Slavery is a word that immediately invokes very specific images in our minds. When it is mentioned we tend to think of people, almost always black people; abused, bound and tainted in chains, and we tend to think of such images, and the word slavery itself, as belonging to another era. We do not see slavery as belonging to our world as if it is not happening today. Yet the truth is slavery is a booming international trade and all around us in a process called ‘human trafficking.’

Dreadful tales

Lured by the promise of a better life, victims often are misled or deceived by traffickers. Stories that you will read here, here and here are dreadful and more recently the slavery scam of the most secretive regime in China has been exposed. As many as 1,000 slaves, including many children, may have been sold into labour in central China, enduring maiming and brutality in brick kilns.

Though the Parliament passed legislation in Westminster some two hundred years ago ending British involvement in the slave trade across the Atlantic but it is not history as yet, only the modes have changed. Then it used to be an open trading but now it is more hidden and more thriving multi-billion dollar activity at the expense of millions of victims.

Human trafficking is a global problem, which has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade. No country is immune, whether as a source, a destination or a transit point for victims of human trafficking. Among the greatest sources of trafficked persons are Thailand, China, Malaysia, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, and the best one to exploit the deprived are the worlds most rich and prosperous nations like US, UK, Japan, Israel, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands.

Trafficking in persons, whether for sexual exploitation or forced labor, affects virtually every region of the world. Some 2.5 million people throughout the world are at any given time sucked up, entrapped, transported and exploited, according to estimates of international experts. Since human trafficking is a crime and therefore surreptitious numbers are not available and with no doubt 2.5 million can be considered just the tip of an iceberg.

The U.N. and other organizations estimate the total market value of illicit human trafficking at $32 billion and about $10 billion is derived from the initial ’sale’ of individuals, with the remainder representing the estimated profits from the activities or goods produced by the victims of this barbaric crime.

Dreadful tales, mere shadows

We all are responsible for this booming barbaric crime. Look around, you will see abused, locked up and forced labour in sweatshops, in mines, in the sex trade or in farms doing all the dirty, dodgy and dangerous work or even you can be one of those who approach pimps when one of those girls want to sleep, you can be one of those wearing a lovely little diamond pendent around your neck without knowing that it was extracted by people as young as 8 years old and you can be one of those who pay frugal pennies to labors to produce those chains constantly in your factory.

So, the bullet has again backfired and the dreadful tales discussed above seems to be mere shadows of those who claim to be above in the ‘human food chain’, however, are the main culprits - tossing fleshes in the lucrative slave market and again buying and creating more demand. Of course, stomach rules the way we make choices in life, but is there anyone who can listen to the cry of bonded stomachs without any life?