New global index exposes 'modern slavery' worldwide | Hacker News Reader

New global index exposes 'modern slavery' worldwide

bbc.co.uk

30 pointsxan9223 comments

I looked at their FAQ but even with their answer to "How did the researchers define modern slavery when they were estimating prevalence country by country?" I cannot parse if they should count people in US Prisons that are forced to work on things like license plates and cleaning beaches of oil spills (among other things.)[1]

I wonder what the US ranking would be then.

[1] http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-unit... Any linguistic-types care to have a shot?

(Sorry if this is construed as an anti-US post. It was just something that stood out to me since I read that article recently)

I came to say this as well, and I don't consider it anti-us...it is simply fact. But what percentage of the 2 million incarcerated adults are doing work? Are all inmates given labor?

I have no idea which is why I was trying to figure out if they count them or not.

They reckon there are approx 60,000 slaves in the US which would only be a tiny percentage of the 2 million which does not seem to jibe with what else I have read about.

Most of the slaves in western developed countries will be sex slaves - usually in the form of women lured from developing countries with false promises, who then have their passports revoked and are forceed to 'earn' them back, using sex work to pay off an extortionate sum.

Edit: A woman was convicted of slavery in my hometown a few years back, but she won an appeal due to the differentiation in whether or not she thought she owned the people or saw herself as their employer. It was clearly exploitation, but was it legally slavery? That was what one her appeal. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/sex-slave-owner-wins-...

‘Slavery’ refers to the condition of treating another person as if they were property – something to be bought, sold, traded or even destroyed.

Prisoners in the US aren't treated as property. Not to say they aren't mistreated, but they're generally not considered to be a commodity.

I am not entirely sure.

Some of the quotes like: “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).”

Private prisons and opening of new prisons in counties so that they can get prisoners assigned to them and a "share of the profits" undermines that stance somewhat in my mind.

It is tricky because there are aspects of their situations which match the list of "slavery" factors but are because they are convicted criminals serving their sentences so should be discounted.

It is the splitting of punishment for crime vs coerced labour which is difficult.

Split a few hairs there.

It's a mistake to set a moral equivalance between prison labor and slavery.

You haven't made a case with that statement.

Does anyone know where I can find details, or a good article, about all of these slaves in India and Pakistan?

edit: the report itself lists the details.

Bonded labour is the greatest problem in Pakistan. The Asian Development Bank estimates that 1.8 million people are bonded labourers, though many NGOs place the estimate much higher.

India exhibits the full spectrum of different forms of modern slavery, from severe forms of inter-generational bonded labour across various industries to the worst forms of child labour, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced and servile marriage.

Al Jazeera also did a series on modern slavery (http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/). The Bonded Slaves episode covers Pakistan and the use of slaves in brick kiln factories. If you're outside the U.S. you can watch it online (from their site or on their YouTube channel). If anyone inside the U.S. wants to watch it, then I'm afraid you're out of luck since we lost online access when Al Jazeera America launched.

> Al Jazeera also did a series on modern slavery

Doesn't look like they include the slaves held in Qatar. Al Jazeera has also been very light on what's been uncovered about the Doha World Cup and everything related to that.

The documentary India Untouched http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgDGmYdhZvU covers the plight of people exploited for generations over hundreds if not thousands of years.

Summary:

- New index shows that nearly 30M people around the world are living as slaves

- India has the highest number (14M)

- Mauritania has highest % (4%)

- index was compiled by (Aussie) rights org WFF (Walk Free Foundation)

- WFF's estimate of 29.8 million slaves worldwide is higher than other attempts

- Another org, "International Labour Organisation" previously estimated 21M

- India, China, Pakistan and Nigeria have highest numbers and account for 3/4 of slavery

- Wikipedia Article on Present Day Slavery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#Present_day

"India, China, Pakistan and Nigeria have highest numbers"

That part isn't that surprising as they are #1, #2, #6, and #7 on the population count scale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population)

#3, #4, and #5 are the USA, Indonesia, and Brazil.

The USA and Brazil is way richer in GDP per capita than Pakistan and Nigeria, Indonesia about 40% richer.

I guesstimate that explains why they rank lower on the absolute numbers slavery scale.

Of course it is in the researchers best interest to produce a report with as high as possible slave count...

These kinds of reports, which places a definitive number I always take with a pound of salt.

Umm, how is it in their best interest to show higher number exactly?

And wrt the definitive number - "Mrs Clinton said that although the index was not perfect, it provided a starting point, according to the Associated Press."

They're an organization that works to end slavery. They're also trying to raise $100m towards their efforts. The bigger they can make the issue, the more support they'll garner.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/100-million-freedom-...

Googles Cache of globalslaveryindex.org is a GoDaddy place holder -_-

Also during the trans-atlantic slave trade, around 13 million slaves were estimated. These estimates would amount to around the same without India (and we have much larger population today).

The Irony is that most of the slaves of Pakistan and India are shipped to Gulf to work on infrastructure projects with very harsh living conditions and less to no pay. I am baffled that there is no mention of countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar.

I took a look at the comments and people still seem to be blaming Europeans for the entirety of slavery, which is ironic considering that they were the first ones to abolish it.

Based on title, I thought it was about mortgages...

http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/

This is the site it references, and probably would have been the better link. It's pretty to look at, but it's not particularly informative if you're looking for a mildly detailed breakdown of what's going on.

They have a faq section which describes what they mean by slavery.

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