December 2nd is announced by the UN as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. Why do we need to have such a day in the 21st century? Unfortunately slavery still exists in many places in the World. We can call it ‘contemporary slavery’. And what can be very counter-intuitive – it exists in very diverse, but also extreme, forms even in developed countries.
An article from 2013 in The Guardian tells us about the story of Piotr, a Polish man, who took the chance to work in the UK. The offer came from a man who paid his one-way ticket and eventually, with the assistance of other gangsters, withheld half of Piotr’s salary. The conditions in which the migrant had to live were terrible. He was regularly threatened to be killed. You can read the full story at: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/nov/20/forced-labour-uk-escape-fear-polish-migrant
Another face of contemporary slavery is forced prostitution. A documentary worth watching is ‘The Price of Sex’, by Mimi Chakarova. The journalist visited 9 countries and went undercover to see in first person how the trafficking of women works. The film director also interviewed former victims of forced prostitution in countries such as Moldova. There, for example, girls with no social opportunities are lured by job offers in other countries, where they end up being enslaved. You can read more about the documentary at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/06/magazine-undercover-sex-worker-human-trafficking-150610072623672.html
It is not a Hollywood movie. It is real life.
The photo shows children working in an Indian construction company.
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