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Overview

It is a confronting reality that even in the present day, men, women and children all over the world remain victims of modern slavery. They are bought and sold in public markets, forced to marry against their will and provide labour under the guise of "marriage," forced to work inside clandestine factories on the promise of a salary that is often withheld, or on fishing boats where men and boys toil under threats of violence. They are forced to work on construction sites, in stores, on farms, or in homes as maids. Labour extracted through force, coercion, or threats produces some of the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the footballs we kick. The minerals that men, women, and children have been made to extract from mines find their way into cosmetics, electronics, and cars, among many other products.

This is modern slavery. It is widespread and pervasive, often unacknowledged, and its extent was previously believed to be unknowable. In 2017, the Walk Free Foundation and the International Labour Organization (ILO), together with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), developed the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, which provides the best available data and information about the scale and regional distribution of modern slavery. These estimates provide the starting point for this report, the Global Slavery Index. The national estimates presented here were calculated by the Walk Free Foundation on the basis of a predictive model that accounted for individual and country-level risk factors and resulting prevalence estimates were then adjusted to ensure regional totals were aligned with the regional totals in the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery.

An analysis of the national estimates in this Global Slavery Index confirms that modern slavery is a crime that affects all countries globally, including, perhaps surprisingly, highly developed countries. While an understanding of prevalence is critical to formulating sound policy responses to modern slavery, equally important is building our understanding of what is driving prevalence. For this reason, the national prevalence estimates are analysed in the context of results of the Vulnerability Model, which provides important context for understanding the national results.

In this chapter, we also consider the important issue of government responses to modern slavery. The Government Response Index provides a comparable measure of the steps being taken by 181 countries across 104 indicators of good practice. An analysis of these findings confirms that while there has been important progress made since the publication of the last Global Slavery Index in 2016, there are still critical gaps and responses to them need to be developed.

Overall, our findings confirm that modern slavery remains a critical issue for all countries. Just as responding to environmental concerns cannot be the task of one country alone, responding to modern slavery is a challenge that requires commitment and effort from all countries.

What does the data tell us about modern slavery?

It is widely acknowledged that measuring modern slavery is a difficult undertaking, not least because no single source provides suitable and reliable data on all forms of modern slavery. In developing the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, the Walk Free Foundation and the ILO adopted a methodology that combined survey research involving face-to-face interviews with more than 71,000 people in 53 local languages with administrative data on victims of trafficking who had been assisted by the IOM. An estimate of forced labour imposed by state authorities was derived from validated sources and systematic review of comments from the ILO supervisory bodies with regard to the ILO Conventions on forced labour.

Note on recruitment of children by armed forces and organ trafficking

This, however, should not be taken as an indication of diminished importance of these forms of modern slavery. The following sections provide a brief overview of the existing state of knowledge on both trafficking for organ removal and recruitment of child soldiers.

Trafficking in persons for organ removal

Recruitment of children by armed forces

Notwithstanding these critical data gaps, the 2018 Global Slavery Index presents national-level estimates for 167 countries based on the proportion of the population that is estimated to be in some form of modern slavery.
The 10 countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery are

1. North Korea

2. Eritrea

3. Burundi

4. the Central African Republic

5. Afghanistan

6. Mauritania

7. South Sudan

8. Pakistan

9. Cambodia

10. Iran

An analysis of the ten countries with highest prevalence indicates a connection between modern slavery and two major external drivers- highly repressive regimes and conflict. As the data in this Global Slavery Index confirm, several of the countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery - the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Pakistan - also score above 90 percent in the Vulnerability Model, which measures systemic, individual, and environmental risk factors in 167 countries. The interplay between modern slavery and risk factors is discussed further below.

Key Trends

Three main trends emerge from the national estimates of modern slavery.

First:

Many of the countries with the highest estimated levels of prevalence are marked by conflict - Eritrea, Burundi, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Pakistan all appear among the 10 countries with highest prevalence. The role that conflict plays in compounding vulnerability to slavery is widely recognised and finds support in an assessment of vulnerability at the national level. In the Walk Free Foundation's assessment of vulnerability across five dimensions - governance issues, lack of basic needs, inequality, disenfranchised groups, and effects of conflict - countries with high vulnerability due to effects of conflict generally have higher vulnerability scores across the remaining four dimensions. This is not surprising given the disruption to, and often complete dismantling of, the rule of law, as well as damage to critical infrastructure and limited access to education, health care, and food and water as a result of conflict.Similarly, the Walk Free Foundation's government response data highlight the disruption caused by conflict to government functions. Eritrea, Central African Republic, Pakistan, and Iran all score lowly on government responses, while Afghanistan and South Sudan were excluded from the government response assessment this year due to significant ongoing conflict.

Second:

The improved measurement of state-imposed forced labour reveals the substantial impact this form of slavery has on populations. T he three countries with highest prevalence - North Korea, Eritrea, and Burundi - stand out has having a very high prevalence of state-imposed forced labour. State-imposed forced labour includes citizens recruited by their state authorities to participate in agriculture or construction work for purposes of economic development, young military conscripts forced to perform work that is not of military nature, those forced to perform communal services that were not decided upon at the community level and do not benefit them, or prisoners forced to work against their will. 28 In North Korea, one in 10 people are in modern slavery with the vast majority being forced to work by the state. See "Spotlight: Forced Labour in North Korea" on this page for further analysis.

Governments that regularly impose forced labour on their citizens perform poorly across other measures of vulnerability. For example, they tend to be more autocratic, are believed to have lower quality policy and regulations, perform below the global average in ensuring access to necessities such as food and water and health care, and typically do not protect the rights of highly discriminated groups in the broader population. More specifically, the presence of state-imposed forced labour undermines at best, and at worst renders meaningless, any government response to modern slavery. North Korea has the weakest response to modern slavery globally due to the state's role in forced labour both within North Korea and of North Koreans abroad. The abuse of civic duties in Burundi and conscription in Eritrea also threatens any concrete actions these governments may be taking.

Third:

The prevalence of modern slavery in highly developed, high-income countries is higher than previously understood. This learning reflects improvements in the methodology, in particular, the ability to systematically count cases at the point of exploitation which was made possible with a substantially larger number of surveys. For example, if an Indian man reported being exploited in the construction sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), that case was attributed to UAE. In the five-year reference period for the estimates, while surveys were conducted in 48 countries, men, women, and children were reported to have been exploited in 79 countries. This results in higher estimates in countries such as the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and several other European nations.

Figure 1Estimated prevalence of modern slavery by country (noting 10 countries with highest prevalence, estimated victims per 1,000 population)

Spotlight: Forced labour in North Korea

For children, this might involve daily work in agriculture, or a month of work at harvest time. The schools, and not the children, received payment for the work. If children did not participate, they would later be punished and criticised within the school itself. Participation could be avoided through paying bribes.

For adults, communal labour involved being mobilised for "battles" in which workers are sent to work for 70 or 100 days in a row. The penalty for refusal is a cut in food rations or the assessment of taxes.

For children, the forced mobilisation started at an early age and ranged from light agricultural duties to longer periods of hard labour, all of which was without pay:

When I was a teenager in the Youth League, I had to participate in the speed battles as part of the shock brigade at least once. I was mobilised to do construction on the Pyongyang Highway for six months. Respondent No. 7, female, adult

From the age of 13, every student is mobilised for farm work without exception. It lasts 40 days for the spring mobilisation and 30 days for the autumn one. Respondent No .10, male, adult

One adult male respondent described his experience with mobilisation as follows:

You cannot refuse. If the work unit leader orders you to go to work, you have to do it. If you don't, then your food rations are cut off. Respondent No .1, male, adult

Respondents gave examples of some of the absurd situations they found themselves in as a result of both having to pay to work and pay to prop up the broken system:

On paper I was a labourer but in reality I did not work as one. It was a place that raised pigs to support the People's Army and shock brigades. It was supposed to raise pigs. But no one actually raised pigs there. There was no space to raise pigs there and no feed for them either. Since the labourers cannot work, they are required to pay a certain amount of money instead. Every month the labourers must give 2kg of pork to the management office. Respondent No. 23, female, adult

Compliance was backed up by the need to be employed, at risk of being sent to a labour camp. Respondents noted for example:

If you quit without receiving approval, you will be detained at a labour training camp. Respondent No. 30, male, adult

If I'd quit, I would be caught. And if I didn't go to work for more than two months and was caught as unemployed, I would be investigated by the police office and would be detained in a labour training camp. Usually, the period of detainment was six months. Respondent No. 38, male, adult

I couldn't quit my job. If I didn't go to work, I would be sent to a labour training camp. Respondent No. 44, male, adult

Finally, respondents also described forced labour inside labour camps. One respondent noted the following experience:

The work was hard. Gathering beans in the autumn was fine because I had done this kind of work, but because it was done in the labour camp and I did not have any freedom, that was the difficult part. It was difficult to work under surveillance. [...] I couldn't use the toilet whenever I wanted, I had to ask for permission before using it. [...] I got up at six in the morning and went to bed at ten in the evening. In the morning, I got up and cleaned the yard, then washed my face. They lined us up in the morning. The line-up officer talked with the head of the camp and distributed our work tasks. Respondent No. 8, female, adult

The sample for this research included two defectors who had worked both inside North Korea and for the North Korean government overseas. Both explained that their wages were withheld and, at most, some portion was paid to them (after three years, one received the equivalent of $55 for each month he worked; the second worked for three years to earn sufficient funds to live in North Korea for about three months). While being physically located overseas, they described their workplaces as exported North Korean environments in which the hierarchical structures and ideological sessions travelled with them.

While the study did not seek to examine the situation of North Korean women who have been forced to marry in China, one respondent (a member of the Workers Party of Korea with a well-positioned job in North Korea) did share the following experience that is relevant to understanding the complexities of this issue:

I didn't come to [South] Korea because I wanted to. I sent one person across the border. She was with her friend. She directly came to Korea but the broker sold her friend to a farm owner (in China) who was 20 years older than her. So she often pleaded to the broker to send her to South Korea and paid him for that. But all nine people who set out were caught in China and were repatriated back to North Korea. They mentioned my name when they were investigated about their escape route and helpers at Cheongjin police holding camp. After this, I had no choice but to leave North Korea so I left in a hurry. It was unimaginable that the arrested woman wouldn't divulge my name during the interrogation process and torture at the police holding camp, so I left right away. They put most serious responsibility and penalty for assisting people with their escape to South Korea. So there was much possibility that I could have been buried alive so I left. Respondent No. 27, Male, adult

To understand the experiences of these 50 men and women, it is necessary to understand the operating environment inside North Korea. Following the famine in the late 1990s and the collapse of the Public Distribution System for all but a minority of citizens, North Korean daily life has become a perverse mix of socialist rhetoric (in which the Supreme Leader and the state provide for its people) and market-based realities (in which the general population supports and funds the Supreme Leader and the State). As noted in interviews, key features that impact on degrees of freedom in working life inside North Korea include the following:

All officially recognised work is centrally organised.

Social class determines the nature of the employment you receive (along with your housing, access to education, and other benefits). There are three main classes: the core class (the elite, party cadres, and their families), the wavering class (average North Koreans), and lastly the hostile class (including descendants of landlords or capitalists). Status can be and is inherited.

The punishment for being unemployed or failing to attend work is internment in a labour camp.

Workers are provided with rations for food and other necessities of life, which can also be withheld as punishment.

While in theory all work involves a salary, in reality most wages remain unpaid. Respondents noted many cases where they had to in fact pay both to keep their job (to avoid being formally unemployed and then sent to a labour camp) and to cover the costs of production (when quotas or were not met or the workplace actually had no materials or production). To maintain their "employment" and to survive, they reported working on the black market, trading or selling whatever they could.

Obtaining a job, keeping it, or switching jobs normally involves payment of bribes to officials.

As one defector explained that, while forced mobilisation is compulsory, it is equally possible to avoid mobilisation through bribery:

There is a certain mobilisation campaign that people should work for three years. There is mobilisation to Mt. Baekdu for making grass fields. People from the government would come to a certain region and mobilise residents for joint work for a large-scale construction project such as paving highways. I did not participate in such mobilisation. I paid money instead. I paid 50 North Korean won in 2008. Why should I work when I have money? Working there is extremely hard and people escape from there. Respondent No. 39, male, adult

The picture that emerges is as disturbing as it is perhaps unique. While gaining access to a wider sample of workers across North Korea itself is simply not possible, there is no reason to doubt that the first-hand experiences related this group reflect the brutal reality of modern slavery perpetrated by the state. They also described a broader system that they saw operating around them that not only involves state-sponsored forced labour, but also depends on these practices for its very survival. To read the report in full, see Pervasive, Punitive, and Predetermined: Understanding Modern Slavery in North Korea.

While these findings emphasise the responsibility of highly developed countries to act, the estimates reveal only part of the picture. It is important to note that the governments in several of these countries - t he Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Norway, Portugal, and Montenegro - are also taking the most action to respond to modern slavery. These countries also tend to have lower vulnerability scores across all measures, which reflects effective governance across a broad range of areas and, in particular, a strong capacity to provide protections for vulnerable subgroups and ensure access to necessities such as food and water. Collectively, these factors mitigate risks of enslavement for citizens. However, higher prevalence of modern slavery among these countries suggests that critical gaps remain around the implementation of existing legislation and policies and in tackling the root causes of exploitation. It is very likely that this reflects the reality that, even in countries with seemingly strong systems, there are gaps in protections, with certain groups such as irregular migrants, the homeless, or minorities subject to intense and widespread discrimination and typically less able to access protection. In Europe, which has had a very strong response to modern slavery, there has been a tightening of migration policy and a reduction in the protections available to migrants in recent years. While in part this is a response to the current refugee and migrant crisis, this also renders these individuals more vulnerable to modern slavery. Similar approaches have also been adopted in the US and Australia.

