Let's put slave labor into perspective....
I'm sitting here with a coffee, and iPhone, and a computer screen in front of me, typing this article, realizing that somewhere across the world, there are labor slaves being worked to near death for extremely little pay to produce a lot of the products I will consume today.
It is a generally known fact that many of the products we consume, wear, or use are made off of slave labor or extremely cheap labor (we're talking pennies an hour). I'll be the first to admit that I've adopted a slightly ignorant "out of sight out of mind" attitude as to how many of the products we use in America are made with very cheap sweatshop or slave labor. The only people worse off then those who are making 33 cents a day for working 12 hours a day are the ones that are kidnapped, beaten, and working around the clock for no pay at all.
Here are sevent awful facts about slave labor:
1. 21 MILLION people worldwide are trapped into slave labor worldwide. (More people than the entire population of Florida combined).
Imagine you're on top of the tallest skyscraper in the world, and there are one million people for as far as the eye can see. Now, imagine that visual, but 21 times that amount of people. Its uneasy to think of, but it happens to people all around the world.
2. There are three types of slavery: Labor Slavery, Sex Slavery, and Child Slavery, with 5.5 percent of these 21 million enslaved people being under the age of 18.
Seema and Kamala are 2 of the over 20 million slaves around the world, who lives in Nepal and were looking for a better future. Seema and Kamala revealed to the website, Free The Slaves, their horrifying stories of how they were tricked into slave labor, living just 10 minutes from the open border of India. Seema was sold into slavery by her own family, in exchange for money. These women said they were spit on, beaten, and forced to work sometimes from 5 a.m. until 1 a.m. the next day.
3. You are directly connected to slavery, whether you think you are or not.
Slaves harvest cocoa in West Africa, and that cocoa ends up in our chocolate. Slaves make charcoal in Brazil, which is used to run smelters that make steel for our cars. Many food products and raw materials are tainted by slavery—such as tomatoes, tuna, shrimp, cotton, diamonds, iron, sugar, and gold.
4. Slavery generates $150 billion for traffickers each year. (Yes, American companies are a large part of these profits).
Those who illegally use slave labor, sexual exploitation, etc., do so in order to make a profit. None of these are profits are ever seen by those who work themselves to death in order to create these products or preform these services.
5. Asia and the Pacific have the largest slave population, totaling 11.7 million people.
6. Marriage slavery is a real thing.
If a father owes someone debt, many times they will sell their daughter into marriage slavery, meaning they are forced to marry someone and do whatever they are told. Often times, they are simply abducted, raped, and married to the abuser. Pregnancies associated with these marriages often result in death of the baby or mother, due to the complications of disease and very young age.
7. Brands you use every single day directly profit from slave labor.
Gap, Victoria Secret, Apple, Walmart, Disney, Hershey, Forever 21, H&M, and Nestle....These major corporations are well aware that their supply chain involves promoting slave labor. However, we buy it, so they keep producing it.
As you can see, we are often unaware or ill-informed on how powerful and terrifying slave labor is, as well as how we are personally affected and involved with it. Although we can make a small donation and look to possibly change the products we use, the first step is to be aware of how cruel, unjust and prevalent slave labor is.
