Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Where are the world's slaves?

Max Fisher (Washingtonpost.com); Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly
Share of each country's population that is enslaved. Data source: Walk Free Global Slavery Index
 
We think of slavery as a practice of the past, an image from Roman colonies or 18th-century American plantations, but the practice of enslaving human beings as property still exists.

There are 29.8 million people living as slaves right now, according to a comprehensive new report  issued by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.

This is not some softened by-modern-standards definition of slavery. These 30 million people are living as forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, child brides in forced marriages and, in all ways that matter, as pieces of property, "chattel" in the servitude of absolute ownership.

Walk Free investigated 162 countries and found slaves in every single one. But the practice is far worse in some countries than others. The country where you are most likely to be enslaved is... More

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