“Elementary students across America are taught that slavery ended in the 19th Century”, Hilary Clinton wrote in 2010, “But, sadly, nearly 150 years later, the fight to end this global scourge is far from over”.  US-based NGO ‘Walk Free Foundation’ define modern slavery as involving “one person possessing or controlling another person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal”.  As at 2014, their Global Slavery Index estimates that there are approximately 35.8 million people enslaved around the world. 

Slavery comes in many forms, like sexual exploitation and organ removal, but most prevalent is the use of slave labour.  Even though most of us are not directly involved in slavery, global trade has unknowingly linked us to the crime.  Slavery has been used to produce a number of products such as cocoa, coffee, clothes, diamonds, and seafood. 

The full article was published in – and can be read in – The Marine Professional, a publication of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST).

Image: "Slavers Revenging their Losses," shows a coffle of men, women, and children, led by Arab slavers; one of the guards is murdering a captive unable to keep up with the rest. These people were taken across Central Africa to the east coast of Africa. Credit: Original Artist Unknown/Wikimedia (Public Domain image)