Anti-Slavery International - Modern-day Slavery

Modern-day Slavery

Underground trade in human beings still exists in the twenty-first century. Regions heavily involved in the trade now include Eastern Europe, West Africa, South America and South Asia. Contemporary slavery comes in various forms, including bonded labour, early and forced marriages, forced labor, slavery by descent, and human trafficking.

Bonded labor often leads to slavery by descent: mimicking the circumstances of indentured servitude (in which, for the cost of medicine or travel, or for some other debt, labor is rendered for a specific period), the underlying loan often is not fully repaid before death, so the obligation to repay it is passed down to a family member. Work may be unrelenting, seven days a week and without break the year round.

Early and forced marriages involve women and girls who are forced into marriages in which they are subjected to harsh labor conditions and suffer physical violence.

Most early modern noncriminal forced labor, before the rise of abolitionist movements in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generally was the lifelong work of slaves from Africa on plantations in the Western hemisphere. Present-day forced labor is less obvious; people are enslaved by governments, powerful individuals, or political parties and forced to work by threats of violence to the slaves or to their loved ones.

Human trafficking is the illegal transportation of kidnapped women, children, and men across international borders in order to put them into slavery at the destination. This form of modern slavery is one of the most common and may affect the most people: it is estimated that between 500,000 and 800,000 victims enter the trade each year.