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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsContemporary Slavery
Read an article on CNN this morning about ISIS having sex slaves,
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/21/politics/escaped-yazidi-slave-isis-us-fight/index.html
which led me to do a quick search and stumbled across a Wiki page on Contemporary Slavery which was a surprise and shock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_slavery
Turns out India still has slavery as do several other countries, the worst being Mauritania in Africa.
As India and likely the others are trading partners with the US, surely we can do something to help.
Here is the intro:
Contemporary slavery, also known as modern slavery, refers to the institutions of slavery that continue to exist in the present day. Estimates of the number of slaves today range from around 21 million[1]-29 million[2][3][4][5] to 46 million.[6][7]
Modern slavery is a multibillion-dollar industry with estimates of up to $35 billion generated annually.[needs update] The United Nations estimates that roughly 27 to 30 million individuals are currently caught in the slave trade industry.[needs update][8] India has the most slaves of any country, at roughly 18.4 million.[9] China is second with 3.4 million slaves, followed by Pakistan (2.1 million), Bangladesh (1.5 million), and Uzbekistan (1.2 million). By percentages of the population living in slavery, North Korea tops with 4.4% (about 1.1 million people out of 25 million), followed by Uzbekistan (4% of its population), Cambodia (1.6%), India, (1.4%) and Qatar (1.4%).[7]
Mauritania was the last nation to officially abolish slavery, doing so in 2007; yet 4.3% of the population still remains enslaved.[needs update][10] Despite being illegal in every nation, slavery is still present in several forms today.
Here is a link to the Wiki map, maybe someone can help make it display.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Modern_incidence_of_slavery.png
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closeupready
(29,503 posts)Anyone have some?? 
More seriously, K&R.
malaise
(269,219 posts)in America's private prisons
malaise
(269,219 posts)
closeupready
(29,503 posts)See what I mean? DU has become a gossip tabloid forum.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)If we're cherry-picking anecdotal data simply to validate our biases, the thread regarding the watch list has 92 replies. The thread regarding John Lewis has 82. The thread regarding the sit-in has 224.
Orrex
(63,233 posts)Please tell me what response I can post that will have any impact whatsoever on the ongoing humanitarian crime of slavery.
Please tell us what response any or all of DU can post that will have any impact.
Would it be helpful if the thread had 500 "that's terrible" responses? No shit it's terrible. It's frankly monstrous beyond words, and nothing that goes on here will make any difference at all.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)People gossip about tweets and dead celebrities, and people also talk about important things.
It's called an observation. You know, science.
Orrex
(63,233 posts)I note that your reply #5 added nothing to the thread except a chance for you to scold DU for its shallowness.
It's called preachy smugness. You know, self-righteousness.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Have a great day.
Orrex
(63,233 posts)
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)Seems like the counts left that bit out. And not only that: prisoner slavery is explicitly allowed by our revered Constitution.
puffy socks
(1,473 posts)21 million individuals, about 68% are subjected to forced labor, while 22% are subjected to forced sexual exploitation.The remaining 10% are in forms of state-imposed forced labor — working in prisons under conditions that violate labor standards, or forced to participate in rebel armed forces.
To put this in context, 12.5 million Africans were enslaved and taken to America during the transatlantic slave trade, which lasted from 1525 to 1866. Though the 21 million individuals actually represent a lower percentage of the global population than the time of the slave trade, it's still a staggering reality.
However, today's numbers could be even higher, because the number of people in modern slavery is so hard to track.
http://mashable.com/2015/07/30/human-trafficking-facts/#etvFvol3lsqY
Last year, instances of human trafficking were reported in all 50 U.S. states and Washington D.C.
In 2014, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline received multiple reports of human trafficking cases from every state within the U.S. California had the most complaints, with 223 cases reported in 2014.
Sex trafficking is by far the most prevalent form of human trafficking in the U.S.
Of the 1,345 instances of human trafficking reported to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center this year so far, 973 of those instances were related to sex trafficking.
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...so I will:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289
Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.
(...)
The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.
(...)
“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”
The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.”
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Plenty of Corporations and 'for profits' and State governments use Americas slaves.
jtx
(68 posts)My original thought was that India is a major trading partner, surely we should be able to raise this issue with them to cause a change.
Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of our foreign aid, why do we not add improvement of this situation as a condition to the aid?
As with all issues, things only happen with awareness followed requests for action.
I do not know which of the Congress members are involved in the trade and foreign aid negotiations, and was hopeful that some here would know or have actual contacts with them.
As a starting point, the first step is to raise awareness, as I was truly surprised to read this information.