On the other hand, when our assessment of government responses is correlated against GDP (PPP) per capita, we find that some highly developed, high-income countries have taken limited action to respond to modern slavery. Countries including Qatar, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have taken limited action despite high levels of resources (see Table 2). These countries tend to perform relatively well in comparison with other countries in the region on overall vulnerability scores given their greater capacity to address areas of critical need for citizens. However, there remain gaps in protections for migrant populations, often the most vulnerable groups to modern slavery in these countries. Even a seemingly strong response is undermined where there are subgroups of people who suffer high levels of discrimination, as they are likely to be "left behind" where responses to slavery are concerned. This can be linked to a lack of legal status in a country, for example, women in Saudi Arabia, domestic workers who fall outside the protection of labour laws in most Gulf countries, or the stateless hill tribes of Thailand and the Rohingya people of Myanmar, the latter of whom are at the center of the world's fastest growing refugee crisis. 29

Figure 2Vulnerability to modern slavery by country (noting 10 countries with highest average vulnerability score)

Data limitations

While regional estimates were presented in the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, critical gaps in available data were noted. These are particularly problematic in the Arab States, where only two national surveys were undertaken, none of which were in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, despite the incidence of forced labour reported there by various sources in such sectors as domestic work and construction. Further, measurement of forced marriage among residents of countries within the region is almost impossible where there are no surveys at all. Taken together, these gaps point to a significant underestimate of the extent of modern slavery in this region.

Similarly, it is typically not possible to survey in countries that are experiencing profound and current conflict, such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan, and parts of Nigeria and Pakistan. Yet it is known that conflict is a significant risk factor for modern slavery - the breakdown of the rule of law, the loss of social supports, and the disruption that occurs with conflict all increase risk of both forced labour and forced marriage. The lack of data from countries experiencing conflict means that modern slavery estimates in regions in which conflict countries are situated will understate the problem. While drawing on vulnerability data goes some way towards mitigating the impact of this gap, the need for better data in conflict countries remains an urgent research priority.

**

Comparability of the prevalence estimates to the previous Global Slavery Index

As an example of the impact of changes in methodology on the comparability between the previous and current prevalence estimates, the 2016 Index estimated that around 18.3 million people were in modern slavery in India, whereas the 2018 Index estimates that there are around 8 million people living in modern slavery. This difference reflects the presentation of the number who experienced modern slavery on any given day in 2016 (a "stock" figure) as opposed to the number of people in slavery over a five year period (a "flow" figure), as was presented in 2016. The present estimates also reflect the addition of forced sexual exploitation and children in modern slavery. For a fuller list of the changes to the methodology, refer to Appendix 2: Part B.

What are governments doing to address modern slavery?

Figure 3Government response rating to modern slavery by country (noting 10 countries with highest government response)

Globally, governments have taken important strides in the fight against modern slavery since the publication of the 2016 Global Slavery Index. Overall, the Government Response Index suggests that national legal, policy, and programmatic responses to modern slavery are improving, with an increasing number of countries with a BBB and BB rating in 2018 over 2016, and fewer CCC and CC ratings. However, there are some responses that appear to be going backwards, with a small increase in the number of countries that were rated C or D in 2018 compared to 2016.

In 2018, the governments taking the most action to respond to modern slavery are:

1. The Netherlands

2. United States

3. United Kingdom

4. Sweden

5. Belgium

6. Croatia

7. Spain

8. Norway

9. Portugal

10. Montenegro.

As with the 2016 findings, when correlated against GDP (PPP) per capita, some countries stand out as taking relatively strong action when compared with those that have stronger economies. Countries including Georgia, Moldova, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Mozambique are taking positive steps to respond to this issue relative to their wealth. Sierra Leone's coordination body, the Inter-Agency Human Trafficking Task Force, resumed activities in 2015 and approved the 2015-2020 National Action Plan. In Georgia, the government adopted a victim-centred approach by establishing victim witness coordinators from the initial stages of investigations through the end of court proceedings.

Countries have taken steps to strengthen criminal justice responses to modern slavery. As of 15th June 2018, the 2014 Forced Labour Protocol is in force in 17 countries, with an additional seven ratifications coming into force in the next 12 months. 57 This is important as the Forced Labour Protocol brings the framework created by the 1930 Convention on Forced Labour into the 21 st century. The Indian government has taken recent action to reduce the worst forms of child labour by ratifying the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. In line with the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 56 countries have criminalised the buying and selling of children for sex or sexual services, and 27 have criminalised the use of children in armed conflict. Despite these promising steps, in 64 countries penalties for modern slavery crimes remain disproportionate to their severity, as perpetrators can be penalised with a relatively small fine or conversely penalised with corporal punishment (itself a breach of international human rights standards).

The existence of legislation is not in itself enough to deter modern slavery crimes and in many cases the lack of effective implementation of legislation indicates a significant gap in a government response. While 145 countries have provided at least one training session since 2012 for their front-line police officers on identification of victims and investigation of modern slavery crimes, 11 of these did not subsequently identify any victims, suggesting poor execution or low quality of the training provided. Fewer countries have provided training to judges and prosecutors, with 108 and 109 governments respectively providing training for these groups since 2012. Regular training was provided to judges and prosecutors in South Africa, Bolivia, Jordan, and Serbia, among others, however there are reports that this has not resulted in the most stringent of sentences for identified traffickers and exploiters, with some evidence of suspended sentences or conviction for lesser crimes.

While many positive actions were taken by governments around the world in 2018, those taking the least action to combat modern slavery are:

1. North Korea

2. Libya

3. Eritrea

4. Central African Republic

5. Iran

6. Equatorial Guinea

7. Burundi

8. Congo

9. Sudan

10. Mauritania.

Those countries with weaker responses to modern slavery are characterised by government complicity (as is the case in North Korea), low levels of political will (as is the case in Iran), fewer available resources (as is the case in Equatorial Guinea), or high levels of conflict (as is the case in Libya).

These results are broadly similar to our 2016 assessment, with some small improvements in Papua New Guinea, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Hong Kong. Following the launch of the 2016 Global Slavery Index, the Hong Kong government began to take some steps to recognise that modern slavery is a problem by training front-line police and establishing a specialised police force. The fact that the government is starting to respond is to be commended, however, more remains to be done, including criminalising of modern slavery offences and providing those exploited within Hong Kong with alternative options to deportation.

Despite these countries taking fewer actions due to limited resources or ongoing conflict, there are wealthier, more stable countries that have taken little relative action when it comes to combatting modern slavery; when correlated against GDP (PPP) per capita Qatar, Singapore, Kuwait, Brunei, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia stand out as countries taking relatively limited action despite the size of the problem and resources at their disposal ( Figure 4).

Figure 4Correlation between GDP (PPP) per capita and Government Responses Index

Table 1Government response rating by country

A

BBB

BB

B

CCC

CC

C

D

70 to 79.9

60 to 69.9

50 to 59.9

40 to 49.9

30 to 39.9

20 to 29.9

10 to 19.9

<0 to 9.9

Netherlands

Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Iran, Islamic Republic of

Central African Republic

Eritrea

Libya

Zimbabwe

Papua New Guinea

Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Guinea-Bissau

Pakistan

Chad

Somalia

Mauritania

Sudan

Congo

Burundi

*Indicates where a country could not score above a BBB. These countries have received a negative rating for policies that hinder their response to modern slavery.

** Correction: Table removed due to error

Footnotes

Cholia, A 2009 13 ,'Illegal Organ Trafficking Poses A Global Problem,' Huffington Post, 24 August. Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/illegal-organ-trafficking_n_244686.html. [3 April 2018].

Brett, R & McCallin, M 1996, 18 Children: the Invisible Soldiers, Save the Children, Stockholm, p. 32.

Guide to Sustainable Purchases, 43 Decent Work, [in Dutch]. Available from: http://gidsvoorduurzameaankopen.be/nl/sociale-aspecten/fatsoenlijk-werk. [29 May 2017].

Loidici 2016, 46 The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, International Labour Organization, [in French]. Available from: https://www.loidici.com/Traitepersonnes/TraitePersonnesrepression.php. [26 July 2017].

Rosenberg, M 2017, 'Washington state sues over $1/day wages paid to immigrant detainees', 69 Reuters, September 20. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-strike/washington-state-sues-over-1-day-wages-paid-to-immigrant-detainees-idUSKCN1BV2XN. [11 January 2018].

'Over 3m people partake in nationwide subbotnik in Belarus,' 2015, 74 Belarus News, 22 April. Available from: http://eng.belta.by/society/view/over-3m-people-partake-in-nationwide-subbotnik-in-belarus-11854-2015. [9 January 2018].

In Uzbekistan: International Labour Organization 2017, 79 Observation (CEAR) - adopted 2016, published 106 th session (2017). Available from: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:13100:0::NO:13100:P13100_COMMENT_ID,P11110_COUNTRY_ID,P11110_COUNTRY_NAME,P11110_COMMENT_YEAR:3300743,103538,Uzbekistan,2016. [1 December 2017]. In Turkmenistan: International Labour Organization 2016, Observation (CEAR) - adopted 2015, published 105 th ILC session (2016). Available from: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:13100:0::NO:13100:P13100_COMMENT_ID,P11110_COUNTRY_ID,P11110_COUNTRY_NAME,P11110_COMMENT_YEAR:3253697,103551,Turkmenistan,2015. [28 April 2017].

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It is a confronting reality that even in the present day, men, women and children all over the world remain victims of modern slavery. They are bought and sold in public markets, forced to marry against their will and provide labour under the guise of "marriage," forced to work inside clandestine factories on the promise of a salary that is often withheld, or on fishing boats where men and boys toil under threats of violence.

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Brigette Sicat will not be going to school today. She sits, knees to chest, in a faded Winnie-the-Pooh T-shirt, on the double mattress that makes up half her home. At night, she curls up here with her grandmother and two cousins, beneath the leaky sheets of corrugated iron that pass for a roof. Today, the monsoon rain is constant and the floor has turned to mud.

Brigette, 10, and her 11-year-old cousin, Arianne, aren't in school because they have a stomach bug. There is no toilet and no running water, and no means of cooking other than over an open fire. Even when she is well, Brigette is often too hungry to tackle the 10-minute walk to school. Brigette's mother is a sex worker. And Brigette knows that somewhere, far away, in a barely imaginable but often-thought-of place called England, she has a father. She knows only his given name: Matthew.

Asked what she would say to him, were she able to send him a message, Brigette is at first stumped for words. Then she bursts out in Tagalog: "Who are you? Where are you? Do you ever think about me?" Her grandmother, Juana, her fingers swollen with arthritis and suffering from a lack of medication for her diabetes, sits by her side.

Juana, Arianne, Brigette and Arianne's brother, Aris, survive on 200 pesos (£3) a day, contributed by Arianne and Aris's father. (He drives a Jeepney - a public transport vehicle originally converted from Jeeps abandoned by the US military.) Juana, 61,tells me she thinks she may not live much longer. But she wants the girls to finish school, to keep them from working in the bars.

These are the slums of Angeles City in the Philippines, and the children here represent a United Nations of parentage. Their faces tell that story - fair skin, black skin, Korean features, caucasian. That's because their fathers, like Brigette's, are sex tourists.

You can see these slums on Google Earth - a tumble of rusty corrugated iron and rubbish dumps stretching from the streets down to the river. When you visit, it is the smell, like soured milk, that hits you first. Closer to the dump, it is more pungent. Here you will find the poorest of the poor - including the women too old for the sex trade - earning what they can from combing through the fetid piles, looking for plastic and metals they can sell. There is the noise of motorbikes and rain and cocks crowing. The men hold cock fights nearby, the birds fighting to the death. It is illegal, but so is prostitution.

With the 'girlfriend experience', you pay a woman to be your 'girlfriend' for a day, a night, a week or a month

The men who live here are construction workers building the hotels that support the sex tourism industry, or drivers, or security guards. The children run at their heels or in the gutters, or play a game involving throwing flip-flops at an old tin can. The mothers are often themselves the children of sex workers and foreigners without a name; these young children are a third generation abandoned by their fathers.

Angeles City, 85km north-west of Manila, is hardly the only place in Asia with a sex tourism trade, but it is one of its centres. There are perky Facebook groups and dedicated websites that cater to the men who come here: Angeles City, they say, is a place where "you can't help but get laid".

The speciality of the town is the "girlfriend experience", or GFE; you pay a woman to be your "girlfriend" for a day, a night, a week or a month. This can include going on holidays to one of the beautiful resorts out of sight of Filipino poverty, or just staying at a client's hotel, meeting his every desire.

This is how Brigette's mother, Aiza, met Matthew, a regular visitor to the city's sex bars. He visited at least twice a year and often saw Aiza. When, after a few visits during which he had been her "regular", she told him she was pregnant, he said he had already paid for the sex: it was her fault if she got pregnant.

When Brigette was two, the family heard that Matthew was in the area again and took her to see him at the bar he favoured, but couldn't get inside. Two years ago, the bar closed down. Since then they have heard nothing of him. Meanwhile, Brigette's mother has abandoned her daughter to the care of her grandmother.

The Spanish colonialists named this place Pueblo de los Angeles, or "Town of the Angels". During the Vietnam war, it was the home of the Clark air base, then the largest American military facility outside the US. The base stayed open until 1991, when an eruption at Mount Pinatubo, the volcano looming 10 miles to the west, precipitated its closure. It is now a commercial airport and business centre, with call centres, hotels and restaurants.

According to the local department of tourism, more than 4.7 million foreigners come to the Philippines each year. Of these, 1.2 million are men who arrive on their own. Most numerous are tourists from Korea, the US, China and Australia. The UK is ninth on the list, closely followed by other European countries. In 2011, the then US ambassador to the Philippines, Harry Thomas, said at a conference that 40% of male tourists visited the country for sex alone. Philippine officials complained; he couldn't back up the statistic, and went on to apologise to the foreign secretary. But nobody who has been to Angeles City doubts that he was right. It is possible, here, to go for weeks without seeing a western woman. It is all Filipino women and foreign men.

