's the problem? This is a great success for the shareholders. No pay for workers = higher stock prices. This is a plan that Romney should get behind to cement the one percent vote once and for all.
Obama just keeps suporting the labor union which drive these jobs overseas.dip.
Obama just keeps suporting the labor unions which drive these jobs overseas.dip.
Nonsense, jobs have been going overseas long be for Obama, stop blaming the black President for everything.
The Wall Street dream come true!
The 21 million in forced labor" are the English taxpayers, forced to provide "free" unearned welfare for the world's black and asian welfare tourists whio have turned England into an ethnically cleansed colony for non-European freeloading racial parasites to drawdown benefits and breed at the expense of the indigenous white natives..
To the GreenMan, NO one had dared to complain or rebutal against your colonialism policy, and slaughtered millions of the Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans. NOW....shut the He11 up and keep paying. What goes around will come back around. Western Europe should be colonied by Asians, Africans and Hispanic people.
Not to minimized, disparage, or dismiss the 21 million in forced servitude, but take a good hard look at the U.S. Many families today have both parents working, as is the case in our household. By the time you add up all of the taxes taken from us (and I mean everything and all taxes in any shape or form – the government is getting better at hiding some of them), one of us is working just to pay the taxes. That is its own form of "involuntary servitude", and it is sanctioned by the government of what is one of the freest nation on earth.
Thank you Walmart and it's not just the US. The store I work at sells a lot of imorted European good, Guess what 99% of them made in China or SE Asia. Slavery is alive and well. There Western world can look the other way.
It's interesting that several posters have mentioned China and corporate America. While there have been cases of slavery in China and corporate America has definitely profited from forced labour, there are bigger culprits out there today. Sub-Saharan Africa has a massive slavery problem – in some countries nearly 10% of the population are slaves. India also has a huge number of slaves; I can't remember what the system is called, but when you take out some types of loans there, you put yourself into servitude – along with children and grandchildren, even if they haven't been born yet.
It's information like that, motivates people to keep returning to a fantastic resource like this site.
The rich and/or powerful will always desire slave labor to keep themselves afloat. It may not always be the grueling slavery that is depicted here. It can also mean cheap wages paid to people in the "civilized" corporate world. What about cleaning jobs, and low paying healthcare jobs? Many people in the healthcare field experience thankless, stressful, low-wage jobs. Don't forget about those temp agency jobs, and minimum wage jobs. The cost of living is always on the rise, making it harder for people to break the cycle, or just simply catch a break. Rich get richer, poor getting poorer.
Seriously, enough of all this already. Many of these people do this to feed their families and don't think of it as forced labor as they claim. Why do you think everything in the US you get is from China? Because liberal fools like this demand high pay for workers which then makes the products in the US unaffordable for us to sell and buy. So instead, they give them their "rights" to get paid more and the result is they are unemployed on welfare which tax payers pay for instead. That is much better. The UN keeps demanding that the US help underdeveloped countries and give them more money and technology? Why again? How come the rich oil shieks in the middle east are not doing it? Why do we send one dime to the middle east with all the oil and money the rich have there? Why help India? Same there, an upper class with lavish palaces and lifestyles but the US should send money there to help them develop??? Next, Africa. Wasn't it rich when they were under colonial rule? Oh yeah, they didn't want that. So the african countries which are rich in minerals, gold, copper, etc we should send money instead of them firing up mining and making their own money. When will America wake up and tell everyone to go F themselves and do it all themselves or take a hike?
goes back to the same old adage "buy american only" you liberal crap heads.
It looks like we all need Communism more than ever these days and especially the Greeks as their economy slides ever deeper into a severe depression!
"A debit card is not the same because if it gets mesisud, you can't call and stop payment."it's much worse since if someone takes your cash, checks can bounce or you won't have enough to draft checks, etc... thus, I would never use a debit card.however, I recently opened up 2 more checking accounts: 1 for online billpay and another for interbank transfers.so, if you have a debit card, you should ask your bank for another checking account and then get a debit card which can only acccess that account and have overdraft protection turned off so folks can't indirectly access your savings account.I started using multiple checking accounts since I didn't want paypal to have access to my primary accounts and I once overdrew my checking account with an ATM transaction since the withdrawn cash was supposed to be left there for an online billpay payment.at this point, I just log onto my online account and then move money around based on needs and things have worked out perfectly!
We're all slaves... Slaves to our government.
we need to all go buy stuff right now to stop this!
@Notalemming. Sounds like you are blaming slavery on African American community leaders.
虚伪的人权组织，种族歧视都没解决，还管的那么远，至少中国没有种族歧视，并且少数民族有很多的特权，哼，自以为是的美国人，野蛮的美国人，到处侵略的美国人………………
I agree completely with what you say
21% of the Indian population is considered starving.
It is estimated that number of child laborers in India is between 60 million to 100 million.
all over india, Beedi workers are just like a slave, of manufacturers, manunfacturers are sucking blood from Beedi labourers.
Govt. is handicape in this matter. A reasonable wages must be given them for livelyhood for their life.
If we continue down the progressive road we are on, we will all be slaves soon. As an ex-union slave who is now free, I feel sorry for those who continue to live on the Democratic plantation. My advice, learn to think for yourself and dismiss progressive mindless PC devisiveness and stereotyping.
Skavery is like a drug. There will always be a portion of Mankind addicted to it.
Come on CNN and America , You need to look in your own back yard before you go on about other people . Look at your Carnival Cruises , They dont pay taxes and employ third world people to work and pay them the lowest wages in America ,They have to hope they make good tips from the guest on the ship's to make any money . Now do some thing about that before you make you are doing some thing for slavery , Them work on the poor Mexicans that come over the boarder to work all your Farms .They get paid like a 2 dollars an hour . So stop making out you are the lucky country , You not and you still live in the slave trade your self .
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