Modern day slavery

Slavery in the United States was declared immoral and in 1865 the U.S. government created and drafted the 13th Amendment which freed existing slaves and made slavery illegal in the United States. Slavery which was abolished 143 years ago is however still in existence and is affecting the personal lives and health of people all over the world. However, unlike the state-sanctioned, race-based crime of the past, modern-day slavery is largely an illegal, global phenomenon, fueled primarily by commercial gain. Modern day slavery like earlier forms is a huge world wide business. Human trafficking alone is an estimated at $9 billion dollar profit for those involved each year. [ [http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/9194/4] ] Modern day slavery is not just a problem in the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe it is and has affected the whole world not just a section of it. Modern day slavery takes many forms: there is domestic servitude slavery, there is factory and farm slavery, there is child soldier slavery, and there is sex slavery, which is probably the largest category. [http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rm/43617.htm] In the U.S. and other areas of the world the people being enslaved are the immigrants illegal or legal who are smuggled into the country by promises and hopes of a better life. That closely links modern day slavery with Human trafficking, which brings in and ships the enslaved all over the U.S. "Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide, and between 14,500 and 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State". [http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_human.html] The enslaved are not always like said above always illegally brought into the U.S., but are kept or held illegally once they arrive. Like in the case of Francesca Ekka, a 23-year old woman from Bombay, India, who was brought into the United States on a tourist visa by a wealthy Indian couple who wanted her to be their nanny and housekeeper. She ended up working 18-hour days seven days a week, wasn't paid, was forced to sleep outside with the family's dot, wasn't given enough to eat, and suffered beating and burnings. [The New Slavery. By: Henderson, Ky. Fall97, Vol.24, Issue 4] This is but one example of, and only one form of the slavery that still exist here in the U.S., and this is not an isolated case there are hundreds of personal stories found at http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/USA.htm. [http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/USA.htm]

Modern day slavery is not out in the open it is not something someone will accidentally walk into, and even if they do will they do something to stop it and help the victims? The idea that 100,000 ‘domestic servitude’ slaves reside in this country shocks most people, but upon that most of those same people just will simply deny the fact. An effect that happens in all societies called the bystander effect helps in the continuation of the slavery practices in the modern day and world. This is to simply put it is when one individual will see, hear, or think of something as illegal or harmful to an individual and still not report it, why? Because and individual will tend to pass the responsibility on to the next person, thinking that someone else will fix it is at the heart of the effect.

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The Lure

Modern day slavery in the U.S. takes advantage of those from other nations. Those who are participating in this activity will " lured to America with false promises of a good education, a good life in America and being forced to cook, to clean, to care for one's children, forbidden from leaving, often beaten, often sexually abused." [http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=3190006&page=2] This is a common story in that of modern day slavery, like Francesca Ekka the 23 year-old from Bombay, Evelyn Chumbow now 21 is from Cameroon she was lured over by a rich Maryland couple promising her a bright future and a top rate education, being she was a top ranked student in her native country. Instead she was given no education and forced into long hard servitude for the wealth couple. Others are simply kidnapped and brought into the country when there they are to poor to pay of their transport debts to the smugglers, upon this they are put into what is called forced labor enabling them to pay off their debts. However, they pay is usually minimal and the labor is hard making it nearly impossible to become free from the debts placed on you. Victim of these situations will often if women be put into forced sex servitude which can entail prostitution or stripping. Others will be put to work in fields or sweatshops. Both of these routes are run like a business, the victims will be treated not as humans but areas and sources of profit.

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Control Over

Once the victim of the forced servitude arrives how and why do they remain enslaved to the people in charge? First many of the people or victims of such crimes are from a foreign country, in 2001 a report was filled giving the ratios of the numerous nationalities of victims in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. ” Of the 554 victims, 136 were immigrants from Thailand and 104 from Mexico. People from China, Cambodia, India, Russia, Vietnam, the Philippines and eight other nations also were involved. A few victims were U.S. citizens”. [http://dwb.sacbee.com/content/politics/ca/v-print/story/12462334p-13318412c.html] This shows that it is easier for those in charge of the operations to collect people not native to the U.S. This is because people who are foreign can be easier to take advantage of and keep in servitude. The way this is done is by taking their visas, passports, identification, really anything that would show that this person existed and was in the U.S. Victims are often kept isolated to prevent them from getting help. Their activities are restricted and are typically watched, escorted or guarded by associates of traffickers, practiced by keeping the victims locked in the actual sweatshops and ‘massage parlors’. Traffickers may “coach” them to answer questions with a cover story about being a student or tourist. Victims may be blackmailed by traffickers using the victims’ status as an undocumented alien or their participation in an “illegal” industry. By threatening to report them to law enforcement or immigration officials, traffickers keep victims compliant. People who are trafficked often come from unstable and economically devastated places as traffickers frequently identify vulnerable populations characterized by oppression, high rates of illiteracy, little social mobility and few economic opportunities. Women and children are overwhelmingly trafficked in labor arenas because of their relative lack of power, social marginalization, and their overall status as compared to men. [http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_labor.html] The control over the victim is of the complete nature of control. The offenders will break the victim’s spirit to the point where they see no escape from the servitude they are forced into. Besides these forms of control those in charge will often verbally abuse their victims. This was so in both the cases of Evelyn Chumbow and Francesca Ekka. The two told of how these mean and hateful words directed towards them effected and changed their mental states and, how this also affected their overall self-worth, confidence, and well-being. When a person losses theses three states a person will begin to loose hope and begin to see no future outside of what is now, this is but one of the tactics used to break the victims and enables them to be forced into the servitude.

