Tag Archives: Slavery

Almost 46 Million People trapped in slavery globally

Actor Russell Crowe launches the 2016 Global Slavery Index at the London office of Gallup

By Alex Whiting

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Almost 46 million people are living as slaves globally with the greatest number in India but the highest prevalence in North Korea, according to the third Global Slavery Index launched on Tuesday with Australian actor Russell Crowe.

The index, by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation, increased its estimate of people born into servitude, trafficked for sex work, or trapped in debt bondage or forced labor to 45.8 million from 35.8 million in 2014.

Andrew Forrest, founder of Walk Free, said the rise of nearly 30 percent was due to better data collection, although he feared the situation was getting worse with global displacement and migration increasing vulnerability to all forms of slavery.

Forrest, an Australian mining billionaire and philanthropist, urged businesses to check their supply chains for worker exploitation, saying he found thousands of people trapped in slavery making goods for his company Fortescue Metals Group.

“But I’ve had some of some biggest entrepreneurs in the world look me in the eye and say I will not look for slavery in case I find it,” he said at the launch of the index in London.

Crowe, who played Roman emperor-turned-slave Maximus in the 2000 movie “Gladiator”, described the plight of people “in our communities who are stuck, utterly helpless and trapped in a cycle of despair and degradation with no choice and no hope.”

“As an actor, my role is often to portray raw human emotion, but nothing compares with the people’s lives reflected in the report published today,” he said.

Incidences of slavery were found in all 167 countries in the index, with India home to the largest total number with an estimated 18.4 million slaves among its 1.3 billion population.

But Forrest said India deserved credit for starting to address this problem with the government this week unveiling a draft of its first comprehensive anti-human trafficking law to treat survivors as victims rather than criminals.

North Korea ranked as worst in terms of concentration with one in every 20 people – or 4.4 percent of its 25 million population – in slavery and its government doing the least to end this with reports of state-sanctioned forced labor.

“We need to make it clear we’re not going to tolerate slavery and when there is slavery in a regime we should not trade with them,” Forrest told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

NUMBERS CRITICIZED

Forrest acknowledged the latest data was likely to attract criticism with some researchers accusing the index of flawed methodology by extrapolating on-the-ground surveys in some countries to estimate numbers for other nations.

The 2016 index was based on interviews with about 42,000 people by pollster Gallup in 53 languages in 25 countries.

But Forrest said a lack of hard data on slavery in the past had held back efforts to tackle this hidden crime and it was important to draw a “sand in the line” measurement to drive action. He challenged critics to produce an alternative.

The United Nation’s International Labour Organization estimates 21 million people globally are victims of forced labor but this does not take into account all forms of slavery.

“Without measurement you don’t have effective management and there’s no way to lead the world away from slavery,” he said.

Forrest said the Global Slavery Index aims to measure the prevalence of slavery in the 167 most populous countries as well as the level of vulnerability of people to enslavement and strength of government efforts to combat this.

The 2016 index again found Asia, which provides low-skilled labor in global supply chains producing clothing, food and technology, accounted for two-thirds of the people in slavery.

About 58 percent of people living in slavery are in five countries – India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan.

However the countries with the highest proportion of their population enslaved were North Korea, Uzbekistan, and Cambodia.

The governments taking the least action to tackle slavery were listed as North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, and Hong Kong.

By contrast the governments taking most action were the Netherlands, the United States, Britain, Sweden and Australia.

Forrest said a reason for launching the index in Britain was to acknowledge the lead set by the UK government which last year brought in the 2015 Modern Slavery Act.

While Europe has the lowest regional prevalence of slavery, Walk Free said it was a source and destination for forced labor and sexual exploitation. The impact of a mass influx of migrants and refugees fleeing conflicts and poverty has yet to be seen.

Crowe said slavery was a problem that was not going away.

“I think all of us should keep focused on it until we get to that point … where it just gets pushed over the edge and it’s finished,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

United Nations Confirms ISIS Selling Young Girls as Sex Slaves

The United Nations has officially confirmed something long believed among opponents of Islamic terrorist group ISIS:  they are selling girls under 10 as sex slaves for as little as $165.

Zainab Bangura, the UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict, confirmed the document first reportedly found in November 2014 is legitimate and being used by the terrorists.

“The girls get peddled like barrels of petrol,” she told Bloomberg. “One girl can be sold and bought by five or six different men. Sometimes these fighters sell the girls back to their families for thousands of dollars of ransom.”

Bangura said that girls from ages 1 to 9 are being sold for $165.  Girls in their teens fell to $124 and women over 40 sell for as little as $41.

