One.org According to statistics about 27 million people are being slaved around the world. Eighty percent are women and half of that percentage are minors. It is estimated that this slave trading industry brought in 32 billion dollars worldwide last year. These figures in reality are much greater for obvious reasons: Most people who are being trafficked have no way of getting any kind of assistance, especially in countries where women are looked at as property of whoever buys them. In Arabian countries, a woman is worth less than a camel, and the laws are designed to discourage victims from coming forward like in the recent case of a 25 year old woman from Norway, who got sentenced to 16 months in prison after reporting a rape in Dubai. Reported by Simon Atkinson of BBC News, according to their religious laws she was guilty of having sex outside the marriage, and instead of punishing her attackers, she was the one who ended up paying for this heinous crime committed against her. The Dubai rape victim was pardoned by Dubai’s ruler after international outcry, in order to preserve the region’s vital tourism industry intact.
If you are stuck as a slave in a place like this would you make matters worse on yourself by reporting your abductors to the local authorities? The vast majority of slaves can be found in India and in African countries, and the list of countries where slavery takes place goes on and on, but unfortunately our great country is not exempt from this list. We have all kinds of laws in place in order to protect women and minors here at home but still, statistics show that one third of the 2.8 million kids that runaway each year right here at home are recruited to pornography and prostitution within 48 hours. Each year, thousands of people are illegally brought into the United States, most of them lured here by their unscrupulous traffickers after selling their souls and bodies for huge amounts of money to these criminals with empty promises of an American dream. One that they will most likely never experience in their lifetimes. Instead, they are sent to brothels to pay off their debt by selling their bodies (in the case of women and minors). If they are men, then they are sent to labor jobs making so little money that it would take them years at end to pay off their captors for their freedom. The authorities do whatever they can to help, but in most cases it is very difficult for them to detect slaved individuals when these unfortunate people are coerced into silence with threats of deportation, and even death.
No matter what the present situation of our economy might be, we are still the richest country in the world with huge amounts of resources. Other countries might have their excuses to look the other way, but Americans know that we can all do a lot more right here at home to end slavery and human trafficking in our own backyards in this lifetime. We all have a role to play including the government, the private sector, international organizations, and all American citizens who would NOT just stand by if this terrible injustice was being inflicted on a member of their own families. YOU can do more… we all can. Visit The CNN Freedom Project and The Polaris Project to learn more.
If you are stuck as a slave in a place like this would you make matters worse on yourself by reporting your abductors to the local authorities? The vast majority of slaves can be found in India and in African countries, and the list of countries where slavery takes place goes on and on, but unfortunately our great country is not exempt from this list. We have all kinds of laws in place in order to protect women and minors here at home but still, statistics show that one third of the 2.8 million kids that runaway each year right here at home are recruited to pornography and prostitution within 48 hours. Each year, thousands of people are illegally brought into the United States, most of them lured here by their unscrupulous traffickers after selling their souls and bodies for huge amounts of money to these criminals with empty promises of an American dream. One that they will most likely never experience in their lifetimes. Instead, they are sent to brothels to pay off their debt by selling their bodies (in the case of women and minors). If they are men, then they are sent to labor jobs making so little money that it would take them years at end to pay off their captors for their freedom. The authorities do whatever they can to help, but in most cases it is very difficult for them to detect slaved individuals when these unfortunate people are coerced into silence with threats of deportation, and even death.
No matter what the present situation of our economy might be, we are still the richest country in the world with huge amounts of resources. Other countries might have their excuses to look the other way, but Americans know that we can all do a lot more right here at home to end slavery and human trafficking in our own backyards in this lifetime. We all have a role to play including the government, the private sector, international organizations, and all American citizens who would NOT just stand by if this terrible injustice was being inflicted on a member of their own families. YOU can do more… we all can. Visit The CNN Freedom Project and The Polaris Project to learn more.
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