Where was slavery? The number of slaves in the modern world is comparable to the population of Spain
July 30 is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Unfortunately, in modern world the problems of slavery and human trafficking, as well as forced labor, are still relevant. Despite the opposition of international organizations, it is not possible to fully cope with human trafficking. Especially in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, where the local cultural and historical specificity, on the one hand, and the colossal level of social polarization, on the other hand, create fertile ground for the preservation of such a terrible phenomenon as the slave trade. In fact, slave trade networks in one way or another capture almost all countries of the world, while the latter are divided into countries that are mainly exporters of slaves, and countries where slaves are imported for their use in any areas of activity.
At least 175,000 people “disappear” every year from Russia and Eastern Europe alone. In total, at least 4 million people in the world become victims of slave traders every year, most of whom are citizens of underdeveloped Asian and African countries. Traders of "human goods" receive huge profits, amounting to many billions of dollars. On the illegal market, "live goods" are the third most profitable after drugs and. In developed countries, the main part of the people who fell into slavery is represented by women and girls illegally held in captivity, who were forced or persuaded into prostitution. However, a certain part of modern slaves is also made up of people who are forced to work for free at agricultural and construction sites, industrial enterprises, as well as in private households as domestic servants. A significant part of modern slaves, especially those from African and Asian countries, is forced to work for free within the "ethnic enclaves" of migrants that exist in many European cities. On the other hand, the scale of slavery and the slave trade is much more impressive in the countries of West and Central Africa, in India and Bangladesh, in Yemen, Bolivia and Brazil, in the Caribbean islands, in Indochina. Modern slavery is so large and diverse that it makes sense to talk about the main types of slavery in the modern world.
sexual bondage
The most massive and, perhaps, widely publicized phenomenon of trade in "living goods" is associated with the supply of women and girls, as well as underage boys, to the sex industry. Given the special interest that people have always experienced in the field of sexual relations, sexual slavery is widely covered in the world press. The police in most countries of the world are fighting against illegal brothels, periodically freeing people illegally held there and bringing to justice the organizers of a profitable business. In European countries, sexual slavery is on a very large scale and is associated primarily with forcing women, most often from economically unstable countries of Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, into prostitution. So, only in Greece 13,000 - 14,000 sex slaves from the CIS countries, Albania and Nigeria work illegally. In Turkey, the number of prostitutes is about 300 thousand women and girls, and in total there are at least 2.5 million people in the world of "paid love priestesses". A very large part of them were turned into prostitutes by force and are forced to this occupation under the threat of physical violence. Women and girls are delivered to brothels in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, other European countries, the USA and Canada, Israel, Arab countries, and Turkey. For most European countries, the main sources of prostitutes are the republics former USSR, primarily Ukraine and Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Albania, as well as the countries of West and Central Africa - Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon. A large number of prostitutes arrive in the countries of the Arab world and Turkey, again, from the former republics of the CIS, but rather from the Central Asian region - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan. Women and girls are lured to European and Arab countries, offering vacancies as waitresses, dancers, animators, models and promising decent sums of money for performing simple duties. Although in our age information technologies many girls are already aware that abroad many applicants for such vacancies are enslaved, a significant part is sure that it is they who will be able to avoid this fate. There are also those who theoretically understand what they can expect abroad, but have no idea how cruel they can be treated in brothels, how inventive clients are in humiliating human dignity, sadistic bullying. Therefore, the influx of women and girls to Europe and the countries of the Middle East is not weakening.
Prostitutes in Bombay brothel
By the way, a large number of foreign prostitutes also work in the Russian Federation. It is prostitutes from other states who have their passports taken away and who are in the country illegally, most often are a real “human commodity”, since it is still harder to force the citizens of the country into prostitution. Among the main countries - suppliers of women and girls to Russia, one can name Ukraine, Moldova, and more recently also the republics of Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. In addition, prostitutes from non-CIS countries - primarily from China, Vietnam, Nigeria, Cameroon - that is, who, from the point of view of the majority, have an exotic Russian men appearance and therefore in demand. However, both in Russia and in European countries, the situation of illegal prostitutes is still much better than in the countries of the "third world". At least here the work of law enforcement agencies is more transparent and effective, the level of violence is lower. With such a phenomenon as trafficking in women and girls, they are trying to fight. The situation is much worse in the countries of the Arab East, in Africa, in Indochina. In Africa, the largest number of examples of sexual slavery is noted in the Congo, Niger, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Liberia. Unlike European countries, there are practically no chances to free themselves from sexual captivity - in a few years, women and girls fall ill and die relatively quickly or lose their “presentation” and are thrown out of brothels, joining the ranks of beggars and beggars. The level of violence, criminal murders of women - slaves, which no one will look for anyway, is very high. In Indo-China, Thailand and Cambodia are becoming the center of attraction for sex trafficking. Here, given the influx of tourists from all over the world, the entertainment industry is widely developed, including sex tourism. The bulk of the girls supplied to Thailand's sex entertainment industry are natives of the backward mountainous regions of the north and northeast of the country, as well as migrants from neighboring Laos and Myanmar, where the economic situation is even worse.
The countries of Indochina are one of the world's centers of sexual tourism, and not only female, but also child prostitution is widespread here. The resorts of Thailand and Cambodia are famous for this among American and European homosexuals. As for sexual slavery in Thailand, it is most often girls who are sold into slavery by their own parents. By doing this, they set the task of at least somehow alleviating the family budget and getting a very decent amount by local standards for the sale of a child. Despite the fact that, formally, the Thai police are fighting against the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, in reality, given the poverty of the interior of the country, it is virtually impossible to defeat this phenomenon. On the other hand, heavy financial position forces many women and girls from Southeast Asia and the Caribbean into prostitution voluntarily. In this case, they are not sex slaves, although elements of coercion to work as a prostitute may also be present if this type of activity is chosen by a woman voluntarily, of her own free will.