On the blogs and social media sites that cater to them, the men who visit Angeles City discuss their experiences and share tips. On one, a man writes: "I never had problems with the women I brought back to the hotel. No ID check. I could bring in as many women as I wanted... not a word was said when I would walk up with two or even three women at a time." Another man comments on the number of "working girls" who have children by their clients, or "mongers" as the men call themselves - short for "whoremongers". "I would say 40% to 50% of the working girls in AC had their first kid from a monger, either European, Australian or American, and these mongers aren't supporting their kids, just left them. I don't know how you sleep at night."

The man goes on to wryly acknowledge his own transgressions: "I took an unopened box of 40 condoms with me to AC, I came home with an unopened box of 40 condoms."

It is 22-year-old Judith Icaru's day off, which means for once she is here, in the tiny two-room house she shares with eight members of her family, including her three-year-old son, Jaden. Jaden's father is an Englishman in his 50s called Colin. He met Judith in a bar and they had one night together. Judith, then 19, was new to sex work. About 10 weeks later, she realised she was pregnant.

She and her 18-year-old sister, Joy, work in one of Angeles City's largest bars. They are two of the dozens of dancers who work between 6pm and 3am, hoping to attract a man who will pay to take them away for sex or, even better, the girlfriend experience. Judith gets paid 180 pesos (about £2.70) a night. If a man buys her a drink - known as "lady drinks" - she gets a commission on the sale. "The men like us to drink alcohol. They get angry if you want a soft drink," she says. She has become adept at pouring drinks on the ground when the men aren't watching; being drunk would be dangerous.

The job is made sustainable by the men who pay a "bar fine" - a price set by the bar for taking her away for the night, or longer. A typical bar fine for one night is 3,000 pesos (£45); of which Judith gets just under half. If the client wants her for longer, she might be away for days. The family looks after Jaden.

But today she is here, chatting while her son takes his siesta. The house is tiny, but has a toilet, running water and a television. Her father is a construction worker, building a new hotel. Jaden, meanwhile, does not resemble anyone in her family. He looks like his father, says Judith.

DNA-testing businesses advertise in the bars, on drink mats that promise 'results which leave you with no doubts'

What would she say to Jaden's father, if she could? She smiles and shrugs. He is far away. He touched her life. He is gone. What does she want for Jaden? "Like all mothers. I want my son to be healthy. I want him to finish school."

When Nely Pones, 45, got pregnant with her daughter, Michelle, nine years ago, she hoped for a long-term relationship with the father. David is Scottish, and told her he was working in Bahrain. "At first, he just bought me a drink. And then the next time he came to the bar, he paid for three weeks for me to be his girlfriend. He paid 31,000 pesos (£460)." David talked of marriage. "He treated me well. He was just an average guy, not too demanding." But by the time she found out she was pregnant, he had started a relationship with another Filipino woman, whom he later married.

David told Nely he would support the child if she would pay for a DNA test to prove paternity, though he also offered her money for an abortion. Angeles City has a number of DNA-testing businesses. They advertise in the bars, including on drink mats that say: "We understand how important it is for you to have results which leave you with no lingering doubts." But the cost - 14,800 pesos (£220) - was beyond her reach.

Nely never seriously considered an abortion. Michelle - any child - is "a blessing from heaven", she says. Three years ago, when Michelle turned eight, Nely's friends told her that David was in Angeles City again. She took Michelle to meet him. "I told my daughter: 'Give your father a hug,'" she says. Nely cries as she remembers him pushing Michelle away, saying that she was not his daughter.

For years, Michelle and Nely struggled on the edge of starvation. Then, an American stranger, who saw a news report about the lives of women in the area, got in touch through a local fixer and began to support her with a regular payment. It was enough to allow Nely to take out a small loan and buy a fridge. She opened a tiny food shop, built out of waste from building sites, from which she sells rice and fish stew to passersby. She makes about 2,000 pesos (£30) profit a week. On this, she supports Michelle and Michelle's half-brother.

David would now be in his mid-70s. Using the scraps of documentation Nely has kept, the Guardian tried to track him down. There are a number of people with his name in Britain and Bahrain, none of whom could be contacted. The phone number he gave her is no longer operational.

Justin Quintero, 17, would love to connect with his British family. His mother, Shelly, thought she was in a better position than her colleagues at the bars; Justin's father was her regular. He visited several times a year and would pay to take her away for weeks at a time. Justin's father told her only his first name - Franz, although she now believes this was a nickname. Shelly was 24; Franz was about 50. He never answered any questions about his home life, but she once saw a photograph of him with his British children on a camping trip. They were all in coats, she remembers, and it looked cold.

'He knew it was his kid, but he didn't want to be involved.' He met and held his baby son only once

Their relationship lasted five years. She regarded herself as Franz's second wife and had two children with him - Justin and his 16-year-old sister, Jasmine, who was adopted at two by relatives in Manila because Shelly could not afford to support them both. When she told Franz she was pregnant with Justin, he had mixed feelings, she says. "He knew it was his kid, but he didn't want to be involved." He met and held his baby son only once.

For a while, Franz sent her 5,000 pesos a month (£74) to support his son. But when Shelly became pregnant with Jasmine, the money stopped. Months later, a stranger from Britain sought her out. He said he was Franz's best friend, and that Franz was dead. On his deathbed, he had asked his friend to find Shelly and give her money. The friend handed over 20,000 pesos (£300).

Now, at 41, Shelly is too old for the bars. She works as a housemaid for a middle-class family and earns 4,000 pesos (£60) a month, of which she must spend almost half on transport. Fortunately, she does not pay rent; the concrete shack she shares with five family members is owned by her mother.

Justin wants to be an engineer, but knows he will more likely have to leave school soon and find work nearby. He often thinks about his siblings halfway across the world. "I realise it is only a tiny chance that I will ever meet them. I realise they don't know I exist." He wonders about their lives; not having a father, he says, feels "like a hole inside of me". Justin is tall and fair-skinned and recently started shaving. Looking at him next to his mother, who is short and dark-skinned, one can only suspect that somewhere in England there is another family with whom he shares his strong jaw, thick eyebrows and penetrating gaze.

Jasmine and Justin have no proof of their parentage. Even if Franz had been willing to sign their birth certificates, he was not there when they were born. The Home Office states that children born overseas to a British father can become citizens "provided there is satisfactory evidence of paternity". That means birth certificates, DNA tests or "any other evidence... the home secretary considers to be relevant". If his siblings were prepared to take a DNA test, Justin could satisfy that test. But he isn't sure that he wants to - he'd just like to meet his family.

The UK is also party to international agreements that mean child support orders can be enforced by Filipino mothers against fathers in Britain - in theory. In practice, this is a fiction. The mothers would need a court order in Britain or the Philippines; hiring a British lawyer to bring a case would be impossible, and taking action in the Philippines would almost always mean paying a bribe.

Today, Ron, a retired civil engineer, is in his late 70s and lives in England. Twenty years ago, he was working in the Philippines. There, he met Esperanza delos Santos - known to her family as Espy - who was 22. She worked in Misty's bar on Fields Avenue, which has long since closed. "He really wanted me," Espy remembers. Not only did Ron court her, he also courted her family, meeting Espy's mother, Myrna. Ron was a good man, the family agreed.

When he was transferred to Indonesia, Espy moved with him. She returned home when she was seven months pregnant and gave birth to twin girls - Madeline and Melanie. The family have a faded picture of the christening, with Ron holding one of the babies.

The relationship failed, but Ron sent money each month and gave Myrna a letter confirming that the twins were his children, and consenting to their use of his family name. Then, on retirement, he made one last payment - 1.5m pesos (£22,000), with the instruction that it be used to buy a house.

For a while, the girls lived there with their aunt, but today it is used by other family members. The twins, however, were able to attend a private school and gain a decent education, thanks to a Filipino uncle who sent home remittances from his job as a waiter in Dubai.

Myrna asked for more money from Ron in 2011, when the twins were 11, to help pay their school fees. He wrote back, telling them he had no job and no income. "We cannot avoid a difficult decision to make about the twins," he said. "With both of us without money and still some years to go before they are independent, the only option I can think of is adoption. I hate to say it, but what else can we do?" That was the last they heard from him.

A few years later, the girls' uncle tracked Ron down on LinkedIn and sent him messages. They say he did not reply. In May last year, Melanie and Madeline turned 18. The family had no money to send them to university, so they looked for work: Melanie is now a shop assistant and Madeline works in a hotel.

I meet Melanie at a McDonald's just off Fields Avenue, before her hour-long journey to the mall where she works. All she wants, she says, is to know her father and have some contact with him. She doesn't want his money. She understands he has no job. "Does he ever think about us and consider us as his children?" she says. "Why doesn't he even try to contact us? We are longing to have a father, to see him and know what's going on with him."

Madeline, however, is determined to be an architect. After two years' work, she thinks, she might be able to save enough to put herself through further education. She, too, insists she does not want money from her father. But she does want his attention. "I am hurting right now, hurting and angry. I say to him, I will try to forgive you but please communicate with us and be a father to us... we want you in our lives."

At the twins' request, the Guardian located Ron and rang to tell him about his daughters' request. After a few days and some emails, he called Madeline. They had a good conversation, she says, and agreed to keep in touch.

Meanwhile, in a series of emails, Ron indicated that he did not want to go into details with the Guardian. Asked about the email in which he had suggested the twins be adopted, he said: "After I had supported the twins, purchased a house and provided at least some means of continuous income, I then continued to get further requests for money. I had nothing to give and knew that if I somehow managed a small amount that the requests would continue... Adoption had been mentioned to me as a solution from the Philippines - it was not my original idea."

Ron gave what he thought was fair, more than many fathers do. But it is much less than he would have had to give, by law, had his daughters been born in Britain.

In a packed schoolroom, Brigette sits with her 45 classmates and chants her way through a spelling lesson in English. It is the day after we first met and she is happy to feel well enough to come to school. Her teacher says she is one of the brightest students, but has been held back a year because of non-attendance. The school principal says the children need raincoats and the school needs more classrooms. What would she say to the absent fathers of her pupils, those who have abandoned their children? She smiles. "No judgment. Perhaps people fall in love." But, she adds, "fathers should support their children".

Brigette has not yet decided what she wants to do when she grows up. She might like to be a teacher, as long as she could stay with her grandmother, Juana. She has never been to the strip of bars on Fields Avenue, except for the time she was carried there in her aunt's arms as a two-year-old, in an attempt to meet her father. Juana hopes she will never need to go again.
Some names have been changed for legal reasons.

If you would like a comment on this piece to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazine's letters page in print, please email weekend@theguardian.com, including your name and address (not for publication).

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'Do you ever think about me?': the children sex tourists leave behind

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Their fathers visited the Philippines to buy sex: now a generation of children want to track them down

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Inside a notorious Chinese labour camp, a dissident smuggled an SOS letter into the Halloween decorations he was forced to manufacture. Years later, a woman in the US opened a box of fake tombstones and found his note. It seemed impossible at that moment that they would ever meet.

A few years ago, as the evenings began getting colder and darker, Julie Keith remembered the graveyard kit in her loft.

She'd picked it up for $29.99 from the supermarket chain, Kmart, a couple of years before that. It contained polystyrene headstones, fake skulls and bones, black spiders and a cloth drenched in imitation blood.

It had been gathering dust in the loft ever since. But when her daughter told her she wanted a Halloween-themed fifth birthday party, Julie, then 42, thought of the kit and went upstairs to fetch it.

Then, as she opened the box in her living room, a sheet of lined paper fell out.

On it was a message, neatly hand-written in blue ink. Julie's daughter picked it up and asked her to read it. The English was broken and frequently mis-spelt, but its meaning was clear enough.

"Sir," it began. "If you occassionally buy this product, please kindly send this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persicution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever."

Julie read on. The note said that the graveyard kit had been produced in unit eight, department two of Masanjia labour camp in Shenyang, China. Inmates there had to work there for 15 hours a day seven days a week: "Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month)." Today 10 yuan is roughly equivalent to £1.10 or US$1.44.

Prisoners were detained on average for one to three years without a formal court sentence, the note continued. Some of them belonged to the spiritual movement Falun Gong. "They often suffer more punishment than others," the note said.

There was no signature at the end.

"I was kind of in shock," Julie says. "I just couldn't believe that something like that was here, in front of me."

It seemed miraculous that this scrap of paper had travelled thousands of miles to her home in Damascus, near Portland, in the US state of Oregon, and then languished in her home for two years until 2012. She tried to imagine how desperate its author must have felt, how much courage it must have taken to slip it in among the decorations.

Julie, a manager at the Goodwill thrift store chain, knew nothing at all about this person, but it was obvious to her that he or she desperately wanted the world to know what was happening at Masanjia.

Find out more

Julie Keith and Leon Lee were speaking to Outlook on the BBC World Service

Julie didn't know where to begin, so she logged on to Facebook and asked for advice.

She took a photo of the note and posted it for her friends to see. They suggested that she contact human rights organisations, so Julie rang up and left messages with several - but she never received a reply.

Still, Julie didn't give up. She took the letter into work and showed it to her company's PR manager, who contacted a journalist on The Oregonian, a local newspaper. The paper sent an intern to interview Julie - but for a couple of months, once again, there was silence.

Then suddenly, just before Christmas 2012, the story finally ran. It was on The Oregonian's front page, and immediately Julie's phone started ringing.

TV networks and newspapers from around the world were asking her to speak - she found herself at the centre of a major international story.

Julie was delighted at first. She'd helped to spread the word about conditions in Masanjia, just as the note's author had asked. But then she read the comments below the online news reports.

Many strongly criticised her. By releasing the note in full - with its reference to the exact unit and department of the labour camp in which the author was held - she'd made a serious error, these commenters said. Surely now the whistleblower would be identified by the authorities and singled out for extra punishment?

"It crushed me," Julie says.