“They have a machinery; they have a program,” said Bangura. “They have a manual on how you treat these women. They have a marriage bureau which organizes all of these ‘marriages’ and the sale of women. They have a price list.”

“It’s not an ordinary rebel group,” she added. “When you dismiss them as such, then you are using the tools you are used to. This is different. They have the combination of a conventional military and a well-run organized state.”

ISIS has already released a document claiming the buying and selling of women is acceptable under the Koran.  The claim by ISIS reportedly comes after taking the idea of selling women from Islamic terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria.

ISIS Issues All-Female Manifesto

A new “manifesto” for girls under the rule of ISIS has been issued telling them they can be married to a Jihadist as young as 9 and that they are to remain “hidden and veiled” to “serve their masters”.

The manifesto, “Women in the Islamic State: Manifesto and Case Study” was uploaded to a Jihadist forum used by ISIS and is written by the all-female Al-Khanssaa Brigade.  The same group is the one that beats and stones women and girls who do not follow strict Sharia Law.

The document focuses on Sharia law and a rebuttal of “western civilization” that includes human rights and equality for women.

“It is considered legitimate for a girl to be married at the age of 9. Most pure girls will be married by 16 or 17, while they are still young and active,” it says.

The document tells women to be covered from head to toe at all times, to stay inside their homes to cook, clean and take care of their husbands and that it’s acceptable for women to be locked inside their homes by their husbands.  Western women who join ISIS are encouraged to immediately marry a Jihadist and begin duties as a wife.

ISIS tells the women that it is fundamental women have a sedentary lifestyle and that it is her “divinely appointed right” to stay inside and care for husbands except in “narrowly defined circumstances.”

The document also justifies the enslavement of “infidel” women as sex slaves.

ISIS Sex Slaves Being Bought, Released By Unknown Donor

In the midst of the horror of ISIS in Iraq, one unidentified Iraqi man is using his wealth to try and make a difference for good.

The man is reportedly using stand-ins to purchase sex slaves from the terrorist group and then reuniting the women with their families in other parts of Iraq.

The terrorist group has been funding part of their campaign of terror through selling captured women as sex slaves or as brides in forced marriages.  The women are usually killed if they refuse or try to escape.

Critics within Iraq and in activist groups around the world against ISIS have been slamming the man for giving money to the terrorist group but he told a reporter working for YouTube channel StreamDZ that all he cared about was freeing the women and returning them to their families.

One of the former slaves who has been freed told the story of a girl named Jilan who had been one of several that committed suicide after capture rather than endure the horrors subjected to them through ISIS.

“We were 21 girls in one room, two of them were very young, 10 to 12 years. One day they were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes. Jilan killed herself in the bathroom,” the woman said. “She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was beautiful. I think she knew that she was going to be taken away to a man and that is why she killed herself.”

After Refusing To Be Slaves, Christians Have Homes Destroyed

Thirteen Pakistani Christian families are homeless after refusing to enter into “bonded labor”, or a form of slavery.

Local government officials had told the Christians that unless the male heads of the families entered into the slavery-like contract at a local brick kiln factory, the would be driven from the area around Samundri.

The contracts state that if something happens to the one who signs the deal, family members would have to work off the debt should the person die.  Currently about 75 percent of bonded labor in Pakistan are children working for deceased parents, according to the Barnabas Fund.

The kiln factory in this situation is owned by Muslims who told the local government if they couldn’t get the Christians to agree to slave labor, they would build a hospital on the site of the Christian’s homes.

A report from the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement says that the Muslim factory owners do not pay enough for anyone to overcome their debts and the young Christian women are taken and sold as sex slaves in the human trafficking market.

ISIS Says Torture and Slavery Part of Islam

A German journalist has emerged from an investigative mission inside ISIS and has brought out a surprising story about life under the terrorist regime.

Juergen Todenhoefer visited a mosque in Mosul where the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only public speech.  He wanted to capture the daily activities of ISIS and said that despite the cruelty of ISIS, there is a “sense of normalcy” in Mosul.

“130,000 Christians have been evicted from the city, the Shia have fled, many people have been murdered and yet the city is functioning and people actually like the stability that the Islamic State has brought them,” Todenhoefer wrote.

The author says despite the feeling of normalcy, there is a layer of fear.

“Of course many of the them are quite scared, because the punishment for breaking the Islamic State’s strict rules is very severe.”

Todenhoefer said that ISIS fighters told him their goal is to take over the world.

“We will conquer Europe one day,” one terrorist said. “It is not a question of if we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it is certain … For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines.

“Our expansion will be perpetual … And the Europeans need to know that when we come, it will not be in a nice way. It will be with our weapons. And those who do not convert to Islam or pay the Islamic tax will be killed.”