In Afghanistan, a phenomenon called "bacha bazi" is widespread. It is a shameful practice of turning dancer boys into actual prostitutes catering to grown men. Pre-pubertal boys are kidnapped or bought from relatives, after which they are forced to perform as dancers at various celebrations, dressed in women's clothes. Such a boy should use women's cosmetics, wear women's clothing, to please a man - the owner or his guests. According to researchers, the phenomenon of "bacha bazi" is common among residents of the southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan, as well as among residents of some northern regions of the country, and among lovers of "bacha bazi" there are people of various nationalities of Afghanistan. By the way, no matter how you treat the Afghan Taliban, they treated the custom of “bacha bazi” sharply negatively, and when they took control of most of the territory of Afghanistan, they immediately banned the practice of “bacha bazi”. But after the Northern Alliance managed to get the better of the Taliban, the practice of "bacha bazi" was revived in many provinces - and not without the participation of high-ranking officials who themselves actively used the services of boy prostitutes. In fact, the practice of "bacha bazi" is pedophilia, which is recognized and legitimized by tradition. But it is also the maintenance of slavery, since all "bacha bazi" are slaves, forcibly kept by their masters and expelled when they reach puberty. Religious fundamentalists see the practice of bacha bazi as an ungodly custom, which is why it was banned during the Taliban's rule. A similar phenomenon of using boys for dancing and homosexual entertainment also exists in India, but there the boys are also castrated, turning them into eunuchs, who constitute a special despised caste of Indian society, formed from former slaves.
Slavery in the household
Another type of slavery that is still widespread in the modern world is forced free labor in the household. Most often, residents of African and Asian countries become free domestic slaves. Domestic slavery is most common in West and East Africa, as well as among representatives of diasporas of immigrants from African countries living in Europe and the United States. As a rule, large households of wealthy Africans and Asians cannot get by with the help of family members alone and require the presence of servants. But servants in such households often, in accordance with local traditions, work for free, although they receive not so bad content and are considered more like the younger members of the family. However, of course, there are many examples of cruel treatment of domestic slaves. Let us turn to the situation in Mauritanian and Malian societies. Among the Arab-Berber nomads who live on the territory of Mauritania, caste division into four estates is preserved. These are warriors - "hasans", clergy - "marabouts", free community members and slaves with freedmen ("kharatins"). As a rule, victims of raids on settled southern neighbors - Negroid tribes - were turned into slavery. Most slaves are hereditary, descendants of captured southerners or bought from Saharan nomads. They have long been integrated into the Mauritanian and Malian society, occupying the corresponding floors in it. social hierarchy and many of them are not even burdened by their position, knowing full well that it is better to live as a servant of a status master than to try to lead an independent existence of an urban pauper, marginal or lumpen. Basically, domestic slaves perform the functions of housewives, caring for camels, keeping the house clean, guarding property. As for the slaves, it is possible to perform the functions of concubines, but more often - also work on the household, cooking, cleaning the premises.
The number of domestic slaves in Mauritania is estimated at about 500 thousand people. That is, slaves make up about 20% of the country's population. This is the largest indicator in the world, but the problematic situation lies in the fact that the cultural and historical specificity of the Mauritanian society, as mentioned above, does not forbid such a fact of social relations. Slaves do not seek to leave their masters, but on the other hand, the fact of the presence of slaves stimulates their owners to the possible purchase of new slaves, including children from poor families who do not at all want to become concubines or house cleaners. In Mauritania, there are human rights organizations that fight against slavery, but their activities are met with numerous obstacles from the slave owners, as well as the police and special services - after all, among the generals and senior officers of the latter, many also use the labor of free domestic servants. The Mauritanian government denies the fact of slavery in the country and claims that domestic work is traditional for Mauritanian society and the bulk of domestic servants are not going to leave their masters. Approximately similar situation is observed in Niger, in Nigeria and Mali, in Chad. Even the law enforcement system of European states cannot serve as a full-fledged obstacle to domestic slavery. After all, migrants from African countries bring the tradition of domestic slavery with them to Europe. Wealthy families of Mauritanian, Malian, Somali origin send servants from their home countries, who, most often, are not paid money and who can be subjected to cruel treatment by their masters. Repeatedly, the French police released from domestic captivity people from Mali, Niger, Senegal, Congo, Mauritania, Guinea and other African countries, who, most often, fell into domestic slavery back in childhood- more precisely, they were sold in the service of rich compatriots by their own parents, perhaps wishing children well - to avoid total poverty in their native countries by living in rich families abroad, albeit as free servants.
Domestic slavery is widespread in the West Indies, especially in Haiti. Haiti is perhaps the most disadvantaged country in Latin America. Despite the fact that the former French colony became the first (other than the United States) country in the New World to achieve political independence, the standard of living in this country remains extremely low. In fact, it is socio-economic reasons that encourage Haitians to sell their children to more affluent families as domestic workers. According to independent experts, currently at least 200-300 thousand Haitian children are in "domestic slavery", which on the island is called the word "restavek" - "service". The way the life and work of the “restavek” will go depends, first of all, on the prudence and goodwill of its owners, or on their absence. So, a “restavek” can be treated as a younger relative, or they can be turned into an object of bullying and sexual harassment. Of course, in the end, most child slaves are still abused.
Child labor in industry and agriculture
One of the most common types of free slave labor in Third World countries is child labor in agricultural work, factories and mines. In total, at least 250 million children are exploited in the world, with 153 million children exploited in Asia and 80 million in Africa. Of course, not all of them can be called slaves in the full sense of the word, since many children in factories and plantations still receive wages, albeit beggarly ones. But it is not uncommon for cases where free child labor is used, with children being bought from their parents specifically as unpaid workers. Thus, the labor of children is used on plantations of cocoa beans and peanuts in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Moreover, the main part of child slaves comes to these countries from neighboring poorer and more problematic states - Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. For many young inhabitants of these countries, working on plantations, where they give food, is at least some way to survive, since it is not known how their life would have developed in parental families with a traditionally large number of children. It is known that Niger and Mali have one of the highest birth rates in the world, with most children born to peasant families who themselves barely make ends meet. Droughts in the Sahel zone, destroying agricultural crops, contribute to the impoverishment of the peasant population of the region. Therefore, peasant families are forced to place their children on plantations and mines - only to "throw" them off the family budget. In 2012, the Burkina Faso police, with the help of Interpol officers, freed child slaves working in a gold mine. Children worked in the mines in dangerous and unsanitary conditions without being paid. A similar operation was carried out in Ghana, where the police also released children who worked in the sex industry. A large number of children are enslaved in Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, where their labor is used primarily in agriculture. Nestle, one of the largest producers of cocoa and chocolate, is accused of using child labor. Most of the plantations and enterprises owned by this company are located in West African countries that actively use child labor. So, in Côte d'Ivoire, which provides 40% of the world's cocoa beans, at least 109 thousand children work on cocoa plantations. Moreover, working conditions on plantations are very difficult and are currently recognized as the worst in the world among other options for using child labor. It is known that in 2001, about 15,000 children from Mali became victims of the slave trade and were sold on cocoa plantations in Côte d'Ivoire. More than 30,000 children from Côte d'Ivoire itself also work in agricultural production on plantations, and another 600,000 children work on small family farms, the latter including both relatives of the owners and acquired servants. In Benin, the plantations use the labor of at least 76,000 child slaves, among whom there are natives of this country and other countries of West Africa, including the Congo. The majority of Beninese child slaves work on cotton plantations. In The Gambia, underage children are often forced to beg, and most often children are forced to beg ... religious school teachers who see this as an additional source of their income.