"I felt like, at that point, I maybe had done the wrong thing. I felt terrible but I just kept referring back to the letter - this is what the writer wanted. He wanted me to publicise this."

The self-doubt kept nagging at Julie, however. But then, in mid-2013, she was contacted by the New York Times. The author of the note slipped in among the Halloween tombstones and skulls had been tracked down. And he had a message for her.

Five years earlier, Sun Yi looked out of a window into the darkness as he ate his meagre dinner at Masanjia prison camp, and saw a group of people moving through the gloom outside. He couldn't see well, but they appeared to be carrying human skulls and thigh bones.

Sun Yi was horrified. He'd only recently been sentenced but already he'd heard rumours that some of his fellow inmates were tortured to death. This appeared to be confirmation.

Another inmate told him the group he'd seen were known as the Eighth Team, and they worked on what was called the "ghost job".

Not long afterwards, in June 2008, a guard called out Sun Yi's name. He was taken to a building and sent to a room on the fourth floor. He realised he'd been assigned to the Eighth Team - the very last thing he had wanted to happen.

When he entered the room, Sun Yi saw what looked like a tombstone in front of him. He picked it up and realised it was made of white polystyrene. It would soon be covered in black dye, and it would be Sun Yi's job to make it look old by rubbing it with a wet sponge until the white underneath began to show through.

Sun Yi had no idea what Halloween was, though it came as a great relief that no actual dead bodies were involved - it was baffling to him that anyone would want these morbid decorations.

"He was wondering why people would buy this kind of scary stuff," says Canadian film-maker Leon Lee, who would later get to know Sun Yi. "Until one day a guard told him Western people have this kind of a culture, a so-called festival, and that's why they are making it."

Soon black dye covered Sun Yi's face and body. He worked from 04:00 until 23:00 or midnight, breaking only to eat. At night, he later recalled, his hands would move as he slept, as if he was polishing tombstones in his dreams.

Before his arrest, Sun Yi had been an engineer for an oil and gas company. His troubles began after a chance meeting with a group of people exercising outdoors near his home in Beijing - they were practising Falun Gong, a spiritual movement loosely based on Taoism and Buddhism, and Sun Yi soon joined up.

Falun Gong was initially tolerated by China's communist authorities after its emergence in the early 1990s, but after a few years they began to see the movement as potential threat, because of its growing size. Criticisms began to appear in the state media, prompting some 10,000 practitioners to take part in a silent protest outside the ruling Communist Party's Beijing headquarters in 1999. The movement was banned soon after that.

The Chinese government then launched a relentless publicity campaign against Falun Gong, branding it an "evil cult". Its followers soon had to practise in secret, risking prosecution and arrest.

In February 2008, during a crackdown in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Sun Yi was caught. Arrested during a raid at an underground press, he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.

That is when he was taken to Masanjia, a "re-education through labour" camp in the north-east of the country that housed criminals as well as dissidents and political prisoners.

While he was there, his wife wrote to him telling him she wanted a divorce. She and other relatives had been harassed and detained following his arrest, and she knew that members of her family would fail background checks - and therefore be unable to get jobs - as long as she was married to him.

Sun Yi held on to the letter. It was the only thing in Masanjia that was his.

Around this time, an idea occurred to him. He knew the graveyard kits he was making were for export because the labels were in English. Why not write letters and hide them inside the boxes? Maybe someone would find one and tell the world what was happening in Masanjia?

One night, as he lay in his cell surrounded by 30 or 40 sleeping fellow inmates, Sun Yi turned on his side so that he faced the wall. All he could hear were the crickets chirping outside. Quietly, he opened a sheet of paper and pulled out a pen. He knew that guards were on patrol.

He picked up his pen and began to write.

Sun Yi later estimated he had written about 20 letters in total during his time at Masanjia. He had to be careful about slipping them into the tombstone kits because he never knew which ones would be inspected. He usually did it during breaks, when other prisoners were outside.

But once, as he put a letter into a box, another inmate saw what he was doing. Sun Yi had to take a risk and tell him what he was up to.

"Good," said the other prisoner. "Do you have any more that I could help you hide?"

Sun Yi began sharing his letters with other Falun Gong devotees inside the camp, and one night one of the notes was discovered by guards during a search. The guards tortured the prisoner on whom the letter was found - they knew he must have an accomplice, because he didn't speak English. But he didn't reveal Sun Yi's involvement.

Although Sun Yi escaped further punishment on that occasion, he didn't manage to evade the next crackdown against Falun Gong prisoners. Like many others, he was forced to stand with his wrists handcuffed to a bunk bed in an effort to make him recant. If he fell asleep, his legs would give way and the handcuffs would cut into him like knives.

Sun Yi was released from Masanjia in September 2010. He carried on practising Falun Gong and printing samizdat literature, but he kept a low profile. And then in 2012, while browsing Western news sites on the internet - he'd found a way to bypass China's censorship of the web - he came across a story about a letter that had been found among a box of Halloween decorations in Oregon. His letter.

Four months after the story about Julie's Halloween decorations went viral, a Chinese magazine called Lens published an expose about conditions inside Masanjia. The online version of the story was later deleted, but the Chinese authorities appear to have been shaken by the publicity. Shortly afterwards the government announced that it was ending the "education through labour" system and freeing some 160,000 prisoners.

It was not long after this that Julie heard Sun Yi - indirectly at first. "The New York Times contacted me and told me that they had been in contact with him and that they were doing a story," she says. He'd written another letter - this time, it was just for her. In it, he wrote "that he was very glad that I publicised the letter - that's exactly what he wanted", Julie remembers.

"I was so thrilled - to know that he was alive, for one, and that he was proud of me and just knowing that I did the right thing."

Sun Yi had not only been contacted by the New York Times, but also by Leon Lee, a Canadian director with a record of covering human rights abuses in China. Sun Yi agreed to be the subject of a film and began sending Lee footage of himself.

He understood this was an enormous risk.

He and his ex-wife were planning to remarry and leave China together, but then a fresh crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners began. Police raided Sun Yi's ex-wife's home and told her to contact them if she saw Sun Yi. Before long, Sun Yi was arrested.

While he was in custody, though, his health began to deteriorate, so he was released on health grounds - and he took the opportunity to flee to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, with help from Leon Lee.

Life was tough there. Sun Yi applied for refugee status, but as an asylum seeker he was unable to work. He couldn't contact his wife for fear of getting her into trouble with the Chinese authorities. Living off his savings, he spent his days learning Indonesian and English.

It was at this point that Julie flew out to meet Sun Yi. Lee, who'd put them in touch, would be there to film the encounter. Julie had worried about him constantly during the four years that had passed since she'd found his letter. She had heard some of Sun Yi's story from Lee, and was troubled by the thought that she had contributed to his difficulties.

When she arrived at his modest apartment in Jakarta, she didn't know what to expect.

"It was like we had this instant connection," says Julie.

"He called me his sister. It was like we'd known each other forever."

They exchanged gifts. He bought her flowers, while she bought him a book about life in Oregon. She also brought him the note he had written in Masanjia, and the polystyrene tombstone. "He seemed really thankful to bring all this back full circle," Julie says.

He asked her about the festival of Halloween. What happened to the pumpkins after they were carved, Sun Yi wondered. Did you eat them? Julie explained this wasn't the custom. He also wanted to know what "RIP" stood for. Rest in Peace, Julie told him. She explained that it was a message of goodwill for the dead.

After she'd flown home, Sun Yi wept when he recalled Julie's visit. He had never imagined she would travel all that way to see him. "I really appreciate that she did that," he tells Leon Lee, in an interview on camera. "I don't know how to thank her. She feels like family."

But if life in Jakarta was hard, it soon got worse. Shortly after Julie's visit, Sun Yi was contacted by a suspected Chinese agent - and two months later he died of acute kidney failure. Despite a request from his ex-wife and sisters, there was no investigation into the cause of death. Leon is suspicious: "He had no kidney problems before and when I was there in Indonesia he seemed perfectly healthy."

Julie was devastated when she heard the news. "I so badly wanted a happy ending for him," she says.

She feels honoured to have known Sun Yi. "He was the most resilient, strong person I have ever met - for someone to go through what he did and come out and be able to talk about it and share his experiences with the world - it's just incredible."

Her chance connection with Sun Yi changed her life, she says. She became more globally aware - conscious of where the products in the dollar stores near her home had come from, and she resolved to pass on this understanding to her children.

For human rights campaigners, the relevance of Sun Yi's story hasn't diminished. When the re-education through labour system formally ended, Amnesty International said many camps were simply renamed prisons or rehabilitation centres, and that dissidents and Falun Gong followers continued to be held in them, often without trial. Torture remained "widespread" in cases considered politically sensitive, including those of Falun Gong practitioners, the organisation reported in 2015.

Recently, China has been accused of locking up hundreds of thousands of Muslims without trial in its western region of Xinjiang. The government denies the claims, but a BBC investigation found significant new evidence of internment camps.

Leon Lee's film Letter from Masanjia received its UK premier at the Cambridge International Film Festival on 26 October.

Kati Pohler was abandoned in a market in China when she was three days old. Her parents left a note saying they would meet her on a famous bridge 10 or 20 years later.

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Inside a notorious Chinese labour camp, a dissident smuggled an SOS letter into the Halloween decorations he was forced to manufacture. Years later, a woman in the US opened a box of fake tombstones and found his note. It seemed impossible at that moment that they would ever meet.

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In the film we see the power of a letter. Now it's your turn.

If you are in the US please write to your local senator asking them to co-sponsor Senate Resolution 220, a bipartisan resolution expressing solidarity for Falun Gong practitioners who have lost lives, freedoms, and rights for adhering to their beliefs and practices.

If you are in Canada please write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help free Canadian Falun Gong practitioner, Sun Qian, who has been illegally detained in China for over a year and is being tortured for her beliefs.

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Letter from Masanjia is a documentary about an American woman who found an SOS note from a Chinese political prisoner in a box of Halloween decorations from Kmart. See the impact one person can have on human rights around the world. Hot Docs Top Twenty Audience Favourite.

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Laura Bicker

BBC News, Seúl

Fuente de la imagen, Kim Hye-sook

Pie de foto,

La exprisionera Kim Hye-sook dibujó estas ilustraciones para representar su experiencia en una mina de carbón de Corea del Norte.

Generaciones de prisioneros de guerra surcoreanos están siendo utilizados como mano de obra esclava en las minas de carbón de Corea del Norte para generar dinero para el régimen y su programa de armas, según un informe publicado por una organización de derechos humanos. La BBC investigó más de cerca estas acusaciones.

"Cuando veo esclavos encadenados y arrastrados en la televisión, me veo a mí mismo", me dijo Choi Ki-sun.

Él fue uno de los aproximadamente 50.000 prisioneros capturados por Corea del Norte al final de la Guerra de Corea en 1953.

"Cuando nos llevaron a los campos de trabajo, nos apuntaban con pistolas, alineados con guardias armados alrededor. ¿Qué más podía ser esto si no trabajo esclavo?", se preguntó el hombre.

Choi (que no es su nombre real) dijo que continuó trabajando en una mina en la provincia de Hamgyeong del Norte junto a otros 670 prisioneros de guerra (PDG) hasta su fuga, 40 años después.

No es fácil contar historias de lo que sucede en las minas. Los que sobreviven, como Choi, hablan de explosiones fatales y ejecuciones masivas. Revelan cómo sobrevivían con raciones mínimas de comida mientras se les incentivaba a casarse y a tener hijos que, como los de Choi, no tendrían más remedio que seguir el camino de sus padres en las minas.

"Generaciones de personas nacen, viven y mueren en las zonas mineras, y experimentan el peor tipo de persecución y discriminación a lo largo de su vida", explica Joanna Hosaniak, una de las autoras de un nuevo informe de la organización Alianza Ciudadana para los Derechos humanos en Corea del Norte (NKHR, por sus siglas en inglés).

El informe describe el funcionamiento interno de las minas de carbón del Estado y alega que las bandas criminales, incluida la Yakuza japonesa, ayudaron al gobierno norcoreano a sacar de contrabando productos del país ganando sumas de dinero incalculables (un informe estima la cifra en cientos de millones de dólares) que se cree que se utilizan para financiar el programa de armas secreto del gobierno.

El estudio se basa en los testimonios de 15 personas que conocen de primera mano las minas de carbón de Corea del Norte.

La BBC entrevistó a uno de ellos y escuchó de forma independiente a otros cuatro que afirman haber sufrido y escapado de las minas de carbón de Corea del Norte.

Todos ellos menos uno pidieron que protegiéramos sus identidades para mantener a salvo a las familias que quedaban en Corea del Norte.

Pyongyang niega sistemáticamente las acusaciones de abusos contra los derechos humanos y rechaza hacer comentarios sobre ellas.

Insiste en que todos los prisioneros de guerra fueron devueltos de acuerdo con los términos del armisticio y un funcionario del gobierno aseguró hace un tiempo que los que se quedaron lo hicieron porque deseaban "permanecer en el seno de la república".

Pero Choi dijo que esto no es cierto. Relató que vivía dentro de un campamento vallado y custodiado por tropas armadas.

Al principio le dijeron que si trabajaba lo suficiente le permitirían irse a casa. Pero con el tiempo toda esperanza de regresar a Cora del Sur se desvaneció.

Trabajadores de tan solo 7 años

El sistema actual de trabajo forzoso en las minas de carbón de Corea del Norte parece haber comenzado después de la Guerra de Corea.

El informe de la NKHR lo describió como "esclavitud heredada".

Los surcoreanos fueron llevados a importantes minas de carbón, magnesita, zinc y plomo, principalmente en las provincias de Hamgyeong del Norte y del Sur, según la investigación del grupo de derechos humanos.

Pero no todo el que termina en las minas es prisionero de guerra.

Los guardias le dijeron a Kim Hye-sook que su abuelo se fue al sur durante la guerra y que por eso la enviaron a trabajar en la mina de carbón con su familia cuando era adolescente.

