Exactly 74 years ago, the UN General Assembly signed the Convention for the Suppression of Trafficking in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. This milestone meant that, in 1985, December 2 was classified as the day for the abolition of slavery, to commemorate the treaty, but above all with the aim of raising awareness among the population and eradicating contemporary forms of slavery. known as modern slavery.
For Jessica Turner, manager of the organization Anti-Slavery International, the concept of modern slavery refers to “all current forms of exploitation, for personal or commercial gain, to which a person is subjected against their will. It is a “a situation that affects people who have been forced to give up their freedom.”
For her part, María Collazos, policy and research analyst at Walk Free, points out that modern slavery is a general term. “In the end, when we talk about this issue, we are dealing with various forms of oppression, from forced labor, human trafficking, which includes victims of commercial sexual exploitation, servitude or forced marriage.”
The latest data available in relation to this problem estimates that in 2021 there were a total of 50 million people living under conditions of modern slavery. In fact, according to this report presented by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Walk Free and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in just five years, the number of individuals in this situation increased by ten million.
Thus, one of the main concerns of the ILO is the increase in people experiencing this situation. “The constant conflicts and wars cause millions of people to have to migrate and become vulnerable, to the point of, contrary to what they would like, accepting jobs that they do not want,” explains Axil Nasri about the reasons for this increase in slavery.
Contrary to what one might think, these situations do not only occur in developing countries, since there are many first world and democratic countries with thousands of human beings subjected to slavery. In fact, in the G20 countries, which account for 85% of the world’s GDP, more than 50% of the people subjected to this type of life live.
Collazos assures that this happens because modern slavery is still a business: “The eradication of slavery requires the political will to ensure that there are legal frameworks and adequate social protections for the vulnerable population and that they are relevant to the current context.” For example, Walk Free believes that legal frameworks should be created in Europe to protect immigrants coming from Ukraine, in short, to take care of the most vulnerable.
And the people who end up in this type of scenario are, in their vast majority, due to the constant vulnerability in which they find themselves due to weak protection systems, either due to constant conflicts in their territory, or due to example legal frameworks that discriminate against women. “Around 90% of the victims of commercial sexual exploitation around the world are women and girls who live in social contexts that denigrate them and end up being sexually exploited out of obligation,” Collazos highlights to La Vanguardia.
Of course, Turner considers that although the most affected people are those who are in a state of vulnerability, “anyone can reach a situation of slavery, which is sometimes practically invisible even to oneself.”
According to the latest ranking prepared by Walk Free, the countries with the most slaves per inhabitant are North Korea with 104.6 people per thousand, followed by Eritrea with 90.3 and Mauritania with 32.
For its part, Spain is ranked 136 out of 160 in the slavery prevalence index. Furthermore, it is estimated that for every thousand people living in Spanish territory, 2.3 are in a situation of contemporary slavery, that is, a total of 108,000 inhabitants in the country.
“Although countries like Spain and the United Kingdom have laws against these oppressive practices, there are sectors in which repression is very poor, especially services, construction and manufacturing,” argues Nasri in relation to the existence of slavery in democratic countries.
Likewise, the report specifies that the vast majority of Spanish citizens are in situations of little or no vulnerability. On the other hand, it is also emphasized that the government’s actions could be better, although, yes, they are still above the average for Europe and Central Asia.
“Now, our job lies in preventing and getting the international community to cooperate and begin to seriously punish all these practices,” concludes Nasri.
