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Modern Slavery

Luiza Karimova, an ambitious woman from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, left her son behind to earn some money from a job in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. But to her horror, the job was a ploy to lure young women into sex slavery, and Luisa was trapped and trafficked to Dubai. For the next 18 months she was coerced to work for little salary. She eventually escaped after this torturous time by turning herself into the cops and being deported back to Osh. Once out of jail she was left stranded in an unknown country with no job where she lived in a phase of constant vulnerability before she was rescued by volunteers of a NGO.



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Photo Credit: Glasser Images, Bismarck ND


Modern Slavery

Modern slavery is, “the recruitment, movement, harboring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation,”, (United Nations). To break it down, modern slavery means revoking a person’s freedom involuntarily and exploiting them for personal or financial gain. It can take various forms, such as human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, slavery of children, and forced and early marriage.


Human trafficking is a global form of a slavery that alone earns roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers, $99 billion of which comes from commercial sexual exploitation. Estimates suggest that internationally only about 0.04% survivors of human trafficking cases are identified, meaning that the vast majority of cases of human trafficking go undetected.

FACT: HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND HUMAN SMUGGLING ARE DIFFERENT.



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US Trafficking Data

Image Source: Minnesota Attorney General


Women representation in slavery

Now let's address an important question, “Who is Luiza Karimova?”

Luzia represents all the women who are trafficked and kidnapped each year to be exploited by commercial sex and domestic servitude. Gender has an extremely important role in trafficking. While men are mostly victims of labor exploitations, women are usually victimized for sexually inclined reasons. As per a recent report issued by the UN, 29 million women and girls are victims of this horrendous practice. To simplify this further. 1 in every 130 women live in slavery, making it larger than the population of Australia. Statistics say 99% of all the women victims are sexually exploited. Today women slavery stands at its peak, yet this issue fails to gain worldwide attention.



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The UN has been taking action against sex trafficking

Source: United Nations


Actions taken by legalized authorities

To highlight this issue and bring global attention, the UN introduced a Protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children. It is the first global legally binding instrument with an agreed definition on trafficking in persons. The intention behind this definition is to facilitate convergence in national approaches with regard to the establishment of domestic criminal offences that would support efficient international cooperation in investigating and prosecuting trafficking in persons cases. An additional objective of the Protocol is to protect and assist the victims of trafficking in persons with full respect for their human rights.


Some other initiatives are Walk Free and the U.N.’s Every Woman Every Child program, who have launched a global campaign. One of the main objectives of this campaign is to urge governments around the world to criminalize child and forced marriage, a practice that is still popular and decriminalized in nearly 136 countries. Blue Heart, another campaign spreads awareness about trafficking and shares solidarity with victims. Some countries lack behind in laws against child marriage but many core countries have started to enact laws against it. For instance, The United States has a non-government organization called Polaris Project to combat trafficking. The congress had also enacted Victims of Trafficking and Violence procedure Acts (TVPA) which engages with foreign governments to fight trafficking. European Nations have a Council of Europe Convention on Actions against Trafficking in Human Beings. Its main objective being protection of victims of trafficking and safeguarding their rights.

MYTH- TRAFFICKING IS ALWAYS ABOUT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION.


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The most targeted victims are vulnerable.

© 2020 Nashville Psych


Most targeted victims

Traffickers usually target and trap victims who are made vulnerable due to their poverty. As per reports collected over years, victims generally include ‘young girls sold by their families; children drugged and forced to fight as soldiers; men bonded/chained in labor on mines and farms; women enslaved in quarri es and households; women and girls trapped in the sex trade; boys forced to fish in dangerous waters’ (United Nations). Sadly, recent times have seen an increase in youth trafficking. Many times it’s the pressure from a potential love interest to ‘just do it this one time’ to pay debt and bills, only to find themselves stuck in this web full of horrors. At the end of the day all of these people are human beings. They are people, yet used like objects and then thrown away; forced to do something someone they would never freely do.

MYTH- TRAFFICKERS ARE ALWAYS MEN AND VICTIMS ARE ALWAYS WOMEN.



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©2020 Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited


Some books recommendations to boost knowledge about Slavery and Trafficking

  • Book- Human trafficking around the world: hidden in plain sight

Author- Stephanie Hepburn and and Rita Summon



  • Book- The slave next next door: Human trafficking and slavery in America today

Author- Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter


  • Book- Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale: A Memoir

Author- Rachel Lloyd


  • Book- Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy

Author- Kevin Bales


  • Book- Sold

Author- Patricia McCormik


Ways to help

“Human trafficking affects us all, whether we live in countries of origin, transit or destination. Preventing and combating it requires a comprehensive international approach. We must act together to stop a crime in our midst that deprives countless victims of their liberty, dignity and human rights.” - Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Linked below are campaigns that you can support and stories you can read to educate yourself about human trafficking and help spread awareness to other people as well.


Objective- to share solidarity with victims. (UN)


Objective- Spreads awareness amongst the general public as well as encouraging them to fight against it. (NGO)

Objective- Campaigns against slavery in various countries. (NGO)


Objective- Campaigns against human trafficking, prostituion and all other forms of commercial sex, with feminism as its basic belief. (NGO)


Objective- eliminate child prostitution in India by rescuing minor girls, providing effective rehabilitation and prosecuting the perpetrators of sex trafficking.(NGO)


Objective- Combat and prevent modern day slavery and human trafficking.(NGO)


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