Su destino lo determinó su songbun, la clase a la que uno pertenece según cuán leal haya sido su familia al régimen y cuántos de sus miembros sean del Partido de los Trabajadores de Corea.

Las conexiones con Corea del Sur colocan automáticamente a una persona en la clase más baja.

Pie de foto,

"Vida de esclavos, no de seres humanos", dice el mensaje.

Kim tenía solo 16 años cuando comenzó a trabajar en la mina.

El informe de la NKHR contiene relatos de sobrevivientes que dijeron que comenzaron a trabajar a tiempo parcial en la mina desde los 7 años.

"Cuando me enviaron por primera vez, había 23 personas en mi unidad", recordó Kim.

"Pero las minas solían colapsar y los cables que tiraban del carro de la mina se rompían y provocaban la muerte de las personas que estaban detrás", describió.

"La gente moría a causa de las explosiones mientras se cavaban las minas. Hay diferentes capas en las minas y a veces una capa de agua estallaba y la gente se podía ahogar. Así que al final sólo 7 de las 23 personas quedamos con vida", relató.

"La muerte es un buen final"

Pero el songbun no solo determina el destino en las minas, sino que también puede decidir si vives o mueres, según un exfuncionario del Ministerio de Seguridad del Estado (MSS) citado en la investigación de la NKHR.

"Se suele dejar vivir a la gente de clase leal y se asesina a la gente de una clase baja", aseguró.

Y explicó que las ejecuciones, principalmente de "espías surcoreanos", se realizaban de acuerdo a las "leyes de Corea del Norte".

"Necesitas el análisis de datos para demostrar que es justificable matar a esta persona. Incluso si cometieron el mismo crimen, si tu clase es buena te dejarán vivir. No te envían al campo de prisioneros políticos. Irás a una prisión ordinaria o un campo de trabajo correccional", detalló.

"No se los mata porque la muerte es un buen final. No puedes morir, tienes que trabajar hasta morir", resumió

El entrevistado describió la existencia de una "galería de tiro" en la parte trasera de la sala de interrogatorios del MSS donde murieron algunos prisioneros.

Aseguró que algunos fueron ejecutados públicamente, mientras que otros fueron asesinados en silencio.

Pie de foto,

Las codiciones de vida de los mineros son muy duras.

La BBC no pudo corroborar de forma independiente este relato. Pero una señora de apellido Lee recuerda el momento en que su padre y su hermano fueron ejecutados.

"Los ataron a estacas, llamándolos traidores de la nación, espías y reaccionarios", le explicó Lee al servicio coreano de la BBC en una entrevista.

Su padre era un exprisionero de guerra de Corea del Sur y eso significó que ella también se vio obligada a trabajar en las minas.

El padre de Lee había elogiado su ciudad natal de Corea del Sur, Pohang, y su hermano habían repetido esa afirmación a sus compañeros de trabajo. Lee dijo que por eso, un escuadrón de tres verdugos los mataron a tiros a ambos.

"Siempre teníamos hambre"

Los funcionarios norcoreanos les dieron la ciudadanía a algunos de los mineros en 1956.

Para la mayoría, ese fue el momento en que supieron que no iban a regresar a casa.

A todos nuestros entrevistados se les permitió e incluso se les animó a casarse y tener hijos. Pero Kim cree que esto también tenía un propósito.

" Nos decían que tuviéramos muchos hijos. Necesitaban mantener las minas porque la gente moría todos los días. Hay accidentes todos los días. Así que nos decían que tuviéramos muchos hijos. Pero no había suficiente comida ni pañales, etc., así que incluso si dabas a luz a un niño, era difícil criarlo con éxito", describió.

Kim fue liberada del campo de prisioneros en 2001 como parte de una amnistía en todo el país y finalmente escapó de Corea del Norte cruzando un río cerca de la frontera con China.

Decidió crear ilustraciones de sus 28 años en la mina, asegurando que la ayudaron a lidiar con algunas de sus pesadillas y a mostrar por lo que había pasado.

Pie de foto,

Kim Hye-sook estuvo 28 años trabajando en las minas de Corea del Norte.

El hambre era un problema constante para todos nuestros entrevistados y está documentado en el informe la NKHR.

"No pas ábamos un día sin estar hambrientos. Siempre teníamos hambre. Teníamos una comida al día, no sabíamos que otras personas comían tres veces al día. Nos daban arroz de grano largo, que sigue hinchándose empapado en agua", explicó Kim.

Un exprisionero de guerra describe que incluso si estaban enfermos, tenían que ir a trabajar. "Si se perdía un día laboral, entonces podían retirarte el vale de comida", aseguró.

A los mineros se les daban cuotas para cumplir, estimadas en alrededor de tres toneladas de antracita (una forma de carbón duro) por día, según el informe de la NKHR.

No cumplirlo podría significar que no había vale de comida, lo que significaba pasar hambre.

La "esclavitud" como financiación de armas

El Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas prohibió las exportaciones de carbón de Corea del Norte en un intento por cortar la financiación de sus programas nucleares y de misiles balísticos.

Pero dos años después, un informe de observadores de sanciones independientes señaló que Pyongyang había ganado cientos de millones de dólares "a través de exportaciones marítimas ilícitas de productos básicos, en particular carbón y arena".

En diciembre, Estados Unidos dijo que Corea del Norte seguía "eludiendo la prohibición de la ONU sobre la exportación de carbón, un generador de ingresos clave que ayuda a financiar sus programas de armas de destrucción masiva".

El informe de la NKHR también afirma que las minas continúan expandiéndose.

La directora adjunta de la organización Joanna Hosaniak pidió a la ONU que investigue a fondo la esclavitud y el trabajo forzoso en Corea del Norte, incluyendo "el alcance total de la extracción y exportación ilegal de carbón y otros productos, y la cadena de suministro internacional vinculada a estas exportaciones".

"Esto también debería hacerse cumplir mediante un sistema de advertencia claro para las empresas y los consumidores", aseguró.

Pie de foto,

"Mi juventud perdida con este carro de mi prisión", dice el mensaje.

En Corea del Sur, el gobierno se ha centrado en los acuerdos con Pyongyang e incluso ha discutido la posibilidad de una economía de paz con el norte.

Seúl afirmó que adoptar un enfoque más agresivo sobre los derechos humanos haría que Corea del Norte se alejara de la mesa de negociaciones y también podría conducir a un aumento de las hostilidades.

Pero un informe de la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos en Seúl dijo que era hora de "integrar los derechos humanos en las conversaciones de paz y de desnuclearización", que también deberían incluir aportaciones de los desertores norcoreanos.

Muchos siguen sufriendo

Para dos exprisioneros de guerra que se vieron obligados a trabajar en las minas, hay algo de esperanza.

Obtuvieron una victoria legal histórica después de que el Tribunal de Distrito Central de Seúl ordenó a Corea del Norte y a su líder, Kim Jong-un a pagarles US$17.600 en daños por retenerlos contra su voluntad y obligarlos a trabajar en las minas.

Esta fue la primera vez que un tribunal de Coreal del Sur reconoció el sufrimiento de los prisioneros de guerra detenidos en Corea del Norte.

Choi fue uno de ellos.

"No estoy seguro de vaya a ver el dinero antes de morir, pero ganar es más importante que el dinero", me dijo en su apartamento en el sur de Seúl.

Pero no deja de hablar de los que siguen trabajando en las minas mientras me sirve un plato con fruta que en el pasado hubiera sido un lujo impensable para él.

Me dice que está tratando de enviar dinero a su familia en Corea del Norte.

"Pienso en lo mucho que deben estar sufriendo mientras ahora yo soy feliz".

Ilustraci ones de Kim Hye-sook.

Recuerda que puedes recibir notificaciones de BBC News Mundo. Descarga nuestra app y actívalas para no perderte nuestro mejor contenido.

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"Cuando veo esclavos encadenados en la televisión, me veo a mí mismo": las denuncias de los surcoreanos obligados a trabajar en las minas de Corea del Norte - BBC News Mundo

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Laura Bicker BBC News, Seúl Generaciones de prisioneros de guerra surcoreanos están siendo utilizados como mano de obra esclava en las minas de carbón de Corea del Norte para generar dinero para el régimen y su programa de armas, según un informe publicado por una organización de derechos humanos.

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Tras décadas de desenfrenada captura y un sistema sin control en el registro de las embarcaciones, los caladeros de pesca tailandeses se encuentran en una situación límite que ha incitado a la industria a acudir a las mafias del tráfico humano para cubrir el déficit en mano de obra y ahorrar en costes.

"Productores y consumidores de los productos marinos de Tailandia están enfrascados en uno de los delitos sociales y ecológicos más escandalosos del siglo XXI. El deterioro del ecosistema y la esclavitud forman un círculo vicioso", apunta Stave Trent, director de la organización Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).

El activista desgrana en un comunicado difundido el miércoles las "terribles violación contra los derechos humanos" que las víctimas de la trata de personas sufren en los barcos "como resultado de la crisis ambiental".

Tailandia es el tercer exportador mundial de marisco con un volumen de negocio valorado en 7.000 millones de dólares (6.175 millones de euros) y uno de los mayores abastecedores de los mercados europeos y estadounidense.

Del género que entra en las lonjas de Estados Unidos desde Tailandia, al menos, el 39 % ha sido capturado de manera ilegal por "barcos piratas" responsables, en parte, de la sobreexplotación, asegura la organización.

El uso de métodos de pesca "destructivos e insostenibles", como la práctica del arrastre, han extenuado las reservas tailandesas, una de las pesquerías más sobre explotadas del mundo, y propiciado el desplome de las capturas.

Los barcos tailandeses pescan ahora un 86 % menos que en 1966, según datos de EJF, por lo que las embarcaciones se ven forzadas a permanecer más tiempo en el mar para ser rentables y reducir costes.

El paupérrimo jornal y las duras condiciones laborales han alejado a la mano de obra local de esta industria que desde hace años acude a los comerciantes de personas para formar tripulación.

En un régimen calificado como "esclavitud moderna", inmigrantes birmanos, camboyanos y de Laos en su mayoría se ven atrapados en trabajos forzados, entre palizas, amenazas de muerte y meses sin pisar tierra firme.

Estados Unidos consideró, en abril del 2014, que Tailandia no acomete suficientes esfuerzos para combatir esta lacra y alcanzar los estándares mínimos internacionales por lo que degradó al país asiático, en su informe anual sobre tráfico de personas, al nivel más bajo, aunque evitó imponer sanciones económicas.

Las autoridades del país norteamericano apuntaron en el documento que el Gobierno tailandés ha mostrado esfuerzos insuficientes y errores sistemáticos en "investigar, perseguir y apresar propietarios de barcos y capitanes por utilizar inmigrantes en trabajos forzados, o funcionarios cómplices del crimen".

La corrupción "endémica" de las autoridades, que en algunos casos llegan a proteger y aconsejar a empresarios y mafiosos, es identificada por EJF como el mayor obstáculo para luchar contra el tráfico de personas.

"Acabar con la corrupción es una de las políticas más importantes del actual Gobierno [...] Hemos pasado a la acción. Tenemos que aplacar el abuso de poder de los funcionarios corruptos" con una mayor imposición de las leyes, declara a Efe Vichien Chavalit, ministro tailandés de Desarrollo Social y Seguridad Humana.

En un escrito remitido el pasado jueves, el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Tailandia defendió la actuación gubernamental en la lucha contra el tráfico humano al destacar los "resultados positivos" en varias áreas, como el fortalecimiento de la justicia y la identificación de las víctimas.

Las autoridades locales han tomado acciones legales y arrestado a más de 250 empresarios deshonestos y traficantes, así como inspeccionar casi 700 pesqueros e interrogar a 10.426 trabajadores para "controlar las condiciones de trabajo en el mar", además de iniciar un programa para matricular todos los barcos de pesca.

El primer ministro, el general Prayuth Chan-ocha, que ascendió al poder tras el golpe de Estado militar de mayo del 2014, ha reclamado "tolerancia cero" para abordar este problema de "máxima prioridad nacional".

"Es de vital importancia enfrentarse a la sobrepesca, la piratería y la esclavitud en Tailandia como un problema interconectado. Así como comenzar con una aproximación honesta del alcance de los retos sociales y medioambientales que afronta la industria pesquera de Tailandia", sentencia Trent.

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"Esclavitud moderna" en la pesca de Tailandia

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La Fundación para la Justicia Ambiental (EJF) denuncia que el 39 % de los productos tailandeses que llegan a EE. UU. proceden de barcos piratas

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Consiguió escaparse con habilidad del convoy de la policía, donde iba atada. Las zapatillas de goma se escurrieron de sus pies y quedaron en la puerta. Corrió descalza a través de patios oscuros. Su "amiga" hizo lo mismo: aprovechó el momento y corrió hacia la oscuridad desde el coche de la policía. Todo fue muy rápido.

Bella observa la conmoción a través del parabrisas. La sacaron del mismo apartamento que al resto, pero se subió al automóvil de manera obediente. Había sido ella quien los había entregado, la que había revelado la existencia del burdel con niñas nigerianas, donde había pasado más de un mes como esclava sexual.

El vudú y la maldición

Suroeste de Moscú, distrito Tiopli Stan (a 18 km del Kremlin). Edificios altos e idénticos. Patios desiertos. A menos que puedas leer los nombres de las calles en ruso, no sabrás donde estás. A la derecha hay una tienda abierta 24 horas sin nombre y algunas vallas; a la izquierda, una tienda de 24 horas sin nombre y algunas vallas.

Bella y Joy, una chica del burdel situado en este barrio, vivían aquí. Se intercambiaban mensajes SMS y a veces coincidían en el camino "al trabajo".

