At present, “slavery is more common around the world than at any time in human history, according to the latest research by a British-based academic,” reports The Independent of London. Sociology professor Kevin Bales, of the University of Surrey in Roehampton, “has calculated that 27 million people now live as slaves, more than in the Roman Empire or at the height of the transatlantic slave trade,” says the paper. Although today’s methods of slavery may differ from 150 years ago, millions of people are “controlled by another person using violence or the threat of violence and are paid absolutely nothing,” Bales says. The most common form of slavery today is contract slavery, where for a price, organized gangs arrange passage to another country with promise of a high-paying job. Once smuggled into a country, however, the workers are exploited by being forced to pay off their debt by performing menial work.
The sad detail about this issue is that governments are not placing this at a high level of priority. This surprizes me in this age of human rights awareness and advocacy.
Modern Slave Trade
At present, “slavery is more common around the world than at any time in human history, according to the latest research by a British-based academic,” reports The Independent of London. Sociology professor Kevin Bales, of the University of Surrey in Roehampton, “has calculated that 27 million people now live as slaves, more than in the Roman Empire or at the height of the transatlantic slave trade,” says the paper. Although today’s methods of slavery may differ from 150 years ago, millions of people are “controlled by another person using violence or the threat of violence and are paid absolutely nothing,” Bales says. The most common form of slavery today is contract slavery, where for a price, organized gangs arrange passage to another country with promise of a high-paying job. Once smuggled into a country, however, the workers are exploited by being forced to pay off their debt by performing menial work.