Child labor is very widely used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and some other countries of South and Southeast Asia. India has the second largest number of child workers in the world. Over 100 million Indian children are forced to work to earn their living. Despite the fact that child labor is officially prohibited in India, it is massive. Children work at construction sites, in mines, brick factories, agricultural plantations, semi-handicraft enterprises and workshops, and in the tobacco business. In the state of Meghalaya in northeast India, in the Jaintiya coalfield, about two thousand children work. Children from 8 to 12 years old and teenagers 12-16 years old make up ¼ of the eight thousand contingent of miners, but receive half as much as adult workers. The average daily salary of a child at the mine is no more than five dollars, more often three dollars. Of course, there is no question of any observance of safety and sanitary standards. Recently, Indian children have been competing with incoming migrant children from neighboring Nepal and Myanmar, who value their labor even less than three dollars a day. At the same time, the socio-economic situation of many millions of families in India is such that without the employment of children, they simply cannot survive. After all, a family here can have five or more children - despite the fact that adults may not have a job or receive very little money. Finally, we must not forget that for many children from poor families, working at an enterprise is also an opportunity to get some kind of shelter over their heads, since there are millions of homeless people in the country. In Delhi alone there are hundreds of thousands of homeless people who have no roof over their heads and live on the street. Child labor is also used by large transnational companies, which, precisely because of the cheapness of labor, move their production to Asian and African countries. So, in the same India, at least 12 thousand children work on the plantations of the infamous Monsanto company alone. These are actually also slaves, despite the fact that their employer is a world-famous company created by representatives of the “civilized world”.
Elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia, child labor is also heavily used in industrial settings. In Nepal in particular, despite a law in force since 2000 prohibiting the employment of children under 14 years of age, children actually make up the majority of workers. Moreover, the law implies a ban on child labor only at registered enterprises, and the bulk of children work on unregistered agricultural farms, in handicraft workshops, as house helpers, etc. Three-quarters of young Nepalese workers are employed in agriculture, with the majority of the work being done by girls. Also, child labor is widely used in brick factories, despite the fact that brick production is very harmful. Also, children work in quarries, carry out work on sorting garbage. Naturally, safety regulations at such enterprises are also not observed. The majority of working Nepalese children do not receive any secondary or even primary education and are illiterate - the only possible way of life for them is unskilled hard work for the rest of their lives.
In Bangladesh, 56% of the country's children live below the international poverty line of $1 a day. This leaves them no choice but to work in heavy production. 30% of Bangladeshi children under the age of 14 are already working. Almost 50% of Bangladeshi children drop out of school before completing primary school and go to work - in brick factories, balloon factories, agricultural farms, and so on. But the first place in the list of countries most actively using child labor rightfully belongs to Myanmar, neighboring India and Bangladesh. Every third child aged 7 to 16 works here. Moreover, children are employed not only in industrial enterprises, but also in the army - as army loaders, who are subjected to harassment and bullying by soldiers. There have even been cases of children being used to "clear mines" - that is, children were released into the field to find out where there are mines and where there is free passage. Later, under pressure from the world community, the military regime of Myanmar went to a significant reduction in the number of child soldiers and military servants in the country's army, but the use of child slave labor in enterprises and construction sites, in the field of agriculture continues. The bulk of Myanmar children are used to collect rubber, on rice and cane plantations. In addition, thousands of children from Myanmar migrate to neighboring India and Thailand in search of work. Some of them fall into sexual slavery, others become free labor in the mines. But those who are sold to households or tea plantations are even envied, because working conditions there are disproportionately easier than in mines and mines, and they pay even more outside of Myanmar. It is noteworthy that children do not receive wages for their work - parents receive it for them, who do not work themselves, but perform the functions of supervisors for their own children. In the absence or infancy of children, women work. Over 40% of children in Myanmar do not attend school at all, but devote all their time to work, acting as family breadwinners.
Slaves of war
Another type of use of virtual slave labor is the use of children in armed conflicts in third world countries. It is known that in a number of African and Asian countries there is a developed practice of buying, and more often abducting, children and adolescents in poor villages, with a view to their subsequent use as soldiers. In the countries of West and Central Africa, at least ten percent of children and adolescents are forced to serve as soldiers in the formations of local rebel groups, and even in government forces, although the governments of these countries, of course, do everything possible to hide the presence of children in their armed units. It is known that children are soldiers most of all in Congo, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia.
During the Civil War in Liberia, at least ten thousand children and teenagers took part in the fighting, about the same number of child soldiers fought during the armed conflict in Sierra Leone. In Somalia, teenagers under the age of 18 make up almost the bulk of the soldiers and government troops, and formations of radical fundamentalist organizations. Many of the African and Asian "child soldiers" after the end of hostilities cannot adapt and end their lives as alcoholics, drug addicts and criminals. There is a widespread practice of using child soldiers forcibly captured from peasant families in Myanmar, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and the Philippines. In recent years, child soldiers have been actively used by religious fundamentalist groups fighting in West and Northeast Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, as well as international terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, the use of children as soldiers is prohibited. international conventions. In fact, the forced conscription of children into military service is not much different from slavery, only children are at even greater risk of death or loss of health, and also endanger their psyche.
