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Gender-based Inequality in Nepal

Gender Based Inequality in Nepal
As more Nepalese men leave their homeland in search of employment, the women—especially in rural areas—have begun to take a larger role in society. Even with these new-found responsibilities, the women of Nepal remain trapped in the cycle of poverty and gender-based inequality that has plagued the country for generations. In Nepal, a woman can run a farm yet have no access to the profits the land yields.

Nepal’s economy relies largely on foreign aid, and despite the tremendous progress since the 1990s, 40 percent of the population continues to live below the poverty line. That number declined by 11 percent overall since the mid-90’s, but this still leaves one third of all Nepalese children living under such conditions.

Unemployment leads thousands of Nepalese to migrate to neighboring India in search of a way to provide for their families. Unfortunately, the open border allowing this migration also renders human trafficking, for both sexual and hard-labor purposes, much easier. The trafficking of an estimated 200,000 Nepalese women has filled brothels across India. Someone known to the family often tricks the victims with the promise of a well-paying job. In other cases, women are simply kidnapped and smuggled across the Nepalese border into India. Low-paid border police are easily bribed—an issue activist groups currently target with practical training for the police regarding how to spot a victim of trafficking.

Abuse also follows women who migrate willingly to countries like Lebanon. Under the Kafala system, one employer receives the work permits, meaning women who dare leave an abusive employer risk deportation. Because legal employment pays little, if any, wages, many Nepalese migrants turn to the illegal informal sector. The Nepalese government has reacted with heavy restrictions on women’s travel and migration to the country.

Evidence suggests that the expansion of women’s rights can relieve a country from poverty sooner. Yet, historically, gender inequality has been ingrained in Nepalese society. Chhaupadi, the practice of forcing a women in menstruation or having recently given birth to live apart from the family until the bleeding ends, is still practiced throughout the western and central regions of Nepal. Within the Nepalese family unit, women cannot live individually, which incapacitates victims of domestic abuse who might otherwise leave. Few women report abuse or trafficking to police.

The future of the Nepalese women requires addressing the two main factors of her suffering: economic and gender-based inequality. Microloans offered to rural women proves to be one method to fight the temptation of falsely-alluring jobs abroad. Survivors of trafficking have also received such loans. In 2007, the Nepalese government enacted the Human Trafficking and Transportation Act, but without proper implementation, the Act fails to serve its purpose. The issue demands further international attention, and increased financial independence for women in Nepal.

– Erica Lignell

Sources: The Economist, Unicef, BBC News, FORBES, The Guardian, AlJazeera, The New York Times, The New York Times(2)
Photo: Google Images

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20 Ways to Fight Human Trafficking

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Human trafficking is not only a human security issue, but the fight against human trafficking is also one of the most important human rights causes of our generation. Global poverty is a direct link to the increase in human trafficking making the reduction of global poverty a goal in the near future to save the lives of thousands of young girls and boys within the next decade. Discussed below are the best practices that can be used to fight against human trafficking.

 

Solutions to Human Trafficking: 20 Ways to Fight

 

1. Look for red flags that may indicate human trafficking. For example, be aware of situations that can help identify potential trafficking victims. Also, check for human trafficking awareness groups around the community for more information.
2. For the United States, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center can be contacted at 1-888-373-7888 while on a global scale, Polaris can be reached at (888) 373-7888. Both are available twenty four hours a day and can provide a service officer which can provide and receive information regarding suspicious activity which may relate to human trafficking in the area.
3. Be aware of companies and products that may be involved with child labor. The department of labor provides a list of companies that do and do not utilize these practices.
4. Include human trafficking into the professional realm. Specifically, at conferences and within training manuals that relate to this discussion. Help people understand the severity of the issue.
5. Seek out anti-trafficking organizations or create a startup organization geared toward spreading awareness and ways to prevent these acts from occurring.
6. Find the local, state and federal government representatives and inform them about how to combat human trafficking in the community, and also ask what they are doing to address human trafficking in your area and at the global perspective.
7. Distribute public awareness materials available from the Department of Health and Human Services or the Department of Homeland Security around the community, local schools and universities.
8. Volunteer with local outreach or global outreach groups to help fight human trafficking.
9. Donate to an approved anti-trafficking group locally or globally.
10. Start a fundraiser to help provide assistance in the community as well as across the globe.
11. Host events to discuss, show films or do anything related to raising awareness of human trafficking. Promote this locally and collect donations to help fight for the cause.
12. Bring awareness to schools and universities. Encourage information to be provided in the curriculums and in the classrooms. Evoke emotion from students and share with them the steps to help fight for the end of human trafficking.
13. Utilize Google alerts to keep you up to date on current involvements with human trafficking.
14. Write letters to magazines, newspapers and even blogs to bring awareness to these issues.
15. Start a petition against human trafficking or sign a petition to support anti-human trafficking.
16. If you own a business, provide internships for students relating to these efforts or provide job skills to traffic survivors.
17. University students and high school students can take action at their school or on their campus. Students can raise awareness about these issues and create clubs and organizations to gain momentum to fight human trafficking.
18. Join a task force initiative for law enforcement officials.
19. Provide medical assistance at low cost to those who have survived human trafficking.
20. Help survivors gain access to legal assistance, so survivors can fight back as well.

