Many people in the twenty- first century would probably dismiss the thought of slavery being a prominent factor of repression in our societies. Even here, in Great Britain, this cruel act exists right now in many forms. Some of these frequent mistreatments include human trafficking, forced labour and domestic servitude. It’s believed that there hasn’t been a time in history when there were less slaves than there are today, with an estimate of over 45 million being victims of slavery as stated by the Walk Free Foundation.
Slavery isn’t just a thing of the past and due to the lack of awareness of this topic, this has led many to think of slavery as a past thought. Authorities probably find it difficult to target and prevent abuse like this from occurring because of its concealed nature. The careful procedures taken to ensure these practices are hidden from the media and the public make it tougher to track down.
Surprisingly, there’s a lot more forced labour than there is sex trafficking, although sex trafficking makes more money- more than 5 times what a forced labourer would earn for his ‘master’. Slavery is a money- making business and probably so largely common because the price rate of a slave has reduced, “In 1850, an average slave in the American South cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money. Today a slave costs about $90 on average worldwide."
A21 is a campaign that aims to end slaveries prevalence globally. This nonprofit organisation travels across the world to help people get out of slavery and interrupt this torturous business. They’re also planning to do another ‘Walk For freedom’ this year on October the 19 in which anyone who wishes to join can take part by simply signing up on their website.
Slavery is a world phenomenon, but as Andrew Forrest said (an anti- slave campaigner), “This is the choice of man, so the choice of man can stop it.”