Cuando estaba en Nigeria a Bella le ofrecieron un empleo en Rusia. No le dijeron de qué se trataba concretamente pero le prometieron que "todo iría bien". Le hicieron un FAN ID para que entrase en el país durante el período "sin visados" que hubo cuando se celebró el Mundial de fútbol. Se dice que muchas chicas entraron utilizando este método. En el aeropuerto de Moscú Bella fue recibida por una mujer que más tarde se convirtió en su madama y le quitó el pasaporte. La llevaron a un apartamento en Tiopli Stan, donde había otras nigerianas viviendo allí desde hacía más de tres años. Le presentaron una factura con una "deuda" de 55.000 dólares, que tenía que pagar trabajando como prostituta para poder quedar libre. La amenazaron y le dijeron que tendría problemas si intentaba contactar con la policía.

Joy llegó a Rusia con un pretexto diferente. En Nigeria había estado en unos rituales de vudú y en uno de ellos le echaron una maldición. Le dijeron que para que se lo quitaran tendría que pagar. Entonces, inmediatamente le ofrecieron la oportunidad de ir a Rusia para conseguir el dinero de manera rápida.

"Llevamos un pollo y una paloma. Les cortamos el cuello. Vertimos la sangre del pollo y de la paloma en un vaso y la mezclamos con alcohol. Me lo bebí. Entonces Baba Lau dijo que, si no pagaba, el mal caería sobre mí", explica Joy.

Lo que les pasó después forma parte de la historia habitual. Las llevaron a Moscú y les enseñaron la "deuda" que tenían que pagar. Las llevaban todos los días a un "lugar" en la autopista y les dijeron que, si era necesario, destruirían sus pasaportes. La madama le dijo: "También tuve miedo cuando llegué a Rusia por primera vez. Pero era valiente cuando iba a trabajar".

Después la madama le contó una historia sobre un cliente que quería tirar a una chica por la ventana y cómo la chica saltó antes de que la tiraran a causa del miedo. El consejo de la madama fue: "Aléjate de las ventanas. Si Dios está contigo, podrás pagar la deuda rápidamente".

A finales de verano Joy y Bella consiguieron ponerse en contacto con voluntarios de Alternativa, una organización rusa que ayuda a la gente a salir de la esclavitud. Les pidieron que las sacaran de allí, tanto a ellas como a las demás. Primero liberaron a Joy y el turno de Bella llegó una semana después.

Cómo se compra a una persona

Según la fundación contra la esclavitud Walk Free, hay algo más de un millón de esclavos en Rusia. En todo el mundo la cifra asciende a 45,8 millones de personas. El país eslavo ocupa el puesto 64 en el Índice de Esclavitud Global. En otras palabras, hay 5,5 esclavos por cada 1.000 habitantes. Rusia no cuenta con estadísticas propias.

"A nosotros nos parece una tontería: ¿cómo puede creer en una maldición vudú? Para intimidar a las chicas las madamas les dicen que su marido es amigo de Putin. Y se lo creen. Estas chicas no tienen educación y no saben que, por ejemplo, se puede volver a emitir un pasaporte y que el vudú es una tontería", dice Oleg Mélnikov, director de Alternativa.

Estamos sentados en un café en el centro de Moscú, en el moderno centro de entretenimiento Krasni Oktiabr (Octubre Rojo). Alternativa tiene su oficina en un moderno loft situado muy cerca de aquí. Podría haber sido un estudio de diseño o una agencia de publicidad. En la pared hay una pizarra en la que está escrito "Sudán es nuestro", que significa: hay acuerdos con Sudán del Sur para rescatar a la población en colaboración con la policía local. Alternativa se está expandiendo por todo el mundo.

Según explica Oleg, la explotación sexual, como la que sufren las chicas nigerianas, es sólo una parte de la industria de la esclavitud. La esclavitud laboral es más habitual y los criminales siguen una rutina establecida.

La gente llega desde las provincias a la gran ciudad en busca de trabajo. Ni siquiera tienen dinero para pagar un hotel. Se quedan deambulando en una estación de tren durante varios días. Miran los anuncios. Entonces se les acerca un reclutador y les ofrece trabajo "en el sur". Les dice que no se necesitan habilidades especiales y que estará bien pagado.

La persona está de acuerdo. El reclutador sugiere que celebren el "trato" tomando un trago. El alcohol contiene azaleptina o clonidina. Entonces la persona se queda dormida y despierta dos días después en una fábrica de Daguestán (en el Cáucaso ruso), sin pasaporte ni teléfono. Quiere irse pero le dicen: "Te han comprado. O pagas o trabajas".

"[La víctima] piensa que trabajará durante un mes y luego podrá irse. Pero un mes después le dicen que ha desaparecido un saco de cemento o alguna oveja y que debe dinero por la comida, etc. Cuando tratan de escapar, a menudo los atrapan, los golpean y tienen que volver al trabajo", explica Oleg.

Las tarifas actuales son las siguientes, explica Oleg. Un esclavo laboral cuesta 25.000 rublos (366 dólares) mientras que una chica que presta servicios sexuales 150.000-200.000 rublos (2.200-3.000 dólares). Una persona en silla de ruedas o una anciana se venden por 50.000 rublos (730 dólares) y un bebé por unos 150.000 rublos (2.200 dólares). Estos últimos se utilizan para la mendicidad.

"Aquí hay un caso de libro. Una anciana perdió la vista cuando era joven. Vivía sola en Lugansk. En 2012, algunas personas se acercaron a ella y le dijeron: 'En Rusia hay un programa para recuperar la vista y hay una oportunidad para poder hacerlo'", Oleg inhala el denso vapor, luego exhala lentamente y toma un sorbo de Fanta. "La trajeron a Moscú, le cosieron los ojos y la colocaron en la parte de afuera de la estación de tren de Kursk para que mendigase. Cuanto más supuraban sus ojos, más dinero le daban".

La escala del problema

Solo tres personas fueron a la comisaría durante la noche de la redada en el burdel. Bella, una de las chicas que huyó (la segunda nunca fue capturada) y un proxeneta, un nigeriano grande con pantalones rojos y un chaleco amarillo. Los vecinos dicen que es un periodista que trabaja en una institución de educación superior de Moscú. Resultó que también se ocupa de "asuntos" relacionados con el burdel: sobornos, negocia con la policía y organiza la seguridad. Se descubrió que otras mujeres africanas del prostíbulo ya habían saldado la "deuda" y se dedicaban a la prostitución voluntariamente. Todas menos Bella, pero nadie la cree. Pasamos tres horas en la comisaría.

Según explican los activistas, todo depende del distrito, y no todos los policías son iguales. Bella tuvo mala suerte y en algunas comisarías la gente como ella recibe ayuda de la policía, en la medida de sus posibilidades.

Los activistas de Asistencia Civil, otra organización, creen que la legislación rusa en esta esfera no está funcionando. En Alternativa crees que está "a medias y se ha hecho sin pensar".

La recolección de pruebas, conseguir a los testigos, así como los interrogatorios son un proceso que lleva meses.

"Y cuando se libera a una persona de su cautiverio, ¿qué se hace con ella? Nadie las lleva a un centro donde pueden ser atendidas adecuadamente, porque en Rusia no hay centros de este tipo. En el mejor de los casos, la persona regresa a su lugar de origen. El tribunal los llama para testificar pero no pueden ir y el caso acaba archivándose", se lamenta Mélnikov.

La ombudswoman (defensora de los Derechos Humanos de Rusia), Tatiana Moskalkova, no ha respondido a las preguntas de Russia Beyond. El Ministerio del Interior tampoco ha hecho comentario alguno sobre el problema de la esclavitud y la lucha contra ella y se ha limitado a facilitar las estadísticas sobre casos penales. Según las cifras, en 2017 se iniciaron seis causas penales en el país en base al artículo "Utilización de mano de obra esclava" y hubo 21 causas por trata de personas. El año pasado se investigaron un total de 374 casos en virtud del artículo "Secuestro" y hubo 458 casos por "privación ilegal de libertad". Son 859 casos que, de una u otra manera, están vinculados con la esclavitud moderna.

Gente extraña

Una semana después Joy está sentada en el asiento trasero de un coche. Va a un alojamiento temporal. La comunidad nigeriana ha aceptado acogerla hasta que las cosas se resuelvan. No quiere volver a su país después de lo que le ha pasado y vuelve a preguntar cuándo le conseguirán un micrófono. Joy quiere cantar, actuar ante el público y para eso necesita practicar.

Después pregunta cómo encontrar un marido ruso. La activista en el asiento del conductor la interrumpe: "Si quieres quedarte en Rusia, aprende a sobrevivir por tu cuenta".

En los últimos siete años Alternativa ha liberado a unas mil personas. No es mucho, dicen. Hay mucha más gente que se pone en contacto con ellos pero no pueden ayudarlos a todos. No tienen dinero suficiente. Los 100.000 rublos (1.500 dólares) que consiguen recaudar al mes apenas cubren el 5% de las necesidades mensuales. Algunas víctimas necesitan que se les compre un billete de vuelta a casa, otras necesitan ayuda médica, comida, clases de canto o asistir a un curso de masajes, todo ello con el fin de integrarse en la sociedad. Es imposible recaudar suficiente dinero a través de las donaciones. Alternativa no recibe ninguna subvención estatal. Casi todo el dinero proviene de los negocios de Mélnikov: varias empresas y hoteles y el café en el que estamos sentados.

Durante nuestra conversación Bella hace seis llamadas de teléfono a conocidos (buscando un intérprete para las víctimas) y da tres golpecitos en la mesa de madera cuando habla de algo malo (para alejar el mal de ojo, según la superstición rusa). Cansada, se tumba en el sofá. Suena de fondo una recopilación de música chillout. Mélnikov bromea diciendo que son como la mafia siciliana: se encuentran todo el tiempo en el café con cachimbas y con baja iluminación para decidir a quién atacar y cuándo.

"Quizá seamos los voluntarios más extraños que has conocido, ¿verdad?", pregunta. Y parece que le gusta ser el más extraño. Sin embargo, no lo admite. La línea oficial es que le encantaría hacer otra cosa, pero que aún no es el momento adecuado. Y, francamente, "sería una pena renunciar".

La ley de derechos de autor de la Federación de Rusia prohíbe estrictamente copiar completa o parcialmente los materiales de Russia Beyond sin haber obtenido previamente permiso por escrito y sin incluir el link al texto original.

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366 dólares por una persona: la esclavitud en la Rusia actual

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Consiguió escaparse con habilidad del convoy de la policía, donde iba atada. Las zapatillas de goma se escurrieron de sus pies y quedaron en la puerta. Corrió descalza a través de patios oscuros. Su "amiga" hizo lo mismo: aprovechó el momento y corrió hacia la oscuridad desde el coche de la policía.

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What is Modern Slavery? (U.S. Department of State)

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What is Modern Slavery? (U.S. Department of State)

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In this website, the U.S. Department of State, breaks down the different kinds of modern slavery in our society. Going from child trafficking, to sexual trafficking, forced labor, domestic servitude, etc. The modern world might not show the kinds of slavery we see in history textbooks per say, but when we really dig deep into the issue, we will see how common it still is nowadays.

• APA citation
What is modern slavery? (n.d.) U.S. Department of State: Retrieved April 15th, 2021: https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery/

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"Trafficking in persons," "human trafficking," and "modern slavery" are used as umbrella terms to refer to both sex trafficking and compelled labor. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-386), as amended (TVPA), and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Protocol) describe this compelled service using a number of different terms, including involuntary servitude, slavery or practices similar to slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor.

Human trafficking can include, but does not require, movement. People may be considered trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude, were exploited in their home town, were transported to the exploitative situation, previously consented to work for a trafficker, or participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked. At the heart of this phenomenon is the traffickers' aim to exploit and enslave their victims and the myriad coercive and deceptive practices they use to do so.

Sex Trafficking

When an adult engages in a commercial sex act, such as prostitution, as the result of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion or any combination of such means, that person is a victim of trafficking. Under such circumstances, perpetrators involved in recruiting, harboring, enticing, transporting, providing, obtaining, patronizing, soliciting, or maintaining a person for that purpose are guilty of sex trafficking of an adult. Sex trafficking also may occur through a specific form of coercion whereby individuals are compelled to continue in prostitution through the use of unlawful "debt," purportedly incurred through their transportation, recruitment, or even their "sale"-which exploiters insist they must pay off before they can be free. Even if an adult initially consents to participate in prostitution it is irrelevant: if an adult, after consenting, is subsequently held in service through psychological manipulation or physical force, he or she is a trafficking victim and should receive benefits outlined in the Palermo Protocol and applicable domestic laws.

Child Sex Trafficking

When a child (under 18 years of age) is recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, patronized, solicited, or maintained to perform a commercial sex act, proving force, fraud, or coercion is not necessary for the offense to be prosecuted as human trafficking. There are no exceptions to this rule: no cultural or socioeconomic rationalizations alter the fact that children who are exploited in prostitution are trafficking victims. The use of children in commercial sex is prohibited under U.S. law and by statute in most countries around the world. Sex trafficking has devastating consequences for children, including long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/AIDS), drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and even death.

Forced Labor

Forced labor, sometimes also referred to as labor trafficking, encompasses the range of activities-recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining-involved when a person uses force or physical threats, psychological coercion, abuse of the legal process, deception, or other coercive means to compel someone to work. Once a person's labor is exploited by such means, the person's prior consent to work for an employer is legally irrelevant: the employer is a trafficker and the employee a trafficking victim. Migrants are particularly vulnerable to this form of human trafficking, but individuals also may be forced into labor in their own countries. Female victims of forced or bonded labor, especially women and girls in domestic servitude, are often sexually abused or exploited as well.

Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage

One form of coercion used by traffickers in both sex trafficking and forced labor is the imposition of a bond or debt. Some workers inherit debt; for example, in South Asia it is estimated that there are millions of trafficking victims working to pay off their ancestors' debts. Others fall victim to traffickers or recruiters who unlawfully exploit an initial debt assumed, wittingly or unwittingly, as a term of employment. Traffickers, labor agencies, recruiters, and employers in both the country of origin and the destination country can contribute to debt bondage by charging workers recruitment fees and exorbitant interest rates, making it difficult, if not impossible, to pay off the debt. Such circumstances may occur in the context of employment-based temporary work programs in which a worker's legal status in the destination country is tied to the employer so workers fear seeking redress.