– Rachel Cannon

 

Sources: U.S. State Department, Polaris Project
Photo: List DOSE

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The Internet’s Role in Sex Trafficking

Internet_sex_trafficking
Sex trafficking exists in the United States. Sex traffickers target women and children with histories of addiction, abuse and even issues with debt and use manipulation to keep these victims trapped in the sex trafficking industry. The leaders in sex trafficking use violence and threats against the victims loved ones as means to force these victims to work against their own will. Accordingly, 83% of sex traffic victims are United States citizens. This issue is larger than most people realize and exists in the form of strip clubs, fake massage businesses, hostess clubs and even online escort services.

The internet is the number one center for sex trafficking in the United States. For example, pimps use websites like Backpage.com and even Craigslist.org disguised as massage services to escort victims for services. Thus, these women are forced into sex trafficking at a young age mostly by older men. Most of the services that are offered on Craigslist are in the form of recruiting. Women post pictures of themselves and answer customer’s calls referencing the ads placed on Craigslist. These women are not willingly posting these pictures, but are in constant fear of their own lives. In addition, these pimps use not only force but the false promise of a better life and threats to harm the victims’ loved ones. Victims are coerced into trafficking by pimps posing as model scouts, or nannies and house maids being recruited and then captured by these sex traffickers.

Because trafficking is unique when based in the internet it has become extremely profitable and it is easier to reach a larger audience. Anyone can post ads on these sites and these ads can be seen by thousands of people in addition to being unnoticed by the police. The average age range these victims enter the sex trafficking industry is 11-15 and due to the vague description of age with words like “young,” these operations slip by unnoticed by authorities.

In addition, many women in places like Nigeria, Thailand, and other places suffering from global poverty are involuntarily forced into sex trafficking. The geological approach to sex trafficking shows high numbers of victims in areas stricken with poverty, as well as remote areas where women are more likely taken from to an area of global capitalization and tourism. These high traffic areas are promoted through the use of the internet and smartphones. Because of the accessibility to these websites, where a brothel can be located in under a minute generates high revenue for the owner.

Accordingly, President Barack Obama released a statement saying “We’re turning the tables on the traffickers. Just as they are now using technology and the Internet to exploit their victims, we’re going to harness technology to stop them.”

To illustrate the alarming statistics of this issue the US Department of Health and Human Services show that 90% of runaways end up in the commercial sex trade industry and in Tennessee 94 children are trafficked every month. Human Trafficking has become a larger issue than most realize and will be addressed accordingly to the advancement of technology.

– Rachel Cannon

Photo: CNN
Sources: End Slavery Tennessee, Polar is Project

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Modern Slavery in Hong Kong

slavery_hong_kong
Modern slavery is a different institution from the historical examples of slavery that we learn about in textbooks. In the 21st century, slavery is illegal in the majority of the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 declared, “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude, slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”

Individuals who become modern human trafficking victims are often coerced, tricked or seized from their homes and forcibly exploited. They are trafficked through both underground and legitimate pathways, making their way across borders and oceans. This is not an issue confined to poorer, developing countries. Human trafficking victims enter Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom in large numbers.

The International Labor Organization estimates that in 2013, around 21 million people were smuggled around the world, with 11.7 million individuals in Asia. “There are 1.1 million new victims a year, which is 3,000 victims a day, 125 per hour.”

