Slavery. Legally practiced for 11,000 years, abolished by the English in 1833 – the practice seems,on the surface at least, to be a thing of the past. But now, the publishing of the Global Slavery Index has revealed the existence of up to 30 million ‘modern slaves’ in 162 countries.

Though no longer a legal transaction, modern slaves are often victims of human trafficking or forced labour. The index mentions India as the capital of modern slavery, with up to 14 million people (just over 1% of the population)  living under “slavery conditions”. But Mauritania has the highest proportion of slavery by population, with 4% of the population being forced into slavery.

Estimated Number of Slaves

1. India – 13,956,010
2. China – 2,949,243
3. Pakistan – 2,127,132
4. Nigeria – 701,032
5. Ethiopia – 651,110
6. Russia – 516,217
7. Thailand – 472,811
8. DR Congo – 462,327
9. Burma – 384,037
10. Bangladesh – 343,192

The startling new index was published by the Australian-based rights organisation Walk Free Foundation. In order to define ‘modern slavery’, they included factors such as ‘debt bondage’, forced marriage, and human trafficking. WFF chief executive Nick Grono told the French news agency Agence France-Presse:

A lot of governments won’t like hearing what we have to say. Those governments that want to engage with us, we will be very open to engaging and looking at ways in which we can better measure the issue of modern slavery.

[Source : BBC News]