Why does slavery exist today

Individuals that are compelled to work in order to repay a debt and unable to leave until the debt is repaid. It is the most common form of enslavement in the world.

Any enslavement — whether forced labor, domestic servitude, bonded labor or sex trafficking — of a child. Slavery Today There are an estimated 21 million to 45 million people trapped in some form of slavery today. Sex Trafficking Women, men or children that are forced into the commercial sex industry and held against their will by force, fraud or coercion.

It is these external circumstances that push people into taking risky decisions in search of opportunities to provide for their families, or are simply pushed into jobs in exploitative conditions. Anti-Slavery International works with a movement of like-minded organisations to secure freedom for people in, or vulnerable to, modern slavery.

We change the systems that enable people getting trapped in slavery — social, economic, legal, political — so that people can live free from fear of being cruelly exploited. By working together, untangling person after person from slavery and dismantling the systems that enable exploitation, we can deliver true freedom to people across the globe.

Subscribe to our emails to hear latest news about modern slavery, our work against slavery around the world, and different ways you can get involved. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. Laboni, Nepal We believe everyone, everywhere has the right to a life free from slavery. Over 10, were identified as potential victims by the authorities in the UK in Because of poverty parents may sell their children as labor. That's often the case in Lake Volta, Ghana, where children are forced to work for fishermen.

Parents are told their children will get to do an apprenticeship. But in reality, they're kept as slaves in appalling conditions. Not all of these marriages are forced arrangements. But every year millions of underage girls are forced into marriage before the age of In many cases they're taken out of school and essentially live as unpaid laborers in their spouse's home. Many report physical and sexual abuse in the marriage. All over the world, girls are exploited as house slaves — by their own family or by strangers.

Poverty-stricken families may be promised that their children will get the chance to go to school. But once they're taken, these girls are locked inside the house and forced to work hours a day. Many also suffer sexual abuse.

The number of unreported cases is high — even in industrialized nations. Under this form of slavery, victims are forced to work to pay off a debt.

Often the debts continue to pile up, even if the whole family toils for 10 hours a day at the brickworks, or in their owner's quarries, fields or mines.

Often the debts are also inherited by children. The ILO estimates there are around 30 million people working as debt slaves, most of them in India and Pakistan. Illegal migrants are especially vulnerable to exploitation, regardless of where in the world they are. They often have nowhere to claim rights, usually cannot speak the local language, and don't know where they can turn for help.

It's not clear how many illegal migrants work in agriculture in Europe alone. But many live in abysmal conditions as they slave away for well below the minimum wage. The descendants of African slaves in Mauritania are called "Haratin. An estimated , women, men and children in Mauritania are currently exploited as domestic workers or in the agriculture sector.

That's one-fifth of the population. DW: What's the difference between the traditional forms of slavery we saw in the 19th century and now the modern forms of slavery? Jakub Sobik: I think the biggest difference is that slavery, understood historically, is about people literally owning other people. While these forms of slavery still exist in places for example, in West Africa , modern slavery is about exploiting people, about trapping them for labor or for some kind of service such as sexual exploitation.

There are always people who are more vulnerable than others: people who are in poverty, people who are discriminated against and people who are not protected very well by law. For example, in India, a group of Dalits — who are essentially a lower caste — they don't enjoy any rights.

They are discriminated against. They don't have many opportunities for good jobs and they're not protected by law because that caste is seen as a lesser one. Hundreds of thousands of Dalit people are being exploited in the brick industry — in brick factories across India — and in other industries too. It happens often through debt bondage and other forms of exploitation.