Domestic Servitude

Involuntary domestic servitude is a form of human trafficking found in distinct circumstances-work in a private residence-that create unique vulnerabilities for victims. It is a crime in which a domestic worker is not free to leave his or her employment and is abused and underpaid, if paid at all. Many domestic workers do not receive the basic benefits and protections commonly extended to other groups of workers-things as simple as a day off. Moreover, their ability to move freely is often limited, and employment in private homes increases their isolation and vulnerability. Labor officials generally do not have the authority to inspect employment conditions in private homes. Domestic workers, especially women, confront various forms of abuse, harassment, and exploitation, including sexual and gender-based violence. These issues, taken together, may be symptoms of a situation of domestic servitude. When the employer of a domestic worker has diplomatic status and enjoys immunity from civil and/or criminal jurisdiction, the vulnerability to domestic servitude is enhanced.

Forced Child Labor

Although children may legally engage in certain forms of work, children can also be found in slavery or slavery-like situations. Some indicators of forced labor of a child include situations in which the child appears to be in the custody of a non-family member who requires the child to perform work that financially benefits someone outside the child's family and does not offer the child the option of leaving, such as forced begging. Anti-trafficking responses should supplement, not replace, traditional actions against child labor, such as remediation and education. When children are enslaved, their exploiters should not escape criminal punishment-something that occurs when governments use administrative responses to address cases of forced child labor.

Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers

Child soldiering is a manifestation of human trafficking when it involves the unlawful recruitment or use of children-through force, fraud, or coercion-by armed forces as combatants or other forms of labor. Perpetrators may be government armed forces, paramilitary organizations, or rebel groups. Many children are forcibly abducted to be used as combatants. Others are made to work as porters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers, or spies. Young girls may be forced to "marry" or be raped by commanders and male combatants. Both male and female child soldiers are often sexually abused or exploited by armed groups and such children are subject to the same types of devastating physical and psychological consequences associated with child sex trafficking.

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What is Modern Slavery? - United States Department of State

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"Trafficking in persons," "human trafficking," and "modern slavery" are used as umbrella terms to refer to both sex trafficking and compelled labor. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-386), as amended (TVPA), and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention [...]

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Everyone deserves a free life therefor battling the human right violation that is modern slavery is imperative to have a better world. The Minderoo foundation does it by research and creating international relations with governments and religious leaders. The Minderoo foundation is one of the most important organizations fighting modern slavery with great milestones in their goal.

APA citation
The Minderoo Foundation. (n.d.). Walk Free | The Minderoo Foundation. Retrieved April 16, 2021, from https://www.minderoo.org/walk-free/

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Walk Free is a global organisation with a mission to end modern slavery in our generation by mobilising a global activist movement, generating the highest quality research, enlisting business, and raising unprecedented levels of capital to drive change in those countries and industries bearing the greatest responsibility for modern slavery today.

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One in 200 people is a slave. Why? (The Guardian)

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One in 200 people is a slave. Why? (The Guardian)

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In this web page we can understand the effects that modern slavery has in our society. Sometimes we believe that this is an issue of the past but in it a bigger issue today more than ever. Slavery is a business that intertwines with our every day activities and economies. The website explained how slavery can be silent but nevertheless we need to fight to abolish it.

APA citation
Hodal, K. (2020, October 15). One in 200 people is a slave. Why? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200

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The word "slavery" conjures up images of shackles and transatlantic ships - depictions that seem relegated firmly to the past. But more people are enslaved today than at any other time in history. Experts have calculated that roughly 13 million people were captured and sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries; today, an estimated 40.3 million people - more than three times the figure during the transatlantic slave trade - are living in some form of modern slavery, according to the latest figures published by the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation.

Women and girls comprise 71% of all modern slavery victims. Children make up 25% and account for 10 million of all the slaves worldwide.

What are the slaves being forced to do?

A person today is considered enslaved if they are forced to work against their will; are owned or controlled by an exploiter or "employer"; have limited freedom of movement; or are dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as property, according to abolitionist group Anti-Slavery International.

Globally, more than half of the 40.3 million victims (24.9 million) are in forced labour, which means they are working against their will and under threat, intimidation or coercion. An additional 15.4 million people are estimated to be living in forced marriages.

Of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, the majority (16 million) work in the private sector. Slaves clean houses and flats; produce the clothes we wear; pick the fruit and vegetables we eat; trawl the seas for the shrimp on our restaurant plates; dig for the minerals used in our smartphones, makeup and electric cars; and work on construction jobs building infrastructure for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Another 4.8 million people working in forced labour are estimated to be sexually exploited, while roughly 4.1 million people are in state-sanctioned forced labour, which includes governmental abuse of military conscription and forced construction or agricultural work. In certain countries such as Mauritania, people are born into "hereditary" slavery if their mother was a slave.

Again, women and girls bear the brunt of these statistics, comprising 99% of all victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors, according to the ILO.

Where is this happening?

Statistically, modern slavery is most prevalent in Africa, followed by Asia and the Pacific, according to the Global Slavery Index, which publishes country-by-country rankings on modern slavery figures and government responses to tackle the issues.

But the ILO and Walk Free warn that these figures are likely skewed due to lack of data from key regions. "We believe that the global estimate of 40.3 million is the most reliable data to date, although we believe it to be a conservative estimate as there were millions of people we couldn't reach in conflict zones or on the refugee trail and places where we couldn't be sure of collecting robust data such as the Gulf states, where access and language barriers prevented us from reaching the migrant worker communities," said Michaëlle de Cock, a senior statistician at the ILO.

More than 70% of the 4.8 million sex exploitation victims are in the Asia and Pacific region. Forced marriage is most prevalent in Africa. But there isn't a single country that isn't tainted by slavery: 1.5 million victims are living in developed countries, with an estimated 13,000 enslaved here in the UK.

Why are there so many slaves today?

Slavery is big business. Globally, slavery generates as much as $150bn (£116bn) in profits every year, more than one third of which ($46.9bn) is generated in developed countries, including the EU. Whereas slave traders two centuries ago were forced to contend with costly journeys and high mortality rates, modern exploiters have lower overheads thanks to huge advances in technology and transportation. Modern migration flows also mean that a large supply of vulnerable, exploitable people can be tapped into for global supply chains in the agriculture, beauty, fashion and sex industries.

According to slavery expert Siddharth Kara, modern slave traders now earn up to 30 times more than their 18th and 19th century counterparts would have done. The one-off cost of a slave today is $450, Kara estimates. A forced labourer generates roughly $8,000 in annual profit for their exploiter, while sex traffickers earn an average of $36,000 per victim.

"It turns out that slavery today is more profitable than I could have imagined," Kara said. "Profits on a per-slave basis can range from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars a year, with total annual slavery profits estimated to be as high as $150bn."

It's important to acknowledge that global population rates also affect estimates: the top 10 countries with the highest estimated absolute number of victims are also some of the most populous. Together, these 10 countries - China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines and Russia - comprise 60% of all the people living in modern slavery, as well as more than half the world's population, according to the Global Slavery Index.

An increase in violent conflict worldwide over the past 30 years has also inflated the number of people at risk of slavery, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with armed groups and terrorists turning to trafficking " to show they have control over the community, or to increase their force, either recruiting child soldiers or giving sex slaves as a reward for their recruitment".

What's the difference between slavery and human trafficking?

Human trafficking is just one way of enslaving someone. Whereas centuries ago it was common for a slave trader to simply buy another human being and "own" that person as their property (which does still happen), today the practice is largely more insidious.

Trafficking involves the recruitment, transfer or obtaining of an individual through coercion, abduction, fraud or force to exploit them. That exploitation can range from forced labour to forced marriage or commercial sex work - and the exploiter can be anyone, including strangers, neighbours or family members. Most people are trafficked within their own countries, although they can also be trafficked abroad; most often the individual is trafficked into forced labour.

Many times, the victim is led to believe they have been offered a well-paid job in a different city or country, only to find the job does not exist and they are now indebted to their "employer" or trafficker and must pay transportation, lodging and any other "fees" the exploiter demands, thereby forcing the victim into debt bondage.

For example?

Guardian investigations have revealed a slew of abuses from Qatar to Thailand, India to the United States. Qatar was forced to take action after revelations of abusive practices foisted on migrant workers helping build its infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.

Trafficking on to fishing boats is still widespread, particularly in south-east and east Asia, where men are lured by the promise of jobs in agriculture or construction, then drugged or beaten and wake up at sea.

Exploitation of migrant workers has also been revealed in Malaysia, Cambodia, China, Italy, Vietnam and the UK.

How does someone end up becoming a slave?

There is no definitive answer to this question. Modern slavery affects people of every colour, age and gender - but is more prevalent among vulnerable people. That might be a Cambodian villager looking for a better paid job in a neighbouring country, only to find himself trafficked on to a fishing boat.

Or a young girl forced to marry at 13 because climate change has flooded her family's crops and they can no longer afford to keep her at home. Or a homeless person kidnapped from a London soup kitchen and forced to work on a caravan site. Or a migrant whose visa has expired and can be threatened with deportation if she doesn't do what the trafficker demands.

Slavery is global but flourishes in places where the rule of law is weak and corruption goes unchecked, says Anti-Slavery International.

Will slavery ever end?

Activists such as Kara believe that slavery can be eradicated for good, but that it would take great political will and considerable research.

First, dedicated investigators would need to identify each level in the often murky supply chains of commodities in order to determine where labour abuses are taking place.

Then, independent certification processes would need to be designed for each commodity, so that consumers could make educated choices about the products they are buying and the slavery or labour abuses implicated with those purchases.

Finally, Kara says, industries would need to invest in the communities whose low-cost labour is being used to make the products. "Doing so would help mitigate vulnerability to being trafficked and exploited," Kara said. "Consumers may have to pay slightly more for certain goods, and multinational corporations may have to accept slightly lower profits. But a freer and fairer labour environment would promote greater productivity, potentially offsetting some of those expenses."

What do I do if I think someone is a victim of modern slavery?

According to Anti-Slavery International, slavery is so common that it is possible you come across victims "on a regular basis". Key things to look out for are whether the person has freedom of movement; appears scared, withdrawn or shows signs of abuse; has few personal belongings or identifying documents with them; or seems under the control of someone else and scared to talk.

If you think someone may tick these boxes, it is best to contact authorities directly instead of approaching the person, as approaching them could put them in danger. In the UK, you can contact the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700, the police, Crimestoppers or groups such as Anti-Slavery International.

Further reading
Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage Global Report on Human Trafficking With Ash on Their Faces: Yezidi Women and the Islamic State Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective Siddharth Kara Cathy Otten UNODC ILO

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It affects more than 40 million people worldwide - more than at any other time in history

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What does modern slavery looks like? (BBC NEWS)

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What does modern slavery looks like? (BBC NEWS)

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This Web page talks about how more than 45 million of people are living in modern slavery, most of them being Asians. The writer talks about the 5 types of modern slavery, that are being unforced among these people. The 5 types of modern slavery are: The seafood industry, cannabis factories and nail bars, sexual slavery, forced begging and behind closed doors (homes and private farms.

APA citation
BBC News. (2016, May 31). What does modern slavery look like? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36416751

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More than 45 million people are living in modern slavery, with Asia accounting for two thirds of the victims, a new report says.

The 2016 Global Slavery Index, from the Walk Free Foundation in Australia, defines slavery as "situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception".

Modern forms of slavery can include debt bondage, where a person is forced to work for free to pay off a debt, child slavery, forced marriage, domestic servitude and forced labour, where victims are made to work through violence and intimidation.

The BBC looks at five examples of modern slavery.

1. The seafood industry

Human rights groups say thousands of people are trafficked and forced to work on fishing boats, where they can be kept for years without ever seeing the shore. Victims say those who are caught trying to escape can be killed and thrown overboard.

Thailand, which is the third largest exporter of seafood in the world, has been accused of crewing fishing boats with Burmese and Cambodian men who have been sold and forced to work as slaves. The authorities are trying to crack down on people traffickers.

Many victims say they were tricked by brokers who promised them factory jobs, and then put them on fishing boats where they were forced to work.

One Burmese man who escaped his traffickers said he was forced on to a tiny boat in the open sea where he fished 20 hours a day, with no pay.

"People said, anyone who tried to escape had their legs broken, their hands broken or were even killed," he told the BBC.

Figures suggest there could be between 10,000 and 13,000 victims of slavery in the UK, trafficked from countries including Albania, Nigeria, Vietnam and Romania.

About 3,000 children from Vietnam alone are thought to be working in British cannabis farms and nail bars.

Many victims are told their families will be hurt if they leave.

One victim was 16 years old when he came to the UK, hoping to earn money to send home to his family. Instead, he was forced to work in a cannabis factory.

"I remember asking the man who took me there if I could leave because I didn't like it but he threatened to beat me or starve me to death," he said.

He was arrested when police raided the house, and charged with drug offences - but was eventually helped by the NSPCC child trafficking advice centre.

3. Sexual slavery

The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 4.5 million victims of forced sexual exploitation.

Shandra Woworuntu, an activist against human trafficking, was forced into sexual slavery in the US in 2001.

She left Indonesia when she was promised work in the hospitality industry in the US, but the agents who met her at the airport passed her on to armed traffickers, who forced her to carry out sex work.

"They told me I owed them $30,000 and I would pay off the debt $100 at a time by serving men," she said.

She eventually managed to escape, and helped the FBI locate a brothel with other trafficking victims.

4. Forced begging

The report highlights that many children across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East are forced to beg on the streets by criminals.

