Vegas
03-26-2007, 02:17 AM
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10430846
Slavery is officially banned by all countries yet there are more slaves than ever before. Today there are an estimated 27 million slaves: people paid no money, locked away and controlled by violence.
An estimated 218 million children are used for labour, United Nations Children's Fund Unicef says. Millions work in especially horrific circumstances, including the virtual slavery of bonded labour.
An estimated 126 million children work in the worst forms of child labour - one in 12 of the world's children aged 5 to 17.
Around 300,000 child soldiers, some younger than 10, are involved in more than 30 areas of conflict.
INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM
Asia
The vast majority of the world's slaves are in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Millions of children in India are given up by their families into virtual slavery as domestic workers. Children are exploited by employers and made to do strenuous labour for little or no pay.
Despite a ban on employing children under 14, India's Labour Ministry recently said 12.6 million youngsters aged between 5 and 14 were working, the largest number of child labourers in the world.
Europe
British Government research shows that during 2003 there were an estimated 4000 victims of trafficking for prostitution in Britain. The figure has risen at least threefold since 1998, according to Home Office figures. Romania and its southern neighbour Bulgaria are among 11 countries listed by the United Nations as top sources of human trafficking, based on reported numbers of victims. The organised crime unit of Sofia's Interior Ministry said at the end of 2006 that 4000 to 5000 Bulgarian women were being trafficked a year.
Other countries in the region, the poorest in Europe, are also hotbeds for organised crime and illegal trade such as Moldova and Ukraine.
Africa
Last July, ministers from 26 West and Central African countries launched a new attempt to revitalise the fight against people trafficking, which fuels child labour and sexual exploitation in the region and beyond.
Between 200,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked each year in the sub-region.
Children are moved within and between countries to work as domestics, in agriculture or in the markets.
Women are tricked with promises of good jobs abroad into forced prostitution in Europe or the Middle East.
In Mauritania, slavery was nominally abolished at independence in 1960 and legally banned again in 1981. Yet rights groups say it persists in the interior of the nation of three million inhabitants, many of them nomads.
Anti-Slavery International says at least 43,000 people live as slaves across Niger, many of them born into slavery and working as domestic servants or farm labourers.
Slavery is officially banned by all countries yet there are more slaves than ever before. Today there are an estimated 27 million slaves: people paid no money, locked away and controlled by violence.
An estimated 218 million children are used for labour, United Nations Children's Fund Unicef says. Millions work in especially horrific circumstances, including the virtual slavery of bonded labour.
An estimated 126 million children work in the worst forms of child labour - one in 12 of the world's children aged 5 to 17.
Around 300,000 child soldiers, some younger than 10, are involved in more than 30 areas of conflict.
INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM
Asia
The vast majority of the world's slaves are in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Millions of children in India are given up by their families into virtual slavery as domestic workers. Children are exploited by employers and made to do strenuous labour for little or no pay.
Despite a ban on employing children under 14, India's Labour Ministry recently said 12.6 million youngsters aged between 5 and 14 were working, the largest number of child labourers in the world.
Europe
British Government research shows that during 2003 there were an estimated 4000 victims of trafficking for prostitution in Britain. The figure has risen at least threefold since 1998, according to Home Office figures. Romania and its southern neighbour Bulgaria are among 11 countries listed by the United Nations as top sources of human trafficking, based on reported numbers of victims. The organised crime unit of Sofia's Interior Ministry said at the end of 2006 that 4000 to 5000 Bulgarian women were being trafficked a year.
Other countries in the region, the poorest in Europe, are also hotbeds for organised crime and illegal trade such as Moldova and Ukraine.
Africa
Last July, ministers from 26 West and Central African countries launched a new attempt to revitalise the fight against people trafficking, which fuels child labour and sexual exploitation in the region and beyond.
Between 200,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked each year in the sub-region.
Children are moved within and between countries to work as domestics, in agriculture or in the markets.
Women are tricked with promises of good jobs abroad into forced prostitution in Europe or the Middle East.
In Mauritania, slavery was nominally abolished at independence in 1960 and legally banned again in 1981. Yet rights groups say it persists in the interior of the nation of three million inhabitants, many of them nomads.
Anti-Slavery International says at least 43,000 people live as slaves across Niger, many of them born into slavery and working as domestic servants or farm labourers.