Men anti-slaverikampagnefolk mener, at vi står overfor et vendepunkt – det er der også god brug for, idet millioner henslæber en tilværelse i trældom og andre former for undertrykkelse i lande verden over.
There are more people in slavery today than at any time in human history – but campaigners think the world is close to a tipping point and that slavery may be eradicated (udryddet) in the next 30 years, BBC online reports Thursday.
The estimated number of people in slavery – 27 million – is more than double the total number believed to have been taken from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean, from the 16th Century until the trade was banned in 1807. This figure is about 12,5 million people.
Todays huge figure comes from researcher Kevin Bales, of Free the Slaves – who blames it on rapid population growth, poverty and govern-ment corruption – se https://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx
Slavery exists in many forms, on every continent – ranging from sex and labour trafficking, to debt bondage (gældsslaveri) where people are forced to work off small loans.
“I often think about a quarry (stenbruds) slave from North India,” says investigative journalist Ben Skinner, who has travelled all over the world documenting cases of slavery.
“I could go in at night and interview him, so I asked him why he did not run away. It was because he feared the extraordinary violence of the quarry contractor who held him to a minuscule (mikroskopisk) debt”.
“In his world, the contractor was god. He was not only the taker of life but also the giver of sustenance (underhold)”. Skinner adds, that many of the slaves he met in India had never known a free life.
Barack Obama recently painted a portrait of contemporary slavery.
“It is the migrant worker unable to pay off the debt to his trafficker (menneskehandler),” the US President said, adding:
“The man, lured here (til USA) with the promise of a job, his documents then taken, and forced to work endless hours in a kitchen. The teenage girl, beaten, forced to walk the streets.”
Se mere på
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-clinton-global-initiative