Hong Kong is China’s richest and most developed city. Hong Kong has the world’s ninth largest trading economy, with a gross domestic product of $261 billion. However, Hong Kong also has the largest income gap between its citizens of any developed country. Towering shining skyscrapers share the corner with decrepit apartment buildings falling apart from the weight of the families crammed within its walls.

 

Facts on Modern Slavery

 

The U.S. State Department report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) for 2013 describes Hong Kong as both a destination and a transit area for men, women and children, from countries like Cambodia, Thailand, China, India, Vietnam, Philippines and Nepal, who are coerced into sex slavery and forced labor. Many migrant workers are also subjected to indentured servitude, with little pay and subjected to violence, harsh conditions, and little opportunity for escape.

Hong Kong officials did not recognize its human trafficking problem as a serious concern until 2013. But once the Hong Kong government acknowledged its problem, it could begin to document, collect statistics and analyze human trafficking within its city and create solutions. The TIP report labels Hong Kong as Tier 2; “the city is not in compliance, but the government is making significant efforts to improve.”

Under Hong Kong law, human trafficking is narrowly defined as individuals crossing the border for prostitution. The Hong Kong Department Justice is making positive strides to amend its Prosecution Code to include human exploitation cases. Most human trafficking cases go un-prosecuted and unpunished. The city’s strict immigration laws have driven human trafficking underground, making it extremely difficult to enforce. The majority of its victims will not escape and receive justice without the support of its government and law enforcement.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: South China Morning Post, UN, The Borgen Project
Photo: Impunity Watch

How Israel Stopped Human Trafficking

human_trafficking_israel
In the span of about five years Israel has seen monumental changes in its country’s reputation as being sympathetic to human trafficking.

As of 2005 Israel was listed on Tier 3 by the U.S. State Department in its efforts to fight and prevent human trafficking. As the bottom in the scale Tier 3 is reserved for those shame-faced countries whose governments “do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.” Israel at this time was still considered one of the main destinations for the trafficking in woman – primarily those from the former Soviet Union.

The U.S. State Department’s harsh labeling of Israel as being on the same Tier as non-democratic countries such as Sudan and Somalia shamed Israel into action. Knesset member David Tsur of the HaTenua Party and chairman of the Subcommittee on Trafficking in Women and Prostitution stated, “If I were a seasoned and professional politician, I would say that the decision to act was not related to the Americans, but the reality was that without the whip of the State Department, we would not have taken serious steps. We understood that if we didn’t address the problem, aid funds would be stalled, and very quickly we would have a new center of criminal activity on our hands.”

As the law stood, victims of human trafficking were treated as criminals, making it very difficult and unlikely for them to come forward and report their abuse. This was one of the first things to be changed as Israel began to make anti-human-trafficking a priority. Government-funded shelters were set up for trafficked women who’d filed complaints where they received medical treatment and underwent rehabilitation.

Congruent to decriminalizing the victims, starting in 2006 perpetrators were given 20 year sentences for human trafficking violations. As of the U.S. State Department’s 2013 report on Trafficking in Persons, they declared that this still wasn’t a sentence that “Commensurate[d] with the gravity of the offence.”

The addition to Israel’s pre-existing barrier in 2005 was monumental in preventing the trafficking of people from Egypt, which at one time was the post popular through-country and entrance into Israel for traffickers.

Since prostitution is legal in Israel there are still issues of sexual exploitation and cases of trafficking within the country, but Israel has been hugely successful in abolishing human trafficking across its borders. In a statement to Israel’s Daniel Shapiro a U.S. Ambassador said, “I applaud the Government of Israel for continuing to focus on eliminating the scourge of modern day slavery. Israel has taken an all-of-government approach to tackling this global phenomenon, including legislative action in the Knesset, police training, and providing shelters and services for trafficking victims.”

Other countries stand to learn a lot from Israel’s example. Human trafficking has been reported in nearly every Western country, including each state within the U.S. As Israel has demonstrated, governments must recognize trafficking as a threat and allocate a full-on attack to stand a chance in eliminating it.

– Lydia Caswell

Sources: The Times of Israel, Al-Monitor, Atzum, U.S. Department of State
Photo: Jerusalem Post

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Eritrean Refugees Abused in the Middle East

Eritrean Refugees
Refugees are fleeing Sub-Saharan Africa’s poverty in search for job opportunities, political freedoms and basic human rights. The sad reality of this situation is many of these opportunities are few and far in-between, and their lives rarely improve above the dire situation they were leaving.