Slave labor of illegal migrants
In those countries of the world that are relatively developed economically and are attractive to foreign labor migrants, the practice of using the free labor of illegal migrants is widely developed. As a rule, illegal labor migrants entering these countries, due to the lack of documents authorizing them to work, and even proving their identity, cannot fully protect their rights, be afraid to contact the police, which makes them easy prey for modern slave owners and slave traders. The majority of irregular migrants work in construction sites, manufacturing, and agriculture, and their work may be unpaid or paid very poorly and with delays. Most often, the slave labor of migrants is used by their own tribesmen, who arrived in the host countries earlier and created their own business during this time. In particular, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, in an interview with the Russian Service of the Air Force, said that most of the crimes related to the use of slave labor by immigrants from this republic are also committed by natives of Tajikistan. They act as recruiters, intermediaries and traffickers and supply free labor from Tajikistan to Russia, thereby deceiving their own compatriots. A large number of migrants who seek help from human rights structures, during the years of free work in a foreign land, not only did not earn money, but also undermined their health, up to becoming disabled due to terrible working and living conditions. Some of them were beaten, tortured, harassed, and there were also frequent cases of sexual violence and harassment against migrant women and girls. Moreover, these problems are common to most countries of the world where a significant number of foreign labor migrants live and work.
The Russian Federation uses the free labor of illegal migrants from the republics of Central Asia, primarily Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as from Moldova, China, North Korea, and Vietnam. In addition, the facts of the use of slave labor and Russian citizens are known - both at enterprises and in construction firms, and in private subsidiary plots. Such cases are suppressed by the country's law enforcement agencies, but one can hardly say that kidnappings and, moreover, free labor in the country will be eliminated in the foreseeable future. According to the 2013 Modern Slavery Report, there are approximately 540,000 people in the Russian Federation whose situation can be described as slavery or debt bondage. However, based on a thousand people, this is not such a big figure, and Russia occupies only 49th place in the list of countries in the world. The leading positions in terms of the number of slaves per thousand people are occupied by: 1) Mauritania, 2) Haiti, 3) Pakistan, 4) India, 5) Nepal, 6) Moldova, 7) Benin, 8) Ivory Coast, 9) Gambia, 10) Gabon.
The illegal labor of migrants brings many problems - both for the migrants themselves and for the economy of the host country. After all, migrants themselves turn out to be completely insecure workers who can be deceived, not paid their wages, settled in inadequate conditions, or not ensured safety at work. At the same time, the state also loses, since illegal migrants do not pay taxes, are not registered, that is, they are officially “non-existent”. Thanks to the presence of illegal migrants, the level of crime rises sharply - both through crimes committed by migrants against the indigenous population and each other, and through crimes committed against migrants. Therefore, the legalization of migrants and the fight against illegal migration is also one of the key guarantees of at least partial elimination of free and forced labor in the modern world.
Can the slave trade be eradicated?
According to human rights organizations, in the modern world, tens of millions of people are in virtual slavery. These are women, and adult men, and teenagers, and very young children. It is natural that international organizations are trying to the best of their ability to combat the terrible fact of the 21st century slave trade and slavery. However, this struggle actually does not provide a real remedy for the situation. The reason for the slave trade and slave ownership in the modern world lies, first of all, in the socio-economic plane. In the same countries of the "third world" most of the children - slaves are sold by their own parents due to the impossibility of their content. Overcrowding in Asian and African countries, mass unemployment, high level fertility, illiteracy of a significant part of the population - all these factors together contribute to the preservation of child labor, and the slave trade, and slavery. The other side of the problem under consideration is the moral and ethnic decomposition of society, which occurs primarily in the case of "westernization" without relying on one's own traditions and values. When it is combined with socio-economic causes, a very fertile ground arises for the flourishing of mass prostitution. So, many girls in resort countries become prostitutes on their own initiative. At least for them, this is the only way to earn for the standard of living that they are trying to lead in Thai, Cambodian or Cuban resort cities. Of course, they could stay in their native village and lead the lifestyle of their mothers and grandmothers, doing agriculture, but the spread of mass culture and consumer values reaches even the remote provincial regions of Indochina, not to mention the resort islands of Central America.
Until the socio-economic, cultural, political causes of slavery and the slave trade are eliminated, it will be premature to talk about the eradication of these phenomena on a global scale. If in European countries, in the Russian Federation, the situation can still be corrected by increasing the efficiency of law enforcement agencies, limiting the scale of illegal labor migration from the country and into the country, then in the countries of the "third world", of course, the situation will remain unchanged. It is possible that it will only get worse, given the disparity in demographic and economic growth rates in most African and Asian countries, as well as the high level of political instability associated, among other things, with rampant crime and terrorism.
philosophical sciences
- Sakhanina Ekaterina Alexandrovna, bachelor, student
- Vladimir State University named after A.G. and N.G. Stoletovs
- CAPITALISM
- SLAVERY
This article discusses the question of the existence of slavery in modern society, its forms and methods of influencing a person. Its main idea is that no matter how we try to fight it, in a capitalist society its existence is inevitable.
- Specificity and author's methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of electronic business communications
- Socio-philosophical analysis of national identity
We are currently in more feel the impact of any social factors on our lives, making it unnecessarily complicated. Society neglects spiritual benefits, prefers something material, which, in their opinion, will bring where more benefit. So, some start working in a hated company, take loans, becoming chronic debtors. Others spend decent sums on boutique clothes, gadgets and nightclub hangouts. Therefore, such dependence of people can be equated with slavery. But the slave system appeared in ancient world.
Slavery in the world existed long before the state called "Ancient Rome" appeared. Here is what we read about the history of slavery in one of the well-known abroad encyclopedic dictionaries: “Slavery appears with the development of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. People began to use captives for agricultural work and forced them to work for themselves. In early civilizations, captives were the main source of slavery for a long time. Another source was criminals or people who could not pay their debts. The growth of industry and trade contributed to an even more intensive spread of slavery. There was a demand for a labor force that could produce goods for export. And because slavery reached its peak in the Greek states and the Roman Empire. Slaves performed the main work here. Most of them worked in mines, handicrafts or agriculture. Others were used in the household as servants and sometimes as doctors or poets. In the ancient world, slavery was perceived as a natural law of life that has always existed. And only a few writers and influential people saw evil and injustice in him.
In today's world, slavery has not disappeared, it still exists, taking different forms: economic, social, spiritual and other types. In addition, some state structures guard the forms of modern slavery and define them as "good".