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Forced Labor

There are many forms of modern day slavery seen in practice today in the U.S. and all over the world. However, a one seems to be much more prevalent over others that is forced labor. This is where a victim is forced into work to pay of debts to owners of the operations. Examples of such an operation are sweatshops, brothels, restaurants, and fields where people are intended to toil in these places to pay off their debts, as much as $25,000-$30,000. [http://www.hrcberkeley.org/download/hiddenslaves_report.pdf] In the forced labor category service in the sex servitude is the most prevalent. Of the total numbers prostitution and sex services are at (46%), domestic service at (27%), agriculture at (10%), sweatshop/factory at (5%), and restaurant and hotel work at (4%) of those enslaved in. [http://www.hrcberkeley.org/download/hiddenslaves_report.pdf] These are not just small mom and pop type organizations we are talking about large multi-million dollar companies out to make a profit any way possible. Like in the Case against R&A Harvesting: Forced Farm Labor in Florida. This was a citrus farm out of Florida, which employed people and placed them into forced labor with little or no pay. In 2002 four men were charged with the crime of forced labor and sentenced to 15 years in jail and were forced to turn over their $3 million dollar estate and all their property. Forced labor is fueled by the need and greed for cheep labor, and many people are not afraid to enter into the world of modern day slavery (forced labor), because of the huge profits to be made at the expense of others life's.

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Forced Sex Servitude

Under the category of forced labor you can put forced sex servitude; this is a very large area of forced labor. Cristina Andres pleaded guilty to two counts of commercial sex trafficking. She recruited two girls 13 and 17 at the time; she told them she would get them a job in Nashville at a restraint, knowing she would have them working as sex slaves with in the week. Physical force and threats against the victims and their families were used to keep the girls under the control of those in charge. [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-29-2007/0004515442&EDATE=] Other operations can be much larger. 31 people are in custody in allegations to an illegal smuggling of women through Canada and Mexico into the U.S. The women ( all Korean) were forced to pay off their smuggling debts by being forced into the sex slave world, they were ship around the seven states including Maryland and D.C., in total 70 women were free from the suspected sex slavery ring. [http://www.nbc4.com/news/9690144/detail.html] The bystander effect is helping or adding these operations continuance, especially in the sex slave area. Many of these women will have sex with dozens of men a night, and how many of these men care in the slightest that the women are or may be slaves to the world of sex. The men who engage these women are as much at fault for the conditions of the girls as the bosses in charge. If one would question himself or think about what is going on one may begin to notice something not right. But since the world of prostitution is in the shadows in America and most of the world, it is an easy area to harvest this enterprise into a huge cash cow. Few people will admit to going to a prostitute unless caught in the act of soliciting. So, here the bystander effect is much stronger, and the ones in charge of the prostitution rings know this, and it aids them in the continuance of there businesses. The bystander effect can’t be over looked in the other realms of modern day slavery. All the areas that it works out of are in the shadows in America. This makes it harder for the issues to one be found out and two be exposed, because of the complete avoidance and neglect of the problems that are caused by modern day slavery.

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Laws and Help

It is hard to stop or even catch and convict those who are actively participating in modern day slavery (forced labor). Human trafficking is the third largest and fastest growing underground illegal trade industry behind drugs and guns. [http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=5152335] So in ”October of 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) (Public Law 106-386) was enacted. Prior to that, no comprehensive Federal law existed to protect victims of trafficking or to prosecute their traffickers”. [http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/TVPA_2000.htm] In 2003, the Bush Administration authorized more than $200 million to combat human trafficking through the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 (TVPRA). TVPRA renews the U.S. government's commitment to identify and assist victims exploited through labor and sex trafficking in the United States. The U.S. has also set up programs to help those who have been victims. In the U.S. victims identified by the government can help them by stabilizing their immigrant status. The Health and Human Services (HHS) enables victims who are non-U.S. citizens to receive federally funded benefits and services to the same extent as a refugee; as well U.S. citizens who are victims are eligible for many benefits. The U.S. government has made strides to combat modern day slavery, but the most important thing to note is that the citizens of this country are at fault to for allowing this form of slavery to continue, please don’t participate in the bystander effect, if you see or hear of someone in this situation call Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1.888.3737.888.

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