When asked about Shia Muslims around the world who do not believe in the ISIS version of the faith, the response was short and brutal.

“150 million, 200 million or 500 million, it does not matter to us,” the fighter answered. “We will kill them all.”

Part of the interview quoted by CNN showed ISIS endorses slavery:

“So do you seriously think that beheadings and enslavement actually signal progress for humanity?” Todenhoefer asked.

“Slavery absolutely signals progress,” the man said. “Only ignorant people believe that there is no slavery among the Christians and the Jews. Of course there are woman who are forced into prostitution under the worst circumstances.

“I would say that slavery is a great help to us and we will continue to have slavery and beheadings, it is part of our religion … many slaves have converted to Islam and have then been freed.”

ISIS Slaughters 150 Women Who Refused To Marry Terrorists

Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights says that Islamic terrorist group ISIS killed over 150 women who refused to either marry a terrorist or allow themselves to be used as sex slaves.

“At least 150 females, including pregnant women, were executed in Fallujah by a militant named Abu Anas Al-Libi after they refused to accept jihad marriage,” said the Ministry. “Many families were also forced to migrate from the province’s northern town of Al-Wafa after hundreds of residents received death threats.”

The women were dumped into a mass grave and their children left in the desert.

The MHR says that ISIS has been found to be running brothels despite the fact this goes against their conservative brand of Islam would reject allowing that kind of behavior to take place. ISIS has claimed that because they use Yazidi and Christian women in the brothels it’s not a violation of their faith.

A video released to Iraqi officials showed a Yazidi woman in a brothel begging Western forces to bomb the brothel to end her suffering.

ISIS Using Children As Human Shields

A new United Nations report is outlining the ways ISIS has been brutalizing children.

The UN International Children’s Fund says that over 5 million children have had their lives directly impacted by ISIS actions.  Thousands of children have been used both as human shields by the terrorists or have been strapped to tables and had their blood drawn for terrorists wounded in attacks.

The report outlines specific instances where the terrorists were using children to create propaganda devices.  In one case, the terrorists went to a hospital and pulled two cancer stricken children out of bed to pose in a picture holding an ISIS flag with fighters.

The report outlines statements from former teenage fighters that say ISIS is forcing children to take drugs so they will carry out any order including suicide terror attacks.

In addition to the front line uses, the terrorists are also forcing children to be domestic servants, cooking, cleaning and bringing water to the wounded in makeshift hospitals.

ISIS Auctioning Infants As Sex Slaves

A document has been found bearing the official ISIS seal outlining prices for the sale of women, children and infants who are captured by the terrorist group.

The document says all of the women and children are either Christians or Yazidi and that they are “sex slaves” for use by the terrorists in the organization.

“We have been informed that the market for sale of women had been witnessing a reduction in price which effects the needs for the Islamic State and the funding for the Mujahideen,” the document reads, according to an English translation of the notice obtained by Christian News.  “For this, the commerce department had decided to set a fixed price regarding the sale of women. Therefore, all auctioneers are to abide by this and anyone who breaks the rules will be executed.”

Women over 40 are selling for the equivalent of $43 American dollars, while infants and children are selling for $172 American dollars.  Infants as young as one year old are available to be bought as slaves by the terrorist fighters.

Along with the document, a video surfaced showing terrorists waiting in line for the auction to begin.

“Today is the slave market day. Today is the day where this verse applies: ‘Except with their wives and the [captives] whom their right hands possess, for [then] they are not to be blamed,’” a terrorist in the video says. “Today is distribution day, Allah willing. … By Allah, man, I am looking for one to get me a girl.”

The video has other terrorists talking about how they would inspect the women like cattle, checking to see if they had teeth or were healthy before buying them.

China’s One Child Policy 34th Anniversary Brings Condemnation

World groups are using the 34th anniversary of China’s “One Child” policy to condemn the country for the millions of forced abortions carried out since the policy’s introduction.

The group Women’s Rights Without Frontiers sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping condemning the ongoing forced abortions in the country and the fact the government celebrates the killing of babies.

“Your government has boasted that it has ‘prevented’ more than 400 million births through this policy. These births have been prevented through forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations, confiscatory ‘terror fines,’ gendercide and infanticide — all in violation of international human rights law,” the group wrote.

The group condemned the new “two-child” policy adopted by the government for any parent who is an only child.  They said the forced abortions will continue under the new policy.

“Allowing a relatively small number of families to have a second child will not end gendercide or sexual slavery in China,” the group wrote.

“The selective abortion and abandonment of baby girls is most prevalent in the countryside, where couples already can have a second child if the first child is a girl. Even if the most recent modification were to improve gender ratios at birth, the impact on sexual slavery would not be felt for decades to come.”