Eritrea is one of the nations many have been fleeing from. Isayais Aferwerki, the despotic dictator who’s ruled Eritrea since its 1994 independence from Ethiopia, is a main reason. The nation is home to rampant poverty, media repression and political oppression. Adult-aged males are regularly conscripted into military service with no definite end-date, and the President was quoted as saying the nation was not ready for free elections for at least another 20-30 years. The constitution has been suspended and Eritrea remains single-party state, with opposition political groups regularly rounded up and jailed.

Around 200,000 Eritreans have left the nation in search of freedom, but it has resulted in a human rights crisis. Eritreans regularly flee to Sudan, Egypt and Israel only to be subjected to discrimination, and in some cases, have fallen into human trafficking. Israel has prevented refugees from entering by building a fence, which has resulted in asylum seekers slowing “to a trickle” of their original amount.

Human Rights Watch published a report detailing the crisis in early February stating that “refugees are commonly kidnapped, and their families extorted to pay for their release.” Those who manage to avoid kidnapping are usually deported back. HRW has focused on the culpability of Egyptian and Sudanese officials in the kidnapping crisis. The allegation has been made that corrupt officials have been benefiting financially from the situation and are actively cooperating with kidnappers.

Physicians for Human Rights released a damning report on the conditions many Eritrean refugees face on the trek to asylum. The imprisonment rate of those interviewed was around 59%, while 52% claimed they were violently abused at some point on their way to the Sinai Peninsula. Slave camps are prevalent in Egypt. In El-Arish, there are camps reported throughout the area, populated with “slave traders” who “demand ransoms” for the release of African refugees.

The report detailed that many of these refugees were tricked through “promises of being led to Israel” but rather held against their will, while other’s detailed “severe abuse.” Twenty percent of those interviewed also described witnessing murders. Israel can be considered culpable in this situation. With the building of the fence, the average of 1,500 refugees gaining asylum each month decreased to only 25 entering “between January and April 2013.”

Israel has also mounted a political campaign to defend their actions, decrying the Eritrean refugees as a “threat to Israeli society.” The public response to these accusations helped allow the government to enact stricter immigration legislation, allowing for slave traders to flourish in the wake.

The Anti-Infiltration Law was passed in January of 2012 by the Israeli Legislature of Knesset, and allowed the Israeli Government to detain any people found crossing the border. The law even prevents many of these refugees from receiving a speedy trail, allowing the Israeli state to detain undocumented immigrants for “minimum of three years.” If a undocumented immigrant is from a state considered belligerent to Israel, such as Sudan, they can be “detained indefinitely.”

It was a crushing defeat for many Africans in search of a new life free of oppression. With no options, many still flee, but they may not find the salvation they are in search of.

– Joseph Abay

Sources: Turkish Weekly, US State Department, Haaretz, The Voice, Sudan Tribune, DW, Physicians for Human Rights, Haaretz

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The 21st Century: Modern Slavery

modern slavery
Most Americans are under the impression that slavery in the United States ended in 1865, but the reality is it just stopped being legal. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. annually, and victims of human trafficking and modern slavery have been identified in cities, suburbs and rural areas of all 50 states.

A modern-day slave is not paid, is not allowed to leave or abandon their job and is forced into dangerous or degrading positions against their will. Most modern slaves are coerced into leaving their native countries, thinking they are leaving for a better life. A conservative estimation of slaves in the world today is 12 million to 30 million, but many sources claim those numbers are far too low. In 2005, the U.S. State Department estimated that more than 70 percent of trafficked people were female and that half of them were children.

Professor Kevin Bales, co-founder of “Free the Slaves,” has studied the subject of modern slavery extensively and works tirelessly to collect data on a group that is, by definition, hidden. He and his team conducted their research by knocking on doors all over the world and interviewing families who had been affected, or knew someone who had been affected, by human trafficking.

Bales writes that the price of a slave has dropped dramatically since 1809, when the average price of a slave (after adjusting to today’s money) was $40,000; in 2009, the average price was $90.  Human trafficking generates an estimated $32 billion per year, ranking it as the third-largest international crime behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking.