In my opinion, the relevance of this topic lies in the fact that in the modern world a person feels less and less free in personal self-determination, due to the existing so-called "debt economy", rigidly imposed ideological norms, traditions of culture and morality. Therefore, it is important to understand what depends on us in this situation and give it an adequate assessment.
Today, slavery has completely different characteristics. It has gone underground, that is, it has become illegal, or has acquired forms that allow it to coexist with modern laws.
Slavery is a system of social relations in which a person (slave) is allowed to be owned by another person (master, slave owner, master) or the state. In addition to direct slavery, that is, physical, there are also other forms of it: "economic", "social", "wage", "capitalist", "indirect", "spiritual", "debt", etc.
For example, "social" slavery in the modern world has divided society into classes of rich and poor. Since it is very difficult to get into the rich class, you can only be born into it, many people become hostages of their position, throwing all their strength to achieve the level of this class.
"Spiritual slavery" in the modern world is characterized by the fact that people often face depression, psychological disorders, which makes them withdraw into themselves, that is, become a slave of their consciousness.
But we will consider “economic slavery” in more detail. It is the dependence of man on economic factors as forms of the slave system. The reasons for the development of economic slavery are the capitalist system. modern capitalism and various forms slavery represents the increase in capital and the appropriation of the product that the worker has produced.
No one questions that we live today under capitalism (our authorities, however, do not like the word "capitalism", replacing it with the completely meaningless phrase "market economy") and therefore the modern economy is based on the fact that everyone does their job: who -someone manages, and someone does the dirty work - is this not an example of a slaveholding relationship?
A modern person working under an employment contract sometimes has no time to think about analogies and compare himself with a slave of Ancient Rome. Moreover, if he is hinted at such an analogy, he may be offended. Especially if a person occupies some kind of leadership position, if he has a car, an apartment and other attributes of modern "civilization". Of course, there are differences between the classical slave of ancient Rome and the modern wage worker. For example, the first person received a bowl of food, and the second person receives money to buy this bowl. The former cannot stop being a slave, but the latter has the "privilege" to stop being a slave: that is, to be fired.
Despite the fact that the work that people do is paid, and it would seem that they cease to depend on anyone, it is actually a myth, since they spend most of the money received for their work on various payments and taxes that then go to the state budget.
Do not forget the fact that we live in a society of modern "civilization", so every person wants to "live beautifully", meet all the standards of the modern "elite", regardless of what his income is. But the rest of the funds are sometimes not enough to meet these needs. Then the entrance turns on the mechanism of the economy of coercion and people begin to take loans, sinking more and more into the debt hole.
Such a phenomenon as inflation is not uncommon and, it would seem, it is explainable, but the rise in prices in the absence of an increase in the wages of the worker provides a hidden imperceptible robbery. All this makes the average person lower and lower on his knees, bowing before the modern bourgeoisie, making him a real slave.
Thus, we can conclude that no matter what times come, in the conditions of capitalist civilization there will always be a place for slavery. Society will never be completely free. A person will always be limited in his abilities, there will always be someone who subjugates and who obeys. Whether it is problems in his mind or the politics of the state in which he lives, problems at work or in social life, in all these areas a person is subjected to hidden slavery.
Bibliography
- Katasonov V.Yu. From slavery to slavery. From Ancient Rome to Modern Capitalism, Oxygen Publishing House, 2014. - 166p. ISBN: 978-5-901635-40-7
- Katasonov V.Yu. Capitalism. History and ideology of "monetary civilization" / Scientific editor O. A. Platonov. - M .: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2013. - 1072 pp. ISBN 978-5-4261-0054-1
Every day, thousands of people flock to Moscow from the regions and countries of the near abroad to earn money. Some of them disappear without a trace, not having time to go beyond the capital's railway station. Novaya Gazeta studied the Russian market of labor slavery.
Those who fight
Oleg asks not to name the place of our meeting and even the region. It takes place in the industrial zone of a small town. Oleg "leads" me on the phone, and when I get to the sign "Tire Service", he says: "Wait, I'll come right now." Comes in 10 minutes.
“It's not easy to find you.
- That's the whole point.
The conversation takes place behind a plywood change house. Surrounded by garages and warehouses.
“I started fighting slavery in 2011,” says Oleg. - A friend told me how she bought a relative from a brick factory in Dagestan. I didn't believe it, but it got interesting. I went by myself. In Dagestan, I went to factories with local guys, posing as a buyer of bricks. At the same time, he asked the workers if there were forced laborers among them. It turned out yes. With those who were not afraid, we agreed to escape. Then we managed to take out five people.
After the release of the first slaves, Oleg sent a press release to the media. But the topic did not arouse interest.
- Only one activist from the League of Free Cities movement got in touch: they have a small newspaper - about two hundred people, probably, read it. But after the publication, a woman from Kazakhstan called me and said that her relative was being held in a grocery store in Golyanovo ( district in Moscow. — I.Zh.). Remember this scandal? Unfortunately, it was the only one, and even ineffectual - the case was closed.
About how much the topic of human trafficking excites Russians, Oleg says this:
- Over the past month, we have collected only 1,730 rubles, and spent about seventy thousand. We invest our money in the project: I work at a factory, there is a guy who works as a loader in a warehouse. A Dagestan coordinator works in a hospital.
Oleg Melnikov in Dagestan. Photo: Vk.com
Now there are 15 activists in Alternativa.
“In less than four years, we freed about three hundred slaves,” says Oleg.
Alternativa estimates that about 5,000 people fall into labor slavery every year in Russia, totaling almost 100,000 forced laborers in the country.
How do you get into slavery?
The average portrait of a Russian forced laborer, according to Oleg, is this: a person from the provinces who does not understand labor relations, who wants a better life and is ready to work for anyone for this.
- A person who came to Moscow without a specific plan, but with a specific goal, can be seen immediately, - says Oleg. - Recruiters work at the capital's railway stations. Most active - in Kazan. A recruiter approaches a person and asks if he needs a job? If needed, the recruiter offers good earnings in the south: from thirty to seventy thousand rubles. The region is not named. They say about the nature of the work: “handyman” or something else that does not require high qualifications. The main thing is a good salary.
For the meeting, the recruiter offers a drink. Not necessarily alcohol, you can also tea.
