Children, women and men of all ages are forced to toil in the rug loom sheds of Nepal and Pakistan, child soldiers fight wars in Africa, child sexual exploitation are blooming in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Peru and many other countries, labourers are coerced to work without pay in Bolivia, India, Pakistan etc, child labour is a common sight in Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya etc, and sex syndicates are not to be undermined in many parts of Europe.
No nation wants to be known as a haven for slavery and trafficking but nonetheless over 150 countries around the world are documented as a source for the slave trade. A thriving black market in human beings has emerged in our modern world. It is a criminal enterprise involving scoundrels and international syndicates. Corruption among law enforcers and government officials play a key role in its success. The process of enslavement involves traffickers targeting children from communities lacking in social power and at times with the consent of the victims' parents, the extraction by traffickers by removing victims from their home communities to destination where they are unlikely to get support from law enforcement bodies or general citizenry, slaveholders seeking control over every aspect of the victim's life so that escape becomes unthinkable, the use of violence as a mean to reinforce control and ensure compliance and lastly physical and emotion exploitation of the victims.
We may passed by a construction site but never think twice whether the workers are in enslavement, toiling long hours with little or no pay. Children in sex slavery are openly offered as human services in broad daylight, at times in public view and most of us just stand by doing nothing, except to feel sympathy for them. Slavery is in reality, it is not invisible. They are in public view but how many of us will raise an alarm or an eyebrow?
Slaves in Pakistan may have made the shoes you are wearing, the carpet you on standing on. Slaves in the Caribbean may have put the sugar on your table and toys in the hands of your children. In India, they may have sewn the shirt on your back and polished the ring on your finger. The rice we eat may well be harvested by young children in Thailand.
Widespread poverty and social inequality ensure a pool of slaves as deep as the ocean. Parents in desperate straits may sell their children, young women in vulnerable communities are likely to take a risk on a job offer in an another country. The poor are apt to accept a loan that later manipulate and rob their freedom. Slavery flourishes in the world because it is tolerated by law enforcement.
I believe conviction of criminals is one of the most effective tools to deter trafficking and abusing people. If only the laws are enforced, the slave trade will end tomorrow. But unfortunately, slave owners, pimps and traffickers know they can rely on a broken public justice system to escape prosecution. The legalisation of the sex trade in many countries make the prosecution of traffickers, pimps and brothel owners almost impossible.
The book of Ecclesiastes expressed the desperation of the powerless. "I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed with no one to comfort them. On the side of their oppressors there was power". (Eccles 4:1)
I applause the courage and commitments of many abolitionists who are making a difference despite incredible odds. I hope and pray that the day may come when these movements will wipe away the tears of the oppressed and deliver justice to the oppressors.
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