Human Trafficking And Slavery

Slavery is the involuntary subjection of one person to another, which deprives him/her of freedom and personal rights.

Human Trafficking is the trade-buying and selling of peoples as slaves.

The following are examples of campaigns against slavery around the world:

Africa

Anti-Slavery International

“Sylvia was 17 years old when she was trafficked from Nigeria to Italy. She was forced to work as a prostitute for one and a half years, and her madam demanded she hand over all her earnings. She faced constant threats and violence if she did not make the required daily earnings.”
Read about trafficking here.

ASIA

Human Rights Watch

“After my sister got sick, we took her to the hospital, but the doctor said we had to pay more money, so my parents bonded me for Rs. 1,700 [U.S. $35]. I was seven or eight years old… At 4:00 a.m. I got up and did silk winding… I only went home once a week. I slept in the factory with two or three other children.”

Read SMALL CHANGE: Bonded Child Labor in India’s Silk Industry (Human Rights Watch Report, January 2003).

To learn about another trafficking issue in Asia read OWED JUSTICE: Thai Women Trafficked into Debt Bondage in Japan (Human Rights Watch Report, September 2000).

EUROPE/ CENTRAL ASIA

International Human Rights Law Group

Trafficking in persons, particularly of women and children, has been loudly denounced by the international community as an egregious and profound human rights abuse, a form of modern-day slavery, and a particular form of violence against women.

Read about the International Human Rights Law Group’s anti-trafficking work in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Learn about the International Human Rights Law Group’s Initiative Against Human Trafficking in Persons.

UNITED STATES and WORLDWIDE

Speak Truth To Power

Meet the Speak Truth To Power Defenders fighting to ensure children’s rights:

-Juliana Dogbadzi, Ghana A former sexual slave, she now advocates for the abolition of slavery.

Human Rights Watch Campaign Against the Trafficking of Women and Girls.
Act Now! Support Legislation to Combat the Trafficking of Women and Children.

U.S. Department of State

A trafficker recruited Nina, a 19-year-old from southeastern Europe, to work as a waitress, but then raped, beat, and drugged her, forcing her into prostitution. After a daring escape, her trafficker hunted her down and kidnapped her. Taken into custody during a police raid, Nina agreed to be a witness against her trafficker… Her pimps were found guilty but released on appeal. For her own survival, Nina has fled to another country and assumed a new identity.

Read the Annual Trafficking in Persons Report [2003] written by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

International Organization for Migration

“Don’t be deceived into traveling to Italy, things are rough over there. The promise of a well-paid job and a bed of roses may be a way of luring you into prostitution. You will be exposed to untold hardship.”
Read about how The International Organization for Migration helped Victoria, a trafficking survivor from Nigeria.

Read The International Organization for Migration study Protection Schemes for Victims of Trafficking in Selected EU Member Countries, Candidate and Third Countries.

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