One victim told researchers: "Though I am begging I am not paid a single amount. I have to deposit all to them. I am deprived of food and good sleep. I am not paid my wages only working as a bonded labour."

Another said: "I can't say anything to you because I am in constant fear. I am threatened by my employer not to open my mouth to anybody otherwise I will be punished severely."

5. Behind closed doors

Much modern slavery isn't visible in public. It takes place in homes and private farms.

Last week, three men from the same family in the UK were jailed for forcing a man to do heavy labour for next to no money.

Michael Hughes, 46, was forced to work for the family for more than 20 years, doing building work and road laying.

He said he was made to live in a 1.2m (4ft) wide garden shed with no heating or running water for two years.

And last month, a UK man was jailed for two years in the first case of a man holding his wife in domestic servitude.

The wife was tortured, forced to do all the chores, and not allowed to leave home, prosecutors said.

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More than 45 million people are living in modern slavery, with Asia accounting for two thirds of the victims, a new report says. The 2016 Global Slavery Index, from the Walk Free Foundation in Australia, defines slavery as "situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception".

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What slavery looks like in the 21st century. No country is free from modern slavery, but would you know it if you saw it? (DW Made for minds)

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What slavery looks like in the 21st century. No country is free from modern slavery, but would you know it if you saw it? (DW Made for minds)

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This website features an interview with Jakub Sobik a correspondent from. The specialist responds explaining the differences between slavery in the past compared to the current one. He gives a deep insight into what it is like to be involve in modern slavery with  testimonies. In addition, the specialist manages to explain how this problem mixes with other social problems creating new forms of slavery in which it is necessary to work to eradicate.

APA citation:

Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). (2020, March 25). What slavery looks like in the 21st century. DW.COM. https://www.dw.com/en/why-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking-still-exist-world/a-52853992

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Modern slavery transgresses borders, effecting people in countries across the world.

One organization particularly well positioned to explain how this practice persists is Anti-Slavery International, an organization founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce in 1839. It's been fighting slavery for more than 180 years.

Today, the London-based organization helps people out of modern slavery, and helps them build their lives in freedom afterward. They also work to improve policies against slavery - through laws and by working with businesses to make sure people aren't exploited in global supply chains.

DW's Anke Rasper recently spoke with Jakub Sobik from Anti-Slavery International about their work.

Modern-day slavery

Born into slavery

The descendants of African slaves in Mauritania are called "Haratin." Although slavery is officially banned in the northwestern African country, people are still inherited or sold as property there. An estimated 600,000 women, men and children in Mauritania are currently exploited as domestic workers or in the agriculture sector. That's one-fifth of the population.

Author: Helle Jeppesen, Natalie Muller

DW: What's the difference between the traditional forms of slavery we saw in the 19th century and now the modern forms of slavery?
Jakub Sobik: I think the biggest difference is that slavery, understood historically, is about people literally owning other people. While these forms of slavery still exist in places (for example, in West Africa), modern slavery is about exploiting people, about trapping them for labor or for some kind of service such as sexual exploitation.
Who's most vulnerable and can you give an example of how this works?
There are always people who are more vulnerable than others: people who are in poverty, people who are discriminated against and people who are not protected very well by law.

For example, in India, a group of Dalits - who are essentially a lower caste - they don't enjoy any rights. They are discriminated against. They don't have many opportunities for good jobs and they're not protected by law because that caste is seen as a lesser one. Hundreds of thousands of Dalit people are being exploited in the brick industry - in brick factories across India - and in other industries too. It happens often through debt bondage and other forms of exploitation.
Debt bondage is very prevalent in Asia, I read that more than 30 million people are counted as part of debt bondage there. What is the situation?
Manual labor without adequate protection is a dire reality for millions across the world

Yes, debt bondage is quite widespread across Southeast Asia. In terms of bonded labor, a whole generation of people, whole families can be indebted to someone for generations. Inevitably they lose control over that debt. The employer keeps control over the debt, adds interest on top of that all the time and they're trapped in this cycle of exploitation that they're unable to get out of.

Even though in India debt bondage and bonded labor is outlawed, the law is not implemented. We see that all the time when people (especially those from castes that are discriminated against, such as Dalits) go to the police, they're simply not being listened to.

Debt is probably the most common way of entrapping people in these kind of exploitative situations. We see that in trafficking, when someone wants a job and goes abroad to find a job, they have to pay for travel and recruitment costs. Often, they have to borrow this money from the traffickers. In this way, the traffickers have gained control over these vulnerable people and they can exploit them at the destination.
International Labour Organization figures say that about 30 million people are entrapped in modern forms of slavery in Asia and 9 million in African countries. What about Europe and North America?

Women are particularly vulnerable to employment scams that lure them abroad and confiscate their passports, leaving them little choice but to work for low wages

We have to be very clear that no country is free from modern slavery. Here in the UK, there are estimates of as many as 138,000 people who are trapped in modern slavery. Every country in Europe, including Germany, has that problem and in many different forms. The most prevalent is probably forced labor. People are trafficked for being exploited in agriculture, construction, hospitality. There is trafficking for sexual exploitation and increasingly trafficking for criminal activities such as running drugs or being forced to steal.
That sounds like a lot of people who do this are criminals. Is law enforcement the way forward?
For some, trafficking will be implemented by organized criminal gangs. But some of them could be a farm owner who just exploits people and sees some kind of vulnerability in migrants who are illegally in a country and don't speak the language, so they don't know where to turn to for help. I think it's just about certain people finding that vulnerability in people to exploit them. That's why it's so difficult to spot, because a lot of people in modern slavery look like they're in normal jobs, but there is something more troubling behind the surface.
Do you have an inspirational story that touched you personally?

Despite outlawing slavery in 1981, the last country in the world to do so, tens of thousands of people in Mauritania face inhumane working conditions and sexual abuse

I think the most amazing story of change I've seen was in Niger where traditional forms of slavery still exist. One of them is a practice called "fifth wife," which means that for wealthy men, in addition to four wives permitted by Islam, they take on an additional wife - fifth wives - who are essentially treated as slaves and they just serve their masters, in both domestic and sexual ways.

We had a woman called Hadijatou Mani who ran away from this kind of situation and built her life in freedom and married another man she freely chose. But she was thrown in jail after her former master denounced her as breaching the rules of what he called marriage.

We took that case on and we took that to an international court and we won that case. She was amazingly brave to testify against her former master and against her own government for failing to protect her from slavery.

She won that case and then 10 years later her marriage not only was finally cancelled, but the whole practice was ruled unlawful, so her own personal fight ended in actually criminalizing the practice that has persisted in the country for hundreds of years. And hundreds of women and girls will be protected from that form of slavery from now on.
This interview was conducted by Anke Rasper and has been edited for length and clarity.

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No country is free from modern slavery, but would you know it if you saw it? | DW | 25.03.2020

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Modern slavery transgresses borders, effecting people in countries across the world. One organization particularly well positioned to explain how this practice persists is Anti-Slavery International, an organization founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce in 1839. It's been fighting slavery for more than 180 years.

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Forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking (International Labour Organization)

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Forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking (International Labour Organization)

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The main focus of this page is to give reliable facts, news and publication of forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking.
The web page gives statistics, news and projects aimed at the eradication of modern slavery and support for victims.  The organization presents protocols that governments all over the world can participate to ensure freedom in their countries.

APA citation:

Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage. (September 2017.). Forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking. 15/04/2020, de International Labour Organization. Retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm

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Forced labour is a severe violation of human rights affecting 28 million of men, women and children in all countries and all economic sectors. It is rooted in poverty, discrimination and lack of social protection, and it disrupts fair competition between businesses. The issue has been at the heart of the ILO mandate to promote Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, leaving no one behind.

International Labour Standards on Forced Labour

The Forced Labour Convention (No. 29), adopted in 1930, contains the definition of forced labour and provides that it should be punished as a crime. This is one of the most ratified ILO standards.

The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105), adopted in 1957, deals with state-imposed forms of forced labour. This is one of the most ratified ILO standards.

The Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention, (P029), adopted in 2014, requires ratifying countries to take effective measures to prevent forced labour, protect victims and ensure their access to justice.

The Protocol complements the Convention No. 29, therefore only countries that have ratified this Convention can ratify the Protocol.

The Forced Labour Recommendation (No. 203), adopted in 2014, provides further guidance on how to implement the Protocol.

It is a non-binding document that does not require ratification.

Want to know more about Forced Labour?
You can contact us at forcedlabour@ilo.org
and follow us on social media:

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Forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking

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Forced labour is a severe violation of human rights affecting 28 million of men, women and children in all countries and all economic sectors. It is rooted in poverty, discrimination and lack of social protection, and it disrupts fair competition between businesses.

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This page provides an example of a country (United Kingdom) and how are they ending modern slavery with a National referral program. In this web page we can find different up to dat reports on modern slavery as well as different PDF guides to identify the issue, become a responder of aid and provide support for the victims.

APA citation:

Home Office. (2021b, March 11). Modern slavery. GOV.UK.https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/modern-slavery

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Brings together documents and promotional material related to the government's work to end modern slavery.

National referral mechanism

The national referral mechanism is used to identify and refer potential victims of modern slavery and make sure they receive appropriate support.

Duty to notify

Specific public authorities have a duty to notify the Secretary of State of any person identified in England and Wales as a suspected victim of slavery or human trafficking.

Transparency in supply chains

Certain commercial organisations must publish an annual statement setting out the steps they take to prevent modern slavery in their business and their supply chains. This is a requirement under Section 54 (Transparency in Supply Chains) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Research and publications

On 31 July 2014, the Home Office launched a modern slavery marketing campaign to raise awareness that slavery exists in the UK.

This modern slavery campaign material has been developed in collaboration with partners (such as charities, the police and frontline staff) to support the nationwide campaign to end modern slavery.

Independent child trafficking advocates

Interim statutory guidance for early adopter sites where Independent Child Trafficking Advocates (ICTAs) will be implemented.

Training

Government modern slavery statements

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Brings together documents and promotional material related to the government's work to end modern slavery.

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What is modern slavery? (Anti-Slavery International) 

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What is modern slavery? (Anti-Slavery International) 

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Ani-Slavery International world’s oldest human rights organization dedicated in the end of the different types of slavery still present today. They provide updated information on how to tackle this social issue while implementing projects people can participate in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. The organization educates on the issue because it believes that everyone, everywhere has the right to a life free from slavery.

APA citation:

Anti-Slavery International. (2020, July 29). What is modern slavery? https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/

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"We were only there to work. It felt like I was in jail." Laboni, Nepal

You might think that slavery is a thing of the past. But right now, almost 50 million people are trapped in slavery worldwide.

It's a problem that affects every country on earth -  including yours .

In many ways, slavery may look different from the slavery of the Transatlantic slave trade, but modern slavery - as a term - encompasses many forms of slavery, including human trafficking and people being born into slavery.

There are hundreds of definitions of modern slavery. All of these include aspects of control, involuntary actions and exploitation.

At Anti-Slavery International, we define modern slavery as when an individual is exploited by others, for personal or commercial gain. Whether tricked, coerced, or forced, they lose their freedom. This includes but is not limited to human trafficking, forced labour and debt bondage.

Our mission is to stop slavery - to secure freedom for everyone, everywhere, always.

Modern slavery is all around us, often hidden in plain sight. People can become enslaved making our clothes, serving our food, picking our crops, working in factories, or working in houses as cooks, cleaners or nannies. Victims of modern slavery might face violence or threats, be forced into inescapable debt, or have their passport taken away and face being threatened with deportation.

Many people have fallen into this trap because they were trying to escape poverty or insecurity, improve their lives and support their families. Now, they can't leave.

According to the latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery (2022) from Walk Free, the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration:

49.6 million people live in modern slavery - in forced labour and forced marriage

Roughly a quarter of all victims of modern slavery are children

22 million people are in forced marriages. Two out of five of these people were children

Of the 27., are in forced labour exploitation in the private economy, 6 million people trapped in forced labour 17.3 million 6.3 million are in commercial sexual exploitation , and nearly authorities 4 million are in forced labour imposed by state

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the conditions that lead to modern slavery

Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to forced labour.

Source: Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage , Geneva, September 2022

Modern slavery takes many forms. The most common are:

Descent-based slavery (where people are born into slavery). A very old form of slavery, where people are treated as property, and their "slave" status has been passed down the maternal line.

Child slavery. When a child is exploited for someone else's gain. This can include child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage and child domestic slavery

. Domestic work and domestic servitude are not always slavery, and when properly regulated can be an important source of income for many people. However, when someone is working in another person's home, they may be particularly vulnerable to abuses, exploitation, and slavery, as they might be hidden from sight and lack legal protection.

Why are people in slavery today?

People may end up trapped in slavery because they're vulnerable to being tricked, trapped and exploited, often as a result of poverty and exclusion and because laws do not properly protect them.

People can be particularly vulnerable to modern slavery when external circumstances push them into taking risky decisions in search of opportunities to provide for their families, or when people find they are simply pushed into jobs in exploitative conditions. Anyone could be pressed into forced labour, but people in vulnerable situations - such as being in debt, or not having access to their passport - are most at risk. Crises like the pandemic and climate change can make people even more vulnerable to exploitation.

Where do we find slavery?

People are being exploited and pushed into slavery all around the world. While it may take different forms, we're committed to ending slavery for everyone, everywhere.

Slavery is a problem in the UK, where many people experience human trafficking, bonded labour and forced labour. Many products on our local shop shelves might have been made by people in forced labour, but the complex supply chains that businesses have created might make it harder for business to spot exploitation and abuses in their supply chains. In many cases they even hide behind this complexity to evade responsibility. That's why we are pushing for new laws to protect workers and hold businesses accountable for exploitation occurring in their supply chains.

Slavery may be hidden but it exists and it's controlling the lives of millions of people.

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What is modern slavery? | Anti-Slavery International

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What is modern slavery? Find out where modern slavery happens today, the numbers behind it and who is affected.