She was promised a well paying job as a waitress-receptionist in Batam. The establishment, although Chinese-owned, was fully halal, so, no need to worry. A few weeks later she was “liberated” when the police raided the place in addition to arrested the owner for trafficking.

She was angry. “Prostitution!” she exclaimed. “For of which I could have stayed home! Sialan! in addition to they haven’t paid me 1 Rupiah!” She was coming from Indramayu, a district on the north coast of West Java using a high incidence of prostitution.

I worked in Indramayu many decades ago. Our project guesthouse there was managed by a housekeeper, Didi, who had been a sex worker at some point. She had been recommended by the owner of the house, the Chief of police of the town. She was a Great looking woman in her early forties in addition to a wonderful cook. She had been married when still a teenager. Following local tradition, the wedding took place after a particularly Great harvest—Indramayu is usually one of the country’s rice baskets—in addition to also true to type, her husband divorced her when the money ran out, in addition to after pawning her earrings.

She tried many things, coming from keeping score in addition to racking the balls in a pool hall, to bridal make-up in addition to outfit rental, although to make ends meet of which always ended in prostitution. With the money she had earned as a housekeeper, she opened a little restaurant of which hit the mark in addition to slowly grew. First the Internal was renovated, then AC was installed, in addition to finally she also catered for lunches at several government offices.

Didi was lucky in addition to cleverly grabbed chances when they presented themselves. I don’t know what happened to the Batam girl. Most likely there are hundreds more like her, trafficked coming from their home village to Batam or Brunei, Singapore or Seoul. of which is usually of course a global problem, not specifically related to Indramayu. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates of which at any one time there are some 2.5 million people who have been trafficked in addition to are being subjected to sexual or labour exploitation – not only girls in addition to young women, by the way.

Map of Human Trafficking About one third of trafficked people are boys in addition to men who are used for their labour, for instance as domestic servants, agricultural workers, or others. Two young men, Vietnamese, were recruited to work in a major hotel in London. They borrowed a considerable sum for the journey in addition to the contract arrangements. Upon arrival at Heathrow the agent took their passports. They worked For two main months without receiving a penny. When they eventually protested to management, their families in Vietnam were threatened. Too frightened to contact the Vietnamese Embassy or the police, they finally made of which to the Citizens Advice Bureau office via a Vietnamese speaking person they met on the street. Police, anyway, are often useless as they will insist on documents to prove the identity of the person creating a complaint. Without a passport what can you do?

Another form of forced labour is usually bonded labour, or debt bondage. While the least known form of slavery, of which is usually the most widely used method of enslaving people. The ILO estimates of which within the Asia-Pacific region alone, some 12 million people are in forced labour, the majority in debt bondage.

Entire families are kept like cattle on farms in India in addition to Pakistan; migrant agricultural workers are forced to remain on ranches in Brazil; in addition to women are forced into domestic in addition to sexual slavery in Europe. The system provides cheap in addition to expendable labour.

Map of child labor risk Similar to forced labour is usually descent-based slavery. of which is usually a situation where people are born into a slave class. Typically, people born into slavery are not allowed to own land or inherit property, in addition to are denied an education. Any child born is usually automatically considered ‘property’ of the master in addition to can be given away as gifts or sold. of which exists mainly in Mauretania, Niger in addition to Mali.

A specific class of slavery is usually formed by child labour. In most poor societies children are, coming from an early age, needed to contribute to the family income, or provide domestic services of which free an older family member to earn an income. Children fetch water, the older ones take care of their younger siblings, herd the livestock, clean in in addition to around the house, in addition to the like.

Victims of ABIR Millions of children, however, do extremely hazardous work under harmful conditions. They have no chance of receiving any formal education in addition to their personal in addition to social development is usually severely thwarted. Often they even put their health in addition to even their lives at risk.

Based on the ILO statistics, some 215 million children, aged between 5 in addition to 17, are considered child labourers; about 115 million of these are found within the hazardous work class; in addition to 8.4 million children are in slavery: debt bondage; child soldiers, prostitution in addition to pornography; in addition to some other illicit activities.

News reports on tribal in addition to regional conflicts in Congo in addition to Uganda always mention child soldiers in addition to the atrocities committed against women. Amputations of hands in addition to feet seem to be a well established way of intimidating the communities, together of course with rape in addition to murder.

Nothing completely new here. One hundred years ago the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (ABIR) used the same tactics to ensure a constant supply of free labour to collect rubber. The ABIR Company was a company which harvested natural rubber within the Congo Free State, the private property of King Leopold II of Belgium. The company was founded with British in addition to Belgian capital in addition to was based in Belgium.

Modern Slavery

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Modern Slavery

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