Research conducted by the Polaris Project found the public’s lack of attention to the issue of human trafficking is often what keeps them imprisoned. “Some victims are hidden behind locked doors in brothels and factories. In other cases, victims are in plain view and may interact with community members, but the widespread lack of awareness and understanding of trafficking leads to low levels of victim identification by the people who most often encounter them.”

People who are desperate to improve their situation in life are the ones most vulnerable to falling into slavery. Uneducated women are in high demand as sex slaves and easy to trick when they are uneducated and desperate to find work. When there is nothing to go home to, some slaves lack even the motivation to resist.

Conflict zones are particularly ripe for traffickers. In 2006 during the armed conflict in Lebanon, 300,000 domestic workers from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and the Philippines were left jobless, and trafficking gangs were quick to seduce them with alternative options.

The surest way of eliminating the business of modern slavery is to offer schooling in rural and impoverished areas so people can learn to provide for themselves where they are rather than seeking outside assistance. Teaching poor areas about the potential danger of traffickers is the first step toward ensuring they never have to live through the horror of slavery.

-Lydia Caswell

Sources: UNODC, CNN, Polaris Project
Photo: World Revolution

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Stop the Traffik Fights Human Trafficking

stop the traffik
Phil Lane was working at a day center for vulnerable children in Mumbai that offered refuge for those living in slums or on the platforms of a nearby train station when he first witnessed the all-too-common realities of human trafficking. He was concerned when a 7-year-old and 9-year-old brother and sister who lived near the day center and had been attending with their parents for months suddenly stopped coming. Phil found the father to ask if they were alright, and was told that the two children had been sold to a man who offered them work for about 20 dollars.

The children were never seen again, a terrible but common reality for many in the area. Deeply affected by what he saw, he joined efforts with several global United Kingdom organizations who wanted to work together to commemorate the abolition of the slave trade, and Stop the Traffik was born.

Trafficking is the practice of buying and selling people against their will to be transported into slavery for sexual exploitation, forced begging or labor, for removal of organs or sacrificial worship, or as child brides, domestic workers or into circuses or sweat shops. It is often violent, and victims suffer physical abuse and threats to themselves and their families as means of coercion and control by their traffickers. Alarmingly, it is also the fastest growing global crime. At any given moment, 9.1 million men, women, and children are trafficked.

Stop the Traffik is a London-based international organization comprised of individuals, communities and organizations dedicated to stopping human trafficking. The organization has about 45,000 members in countries all over the world; it partners with the U.N. Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) to take both local and global action.

Stop the Traffik initially began as a two-year initiative to accomplish two goals. The first goal was to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade by hosting a Freedom Day on March 25, 2007. The second goal was to make a worldwide declaration to present to the U.N. to prevent the sale of people, to protect victims of trafficking and to prosecute the traffickers.

When the declaration garnered over 1.5 million signatures, it was clear that the two-year campaign had the support to grow into an independent organization. Stop the Traffik founder Steve Chalke became a U.N. advisor on Community Action Against Trafficking.

Today, the organization is a growing global movement that seeks to educate and inform activists to make a difference in their communities around the world. Stop the Traffik works with individuals and organizations to address human trafficking on both a local and global level.

Locally, Stop the Traffik seeks to make trafficking more difficult by educating communities to know what trafficking is and how to identify it, how to protect themselves and others from trafficking and how to respond to trafficking.

Globally, Stop the Traffik runs campaigns to push decision makers to exert their influence to prevent trafficking, to build a worldwide movement by reaching out to new people and to gather information to develop up to date systems to rival the traffickers’ network.

Stop the Traffik’s success at building a movement seems largely due to its inclusive approach. The organization offers everyday people the chance to become activists by learning about the issues of trafficking and pledging time and effort to the cause. The website offers tips on how to raise funds for the organization and showcases many current campaigns that people can participate in.

Visit Stop the Traffik to donate or find out how to join the fight against human trafficking.

– Sarah Morrison

Sources: Stop the Traffik, Viralnovelty.com, PR Newswire
Photo: Stop the Traffik Commercial

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What is Child Labor?

Child_Labor
Do you own an iPhone? How about an iPad? Technology juggernaut Apple Inc. recently published an audit of the 451 plants, based in Asia, contracted as suppliers for Apple products. Of almost 1.5 million workers, Apple discovered 23 underage workers. Last year, the company discovered 74 underage workers. According to the report, workers could not exceed 60 hours per week.

