"How many slaves work for you?
At first glance this seems like a preposterous question, but it is not as farfetched as you may think...Similar to historical traffickers, today's slave traders are not above using force or manupulation to get what they are after. Others are more subltle, using lies and deceit. Slave owners today go to impoverished families in poverty-stricken countries, offering children a better life than parents can provide. They promise education, easy living and a life of opportunity and freedom.
Traffickers then take the children to another country and force them tow ork in unsafe conditions, enduring long days of backbreaking work.
Tragically, some parents seek out traffickers to sell their children, fully knowing the lives they are forcing on them. They justify their actions by saying the selling of one child will feed and clothe the younger ones.
Historically, slaves worked in the fields or did domestic labor. However, a different situation has emerged in recent years.
In India, trafficked slaves, some as young as 6, may work in brassware factories. They remove molten metal form 2,000 degree furnaces to make vases, tea sets and kitchen faucets. Many will develop respiratory infections and diseases as a direct result of breathing in metal dust and fumes from the furnaces.
In West Africa, slaves produce America's favorite desert, chocolate. During the harvest season, children as young as 12 - likely barefoot, dehydrated and malnourished - are forced to work long hours carrying sack of wet cocoa beans weighing more than themselves. The chocolate is then processed and sold across the world.
In China, children are in even greater danger. Many factories making fireworks use illegal child labor. These children, who aren't old enough to play with fireworks in the U.S., have a quota to meet. If they do not meet his quota, they experience beatings and humiliation. It is ironic that the quintessential tool for celebrating freedom in America is created by children with no concept of freedom.
Today's slavery battlefield is more ruthless, more deady and more deceptive than any other time in history."
The article goes on, and encourages you to visit such websites as www.productsoflsavery.org In Mexico alone, products produced by forced labor and child labor are TOBACCO, TOMATOES, SUGARCANE, CHILE PEPPERS, COFFEE, CUCUMBERS, GREAN BEANS, PORNAGRAPHY, ONIONS, MELONS, & EGGPLANTS. In Niger, one of the items is GOLD.
Also visit www.fairtradeusa.org
This article doesn't really talk about the sex trade, which is quickly growing. Some statistics I've found are:
300 children a month are trafficked in Atlanta, GA
3,000 children a day are trafficked in Los Angeles, CA
U.S. State Department: "800,000 peopel are illegally trafficked against their will every year across various foreign borders, 50% are children. 70% of the trafficked women are sold into sexual slavery, chained to bed or horror."
The details of the trafficking are sickening. Please, take what actions you can.
"ALL THAT IS NECESSARY FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING." ~Edmund Burke