- They go to the station cafe, where there are agreements with the waiters. Barbiturates are poured into the cup of the recruited - under these substances a person can be unconscious for up to a day and a half. After the drug has begun to act, the person is put on a bus and taken away in the right direction.
Oleg tested the scheme of falling into slavery on himself. To do this, he lived at the Kazansky railway station for two weeks, masquerading as a homeless man.
— It was in October 2013. At first I tried to portray a visitor, but it looked unconvincing. Then I decided to play the bum. Usually slave traders don't touch the homeless, but I was new at the station, and on October 18 a man approached me who introduced himself as Musa. He said that he had a good job in the Caspian, three hours a day. Promised 50,000 a month. I agreed. In his car, we drove to the Prince Plaza shopping center near the Teply Stan metro station. There Musa handed me over to a man named Ramadan. I saw Ramadan give money to Musa. How much exactly - I did not see. Then Ramazan and I went to the village of Mamyri, which is near the village of Mosrentgen in the Moscow region. There I saw a bus to Dagestan and refused to go, saying that I know that there is slavery. But Ramazan said that the money had already been paid for me and they must either be returned or worked out. And to calm me down, he offered me a drink. I agreed. We went to the nearest cafe, drank some alcohol. Then I don't remember well. All this time we were watched by my fellow activists. At the 33rd kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road, they blocked the bus from the road, they took me to the Sklifosovsky Institute, where I lay on a drip for four days. I was mixed with the neuroleptic Azaleptin. A criminal case was initiated, but it is still being investigated ...
“As such, there are no markets, sites where people could be bought,” says Zakir, coordinator of Alternativa in Dagestan. - People are taken "on order": the owner of the plant told the slave trader that he needed two people - they would bring two to the plant. But there are still two places in Makhachkala where slaves are most often brought and where their owners take them from: this is the bus station behind the Piramida cinema and the North Station. We have a lot of evidence and even video recordings in this regard, but law enforcement agencies are not interested in them. They tried to contact the police - they were refused to initiate cases.
“Actually, the slave trade is not only Dagestan,” says Oleg. - Slave labor is used in many regions: Yekaterinburg, Lipetsk region, Voronezh, Barnaul, Gorno-Altaisk. In February and April of this year, we released people from a construction site in Novy Urengoy.
returned
Andrey Yerisov (foreground) and Vasily Gaidenko. Photo: Ivan Zhilin / Novaya Gazeta
Vasily Gaidenko and Andrey Yerisov were released by Alternativa activists from the brick factory on 10 August. For two days they traveled from Dagestan to Moscow by bus. With activist Alexei, we met them on the morning of August 12 at the parking lot of the Lyublino market.
- Came to Moscow from Orenburg. At the Kazansky railway station, he approached the guard and asked if they needed employees? He said that he did not know and that he would ask the chief, who was not in place at the moment. While I was waiting, a Russian guy came up to me, introduced himself as Dima and asked if I was looking for a job? He said that he would arrange a job for me as a security guard in Moscow. Offered to drink.
Andrei woke up already in the bus, two more slaves were traveling with him. All were brought to the Zarya-1 plant in the Karabudakhkent region of Dagestan.
- At the plant, everyone works where the owner says. I carried bricks on a tractor. I also had to work as a loader. Working day from 8 am to 8 pm. Seven days a week.
“If someone gets tired or, God forbid, an injury, the owner doesn’t care,” says Vasily and shows a huge ulcer on his foot. When I am Jangiru (that was the name of the owner of the plant, he died a month ago) showed that my leg was swollen, he said: "Apply plantain."
No one treats sick slaves at brick factories: if the condition is very serious and a person cannot work, he is taken to the hospital and left at the entrance.
“The usual food for a slave is pasta,” says Vasily. But the portions are big.
At Zarya-1, according to Vasily and Andrey, 23 people worked forcibly. They lived in a barracks - four in one room.
Andrew tried to run. He did not go far: in Kaspiysk he was caught by a brigadier. Returned to the factory, but did not beat.
Relatively mild conditions at Zarya-1 (fair food and no beatings) are due to the fact that this plant is one of four legally operating in Dagestan. Altogether, according to Alternativa, there are about 200 brick factories in the republic, and the overwhelming majority of them are not registered.
In illegal factories, slaves have much less luck. In the archive of "Alternative" there is a story of Olesya and Andrey - two prisoners of the plant, codenamed "Crystal" (located between Makhachkala and Kaspiysk).
“They didn’t beat me, but strangled me once,” Olesya says under video recording. - It was foreman Kurban. He told me: “Go, carry buckets, bring water to water the trees.” And I replied that now I will rest and bring it. He said that I could not rest. I continued to get angry. Then he began to choke me, and then promised to drown me in the river.”
Olesya was pregnant by the time she fell into slavery. “Having learned about this, Magomed, the manager of the plant, decided not to do anything. After some time, due to hard work, I had problems in the female part. I complained to Magomed for more than two weeks before he took me to the hospital. The doctors said that there was a very high chance of a miscarriage and demanded that I be left in the hospital for treatment. But Magomed took me back and made me work. When I was pregnant, I carried ten-liter buckets of sand.”
Volunteers of "Alternative" managed to free Olesya from slavery. The woman kept the child.
“The release of people does not always resemble some kind of action-packed detective story,” the activists say. “Often, the owners of the factories prefer not to interfere with us, because the business is completely illegal and does not have serious patrons.”
About patrons
According to Alternativa volunteers, there is no serious “roof” for human trafficking in Russia.
“Everything happens at the level of district police officers, junior officers, who simply turn a blind eye to problems,” says Oleg.
The Dagestan authorities expressed their attitude to the problem of slavery in 2013 through the then Minister of Press and Information, Nariman Gadzhiev. After the activists of "Alternativa" freed the next slaves, Hajiyev said:
“The fact that slaves work in all factories in Dagestan is a kind of stamp. Here is the situation: the activists said that citizens from central Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are being held in captivity at two factories in the village of Krasnoarmeisky. We asked the operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Dagestan to verify this information, which was done within just a few hours. The operatives arrived, gathered teams, found out who the visitor was. And the word "slaves" was more than inappropriate. Yes, there were problems with salaries: people, in general, were not paid, some really did not have documents. But they worked voluntarily.
"Money? I buy everything for them myself."