Apple’s findings fall short in comparison to the growing number of underage workers in the child labor epidemic. What epidemic?

Child labor is the illegal use of hiring or forcing children to work in a business. Commonly, these working conditions are dangerous, hazardous, and inhumane. Not only are children working in dangerous work environments, they are not attending school. According to the University of Iowa, 75 million children did not attend school because of child labor.

According to the International Labor Organization, there are 215 million children between the ages of five and 17 working in illegal labor.

Here are some potential characteristics of child labor:

  • Ignores national and global human rights
  • Undermines child labor laws
  • Positions children in dangerous working environments
  • Involves some type of abuse toward the child

Child labor occurs mainly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. However, child labor occurs across the globe. Here are a list of various industries where children are working:

  • Agriculture. Sixty percent of child labor occurs in commercial agriculture. Children working in this industry work long hours, are vulnerable to pesticides, and receive little pay
  • Manufacturing. Fourteen million children work in manufacturing
  • Mining. Children who work in this industry are vulnerable to physical harm
  • Child trafficking. Over six million children are forced into bondage, serfdom, or sexual exploitation. The New York Daily News recently published an article that exploiting Perusian children being sold into sex slavery

Primary Cause of Child Labor

The primary cause of child labor is poverty. As families struggle to acquire basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing, families become desperate to make ends meet. Here are some facts about the severity of global poverty provided by UNICEF:

  • 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation
  • 1 billion children are deprived of one or more services essential to survival and development
  • 22 million infants are not protected from diseases by routine immunization
  • 4 million newborns worldwide are dying in the first month of life
  • 101 million children are not attending primary school

As these states show, global poverty is a serious epidemic.

Without access to basic needs and steady income, child labor has spread. Anecdotes about child labor are plentiful online. The common thread among these anecdotes is that fact that poor children are being forced to work long hours in dangerous environments, and they are not being paid. Poor safety conditions contribute to the illnesses, deaths, and injuries afflicted on innocent children.

Poor safety perpetuates the cycle of poverty and child labor. As one child dies or becomes terminally ill, another child is forced to work in illegal conditions.

– Leonard Wilson, Jr. 

Sources: Child Labor Public Education Project, NY Daily News, Reuters
Photo: The Hindu

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10 Statistics on Slavery Today

Slavery Today
“Elementary students across America are taught that slavery ended in the 19th Century. But, sadly, nearly 150 years later, the fight to end this global scourge is far from over.”

Hillary Clinton wrote these words in an op-ed she penned as Secretary of State. Her words were calling the world’s attention to the hideous prevalence of modern slavery. Slave owners often hide the practice behind words and phrases such as “bonded labor,” “human trafficking” and “forced labor,” yet nothing changes the fact that human beings are being enslaved.

Calling for people, organizations and governments to “redouble our efforts to fight modern slavery,” Secretary Clinton advocated for using “every available tool” to set the international community on a course toward the eradication of modern slavery.

 

Slavery Statistics

 

1. An estimated 29.8 million people live in modern slavery today

2. Slavery generates $32 billion for traffickers globally each year

3. Approximately 78% of victims are enslaved for labor, 22% of victims are enslaved for sex

4. 55% of slavery victims are women and girls

5. 26% of slaves today are children under the age of 18

6. An estimated 60,000 victims of slavery are enslaved in the United States.

  •  The 2013 Walk Free Global Slavery Index places U.S. at 134th out of 162 countries
  •  Rankings were determined based on three factors: a country’s estimated slavery prevalence by population, a measure of child marriage and a measure of human trafficking.

7. Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom tied for the ranking of 160 in the 2013 Global Slavery Index. However, even with the top ranking in the survey, these countries are not free from slavery. In the United Kingdom alone, there are an estimated 4,200 to 4,600 victims of slavery.

8. The country with the highest percentage of of its population in slavery is Mauritania with approximately 4% of the total population enslaved. This amounts to roughly 140,000 to 160,000 people enslaved — Mauritania’s total population is only a mere 3.8 million.

9. India has the largest number of slavery victims at a horrifying 14 million.

10. The top 10 per-capita slavery hot spots are:

Mauritania
Haiti
Pakistan
India
Nepal
Moldova
Benin
Cote d’Ivoire
Gambia
Gabon

– Kelley Calkins 

Sources: Free the Slaves, Walk Free Foundation, US State Department
Photo: Exposing the Truth