While We’re Talking About Racism…

As some of us are getting up and doing something about racism in Western countries such as researching the issues, protesting, sharing, hash-tagging and talking, I hear and read multiple posts stating something along the lines of ‘slavery is over but we’ve still got a long way to go.’ Unfortunately that’s not entirely true.

Over the past month, many Western countries have erupted into protest in the wake of the horrifying killing of 46 year-old, George Floyd. This has led to civil unrest in the US with calls to defund the police, ban chokeholds and imrpoved combative training for police forces. The murder of black people in the US by law enforcement is sobering, the systematic racism that surrounds our societies and harms people of colour through economic deterioration is simply hard to comprehend and the harm inflicted on people of colour in the UK everyday is disgusting. Although these issues unequivocally need to be eradicated and improved, something worse is happening on a global scale; and it’s worse now than ever before.

We learned in school that the slave trade was abolished in the 1800s right? So, it would be unbelievably and inconceivably ridiculous to say that

That can’t be true surely. But it is. Approximately 40.3 million people are living in some form of modern slavery, according to the latest figures published by the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, as of 2018. We have been focusing so much on Western country’s levels of racism in which police shootings among Black Americans are much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 30 fatal shootings per million of the population as of June 2020. In the UK, black people account for 3% of the population, but 8% of deaths in custody. These deaths are horrific, so I’m not saying these issues should not be discussed. However, we are facing a modern-day slave-trade worse than ever before.

In 2018, Africa recorded the highest rate of modern-day enslavement in the world. According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, armed conflict, state-sponsored forced labour, and forced marriages were the main causes behind the estimated 9.2 million Africans who live in servitude without the choice to do so. Although, this is can be framed as a race issue, since the vast majority of slavery victims are people of colour, it can also be framed as a gender issue as

As well as tackling race in modern-day slavery, we should also be attempting to explore ways to tackle the modern-day slavery of women and children.

Additionally, this is also a class issue. Modern-day slavery is most prevelant among those most vulnerable such as the those displaced due to issues like climate change and poor economies, those looking for a better life only to find themselves kidnapped or corruption amongst those in power leading to these kinds of issues going unnoticed or unchecked.

So, what is being done to tackle these issues? “Overall, the Government Response Index suggests that national legal, policy, and programmatic responses to modern slavery are improving” however “Eighty-two countries report gaps in the provision of services to either migrants, men, and children, or a combination of these.”

“In 2018, the governments taking the most action to respond to modern slavery are:

1. The Netherlands

2. United States

3. United Kingdom

4. Sweden

5. Belgium

6. Croatia

7. Spain

8. Norway

9. Portugal

10. Montenegro.”

This is slightly comforting to know that the UK is 3rd in this table of countires, however there is clearly more we, as a country, could be doing. Governments in the US and Europe are beginning to recognise that public procurement is also at high risk of modern slavery, with action like executive orders, directives and Tarrif acts. Ironically, there is evidence that the Chinese government has investigated incidents where subcontractors in government contracts have failed to pay wages, meaning they have taken action against modern-day slavery. This seems counterintuitive since around 10 percent of the Uighur population of Xinjiang is locked up due to their religion, according to the U.S. government and human rights organizations.

Lastly, what can we do? If you think you have seen someone who you think are being held against their will, “key things to look out for are whether the person has freedom of movement; appears scared, withdrawn or shows signs of abuse; has few personal belongings or identifying documents with them; or seems under the control of someone else and scared to talk.” In this instance, contact authorities directly rather than approaching the person, this could put them in danger. In the UK, you can contact the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700, the police, Crimestoppers or groups like Anti-Slavery International.

Other action you can take is to stay informed, while this is a brief exploration of modern-day slavery, there is a lot more to learn so educating yourself just like we educated ourselves about systematic racism in Western countries is a good start.

So, shopping informed is a good way to curb your impact on this through a quick search of brands to ensure you are not supporting these practices. Find out more about how to shop ethically at Ethical Consumer.

Contributing to fund resources and charities that are focused on ending modern-day slavery will significantly help. Charities to look at include Restavek Freedom, Anti-Slavery and Unseen UK, to name a few. You can also sponser a child via a charity like Restavek Freedom.

And lastly, share what you’ve read or speak about this issue so others are aware of this issue.

It may seem like we’re living in a world that just is increasingly chaotic and negative, however we have the power to improve the world. The generations (Baby Boomers, The Greatest) before us (Millenials, Gen x) may call us soft and fragile but we have shown that we are anything but that through volunteering to be injected with Covid19 to find a vaccine, protesting during a global pandemic for change and eventually going back out into the world to shop and drink too much. The point to this is that we’re a generation who are already making changes so we can improve these vast issues we face; modern-slavery most definitely being one of them. So we could all make

References

Hodal, K., 2019. One In 200 People Is A Slave. Why?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200>.

Globalslaveryindex.org. 2018. Global Findings | Global Slavery Index. [online] Available at: <https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/global-findings/>.

Statista. 2020. People Shot To Death By U.S. Police, By Race 2020 | Statista. [online] Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/>.

Dahir, A., 2018. Africa Is Again The World’S Epicenter Of Modern-Day Slavery. [online] Quartz Africa. Available at: <https://qz.com/africa/1333946/global-slavery-index-africa-has-the-highest-rate-of-modern-day-slavery-in-the-world/>.

Modernslaveryhelpline.org. n.d. Modern Slavery Helpline. [online] Available at: <https://www.modernslaveryhelpline.org/>.

Restavek Freedom. n.d. 7 Ways You Can Stop Slavery - Restavek Freedom. [online] Available at: <https://restavekfreedom.org/2017/08/29/7-ways-can-stop-slavery/>.

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