Volunteers of Alternativa handed over two telephones to Novaya correspondent, one of which belongs to the owner of a brick factory where, according to activists, involuntary labor is used; and the second - to the dealer of people.
“I have absolutely no idea what you mean. I help people find jobs,” the middleman nicknamed “Mage-Merchant” reacted violently to my call. “I don’t work in factories, I don’t know what’s going on there. They just ask me: help find people. And I'm looking.
About the barbiturates mixed into the drinks of future slaves, the "merchant", according to him, did not hear anything. For "help in the search" he receives 4-5 thousand rubles per capita.
Magomed, nicknamed "Komsomolets", who owns a factory in the village of Kirpichny, upon hearing the reason for my call, immediately hung up. However, in the archives of Alternativa there is an interview with Magomedshapi Magomedov, the owner of a brick factory in the village of Mekegi, Levashinsky district, who describes the attitude of the owners of factories to forced labor. Four people were released from the Magomedov plant in May 2013.
“I didn’t force anyone. How can you talk about retention when the plant is right next to the road? Magomedov says on the record. — I met them in the parking lot at the Pyramid cinema and offered them a job. They agreed. He took away the documents, because they are drunk - they will lose more. Money? I bought everything for them myself: here they give me a list of what they need - I buy everything for them.
Officially
Law enforcement agencies officially confirm the fact of low activity in the fight against the slave trade. From the report of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (November 2014):
“In the fall of 2013, the Australian human rights organization Walk Free Foundation published a rating of countries regarding the situation related to slave labor, in which Russia was assigned the 49th position. According to the organization, there are about 500 thousand people in Russia in one form or another of slavery<…>
An analysis of the results of the activities of law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation in combating human trafficking and the use of slave labor shows that since the introduction in December 2003 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation articles 127--1 (trafficking in persons) and 127--2 (use of slave labor) the number persons recognized as victims under the specified articles of the Criminal Code remains insignificant - 536.
In addition, since 2004, that is, over the past 10 years, 727 crimes have been registered under Article 127-1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which annually amounts to less than one tenth of a percent of all registered crimes.
An analysis of the state of crime in the field of human trafficking and the slave trade indicates a high latency of these criminal acts, so official statistics do not fully reflect the actual state of affairs.”
Press Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia:
In January-December 2014, employees of the internal affairs bodies registered 468 cases of illegal deprivation of liberty (Article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), 25 cases of human trafficking (Article 127 - 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and 7 crimes under Art. 127-2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Recent studies have shown that there are more than 45 million people worldwide, including children, who are used as slaves. This was reported by the organization Walk Free Foundation. /website/
The Walk Free Foundation conducted a study, which resulted in a ranking of countries with the largest number of slaves. It turned out that the number of slaves in the modern world can be compared with the population of a large country, such as Spain or Argentina. The analysis showed that the data of previous studies were significantly underestimated.
The study showed that 58% of all slaves come from India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. The countries with the largest number of slaves are North Korea, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, India and Qatar.
According to the international organization, there is evidence of the use of slave labor through a system of forced labor camps. Such a network of slave labor is widespread in China. In Uzbekistan, residents are forced to pick cotton.
According to human rights organizations, the underground slave trade is the third most profitable criminal business in the world after the arms and drugs trade. “It is possible that slave labor was used to make your shoes or the sugar you add to your coffee. Slaves laid the bricks that make up the wall of the factory that makes your TV,” writes sociologist Kevin Bales, author of The New Slavery in the Global Economy.
How do they get into slavery?
Most often, those who were abducted or illegally migrated fall into slavery. According to the UN, there are "very high" levels of kidnapping activity in 11 countries. More than 50,000 people are kidnapped there every year. These countries include Zimbabwe, Congo, New Guinea, Sudan, China, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Some are lured into slavery by deceit. Usually, the scheme is always the same: first, the employee is promised a high salary in another city or country, after his arrival, his documents are taken away and he is forced to work. Girls are often promised a career in the modeling business, but in fact they are forced to engage in prostitution or best case work in clandestine garment factories.
Men are most often forced to do hard physical labor. The most famous example is the Brazilian charcoal burners. They are recruited from local beggars, promising high-paying jobs. Then they take away their passport, work book and taken to the deep forests of the Amazon, from where there is nowhere to run. There, workers are forced to burn huge eucalyptus trees without rest to get coal.
The number of coal burners is more than 10 thousand. Human rights organizations are still unable to cope with this problem. In many ways, the reason for this is the interest of local authorities in the shadow business, which brings huge profits.
The situation with slavery in Russia
According to the Walk Free Foundation rating, 1 million 48 thousand 500 people live in slavery in Russia today. Thus, Russia ranks 16th in the world in terms of the ratio of free citizens to slaves. By total number slaves our country is in seventh place in the world.
According to estimates from the State Department report, at least 130,000 people work for free in Moscow and the Moscow Region alone. They are undocumented and live in appalling conditions. Many are forced into begging.
Begging in Moscow - common occurrence. Photo: MAXIM MARMUR/AFP/Getty Images
In Russia, there is a public organization "Alternative", which helps people who find themselves in similar situations. Over the four years of its existence, activists have released more than 300 people from different regions of Russia. According to the estimates of the organization's employees, about 5,000 people fall into labor slavery every year in Russia. In total, there are about 100,000 forced laborers in the country.
Activists of the organization note that mostly people from the provinces who want to improve their living conditions and do not understand labor relations become victims of slave traders. Recruiters are already waiting for such people at Moscow railway stations. They offer newcomers good jobs in the south. After that, they lead the victim to the station cafe, where there are agreements with the waiters. There, sleeping pills are added to their tea, after which they are taken away in the right direction.
Most often, workers are taken to the Tyoply Stan metro station, and from there by bus to Dagestan. In Dagestan, illegal workers work in brick and other factories. When there are major checks in the region, the slaves are simply thrown over the fence. Volunteers of the "Alternative" note that the slave owners do not have a serious "roof", everything happens at the level of district police officers and junior officers. Therefore, often the owners of factories do not interfere with the release of people.
At the same time, the prosecutor's office of Dagestan did not establish the facts of forced labor of workers of enterprises for the production of bricks. "Facts of coercion in any form to work by the prosecutor's check has not been established," the department reports.
