Slavery in the 21st century

Slavery still exists in the 21st century. It is usually called modern slavery or neo-slavery. The ways in which people are made slaves, or kept in slave-like conditions have changed. There no longer is a definition everyone agrees on. Estimates of the number of slaves today, range from around 38 million to 49.6 million, depending on the method used to form the estimate and the definition of slavery being used. Those in slavery are often difficult to identify, and difficult to count.

The International Labour Organization estimates that, by their definitions, over 40 million people are in some form of slavery today. 24.9 million people are in forced labor, of whom 16 million people are exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture, 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation, and 4 million people in forced labour imposed by state authorities. An additional 15.4 million people are in forced marriages.

Causes

Slavery has been officially abolished. Enslavement therefore no longer is about legal ownership. Modern slavery is about illegal control. In most cases, slaves are no longer bought or sold. Rather, "slavery" exists as a form of employment / labor. People become trapped in slavery-like conditions in various ways.

Modern slavery is often seen as a by-product of poverty.Slavery is most common in poor countries, and those with vulnerable minorities. It also exists in developed countries. Tens of thousands of people work in slave-like conditions in industries such as mining, farming or in factories. There they produce goods for their home market, or for export into more prosperous countries.

In the older form of slavery, slave-owners spent more on buying or getting slaves. The cost of keeping the slave healthy was considered a better investment than getting another slave to replace them. In modern slavery people are easier to get at a lower price so replacing them when exploiters run into problems becomes easier. Slaves are then used in areas where they could easily be hidden while also creating a profit for the exploiter.

Modern slavery can be quite profitable, and corrupt governments silently allow it, despite its being outlawed by international treaties such as Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery and local laws. Total annual revenues of traffickers were estimated in 2014 to over $150 billion, though profits are substantially lower. American slaves in 1809 were sold for around the equivalent of US$40,000 in today's money. Today, a slave can be bought for $90–$100.

Bales explains, "This is an economic crime ... People do not enslave people to be mean to them; they do it to make a profit."

Forms

Currently the following forms are known:

• Chattel slavery: The slaves are the property (or chattels) of their owners. Since 2014, there was a civil war in Libya. Law and order has broken down in the country. There have been reports of enslaved migrants being sold in public. There reports include open slave markets in the country. Mauritania also has a long history of slavery. There are laws against it, but they are rarely enforced. It is estimated that around 90,000 people (over 2% of Mauritania's population) are slaves.

• Forced labour by the government; Examples of this can be found in North Korea: The 2018 Global Slavery Index estimated that 2.8 million people were slaves in the country. Dulgyeokdae (youth workers) are forced to do dangerous construction work, and inminban (women and girl workers) are forced to make clothing in sweatshops. The workers are often unpaid. In Eritrea, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 people are in an indefinite military service program which is like mass slavery, according to UN investigators. Their report also found sexual slavery and other forced labor.
• Prison labor; In many countries, prisoners have to work. Often they get little or no money for the work they do.
• Bonded labor, also known as debt bondage and peonage, occurs when people give themselves into slavery as a security against a loan or when they inherit a debt from a relative. The cycle begins when people take extreme loans under the condition that they work off the debt. The "loan" may be designed so that it can never be paid off, and is often passed down for generations. People become trapped in this system.
• Forced migrant labor; People go to another country, to get a better job, or a better life. They then become trapped, their documents are seized and are forced to work under the threat of violence to them or their families. Since they have no documents, they can not complain to the authorities.
• Sexual slavery and forced prostitution; This is the main form of slavery in wealthy regions. It is the primary form of slavery in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, particularly in Moldova and Laos. Many child sex slaves are trafficked from these areas to the West and the Middle East. An estimated 20% of slaves to date are active in the sex industry. Sexual exploitation can also become a form of debt bondage when enslavers insist that victims work in the sex industry to pay for basic needs and transportation.
• Bride-buying, forced marriage, and child marriage; This affects many women and girls. When families cannot support their children, the daughters are often married off to the males of wealthier, more powerful families. These men are often much older than the girls. The females are forced into lives whose main purpose is to serve their husbands. Often, this creates an environment for physical, verbal and sexual abuse. Forced marriages also happen in developed nations. In the United Kingdom there were 3,546 reports to the police of forced marriage over three years from 2014 to 2016. In the United States over 200,000 children were legally married from 2002 to 2017. The youngest of them were only 10 years old. Most were married to adults. Currently 48 US states, D.C. and Puerto Rico, allow marriage of minors as long as there is judicial consent, parental consent or if the minor is pregnant.
• Child labour; About 26% of the slaves (as of 2017) are children. Although they can do certain forms of work, children can also be found in slavery or slavery-like situations; although child labor isn't considered slavery, it inevitably hinders their education. An example of this is forced begging. Children have also been used as child soldiers.
• Fishing industry; According to Human Rights Watch, Thailand's billion-dollar fish export industry remains plagued with human rights maltreatment in spite of government vows to stamp out servitude in its angling industry. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with 248 fishermen, it documented (as of 2018) the forced labor of trafficked workers in the Thai fishing industry.
• Forced begging
• Forced fraud; Fraud factory victims are forced to scam internet users around the world into buying cryptocurrencies or withdrawing cash, via social media and online dating apps. Trafficking victims' passports are confiscated, and they are threatened with organ theft, organ harvesting or forced prostitution if they do not scam sufficiently successfully.