Oleg Melnikov, a member of the Alternative movement, noted that the government of our country simply does not recognize slavery. “It seems to me that we in Russia simply do not have the political will to admit that slavery exists in our country. And some investigators told me directly that they would never open cases under the “slavery” article. And the investigators are asking to use the wording “illegal detention of two or more persons”, and not “slavery” when initiating criminal cases,” the human rights activist noted.
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LINKOVA O.M. The Essence of Modern Slavery
The article is devoted to the study of the features of modern slavery. The author shows how relevant the problem of slavery is in the conditions of the current socio-political and socio-economic crisis, and also reveals the essence of modern slavery. The main forms of modern slavery are singled out and described, namely: labor, debt, contract slavery, physical, military, conscription, penitentiary, religious, sexual. The article reveals the causes and diverse consequences of the emergence and spread of modern slavery.
Key words: slavery, human trafficking, labor exploitation, labor slavery, debt slavery, contract slavery, physical slavery, military slavery, conscription slavery, penitentiary slavery, religious slavery, sexual slavery.
History doesn't know much social phenomena, as multifaceted, contradictory and at the same time as stable as slavery.
When you talk about slavery as a modern social phenomenon, the usual reaction of the interlocutor is surprise: after all, all this was a long time ago, in the era of slavery. In other words, in our minds, the words “slaves” and “slavery” are usually associated with slave-owning relations in the ancient world or practiced in the 11th-19th centuries. the use of slaves taken out of Africa on the plantations of the New World. It is believed that slavery finally ceased to exist at the end of the 19th century, when in 1888 the last slave-owning country - Brazil - granted freedom to its slaves. Separate discovered facts of slavery and the slave trade were attributed either to criminal groups, or were associated with the socio-economic backwardness of some African and Asian countries. Indeed, in many of them, slavery continued to officially exist until the 1940s and 1950s. For example, in Nepal, where the government abolished slavery only under pressure from the world community, or in Mauritania, where slavery was abolished many times. Last time it happened in 1980 when the
The government of this country has decided that slavery in the country has ended and no longer exists. The Slavery Convention was signed as early as 1926, and in 1956 the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery1 was concluded.
It would seem that the problem of slavery has long lost its relevance. Today it is generally accepted that there is no slavery in the world. However, the assertion that slavery is impossible in a modern liberal society is simply a myth. Many may argue with this. But if we are attentive to everything that surrounds us, then we will see a flourishing slavery. For example, let’s look at a new supermarket, where men from the former Soviet republics work day and night at the construction site, we’ll go to any car wash where teenagers with haunted eyes serve us around the clock, in almost all newspapers we see advertisements for sexual services ... List of examples can be very long. If we ask the question, who are these people who are willing to work, and most importantly, working in such conditions, then the answer will be the same - they are slaves. This is modern slavery, carefully hidden, sophisticated and therefore even more cruel and humiliating, not-
jelly in ancient times, in the era of slavery, which we know about from school textbooks. Almost nothing is written about modern slaves in the newspapers, state human rights organizations are silent about them, people in Europe and America, Australia and Russia know practically nothing about them. However, in the modern world, despite all the declarations of human rights, slavery exists, and on a much larger scale than in ancient times, and in more ugly forms, since this phenomenon is not even officially recognized, and therefore modern slaves do not have any rights.
The scale and forms of modern slavery are quite wide and global. The exact number of modern slaves in the world is unknown. Modern research offer a wide range of assessments of the nature and extent of contemporary slavery. In 2005, the UN concluded that about 700 thousand people fall into slavery every year, the US Department of State / Department of State a year later called a similar figure - from 600 to 800 thousand people. Human Rights Watch estimates that the actual number of people sold into slavery each year reaches 800,000-900,000. The Human Security Center (now affiliated with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada) estimates that up to 4 million people are sold into slavery each year. The International Labor Organization \ International Labor Organization in 2006 published a report according to which 12.3 million people are engaged in forced (that is, actually slave) labor in the world. There are even more shocking estimates. Anty-Slavery experts say that there are up to 200 million slaves in the modern world2. However, the most accurate figures are given by Kevin Bales, a well-known American sociologist and researcher of the problem of slavery. In his opinion, today in the world there are up to 27 million people who are in the position of slaves. Slave unpaid labor makes up a certain share in the modern global economy, and a considerable share. According to international
For many human rights organizations, the annual income brought by slaves to their owners ranges from 13-15 billion US dollars. But although the immediate importance of slave labor in the modern world economy may seem small, it should not be underestimated. First of all, because it is by no means isolated from the world by the borders of remote regions of backward countries, but is integrated into the world economy. Slaves create goods that are exported to many countries of the world, and the services of sex slaves are used by a huge number of men in the most different parts Sveta.
Modern slave owners are criminals who use different kinds labor activity of unprotected segments of the population, violating their rights to a decent life.
Basically, the problem of modern slavery is investigated by lawyers. In their research, they dealt with legal aspect human trafficking, modern manifestations of labor exploitation, the use of minors, etc.3. However, becoming more and more relevant, this problem has not left indifferent sociologists, philosophers, psychologists. The purpose of writing this work is to study modern slavery as one of the social problems, as well as in elucidating its main forms, causes and consequences.
The Convention, signed at Geneva on September 25, 1926, defines slavery as "the position or condition of a person over whom some or all of the powers attaching to the right of property are exercised." The well-known sociologist E. Giddens defines slavery as an extreme form of inequality, in which some people are literally the property of others4. According to international human rights organizations, modern slavery is defined on the basis of three main criteria:
1) human activity is controlled by violence or the threat of violence;
2) a person is in this place and is engaged in this type of activity against his will and cannot change the situation of his own free will;
3) for the work a person receives an insignificant payment or does not receive it at all5.
Modern slave owners profit from people who have neither social nor legal protection. The victims of modern slavery can be people of all nationalities and cultures. No one in the modern world is immune from slavery. Both a citizen from developing countries with low economic development, and citizens of highly developed civilized states of Europe and the USA can become a slave.
So, we see that slavery does not disappear anywhere, but simply takes on various forms. The basis of slavery - the complete control of one person over the life and fate of another - is preserved in all new manifestations of slavery. The cost of a modern slave has dropped significantly. In some parts of the world, a slave can be bought for less than $100 or traded for a goat (!). Free the Slaves estimated that in the American South in 1850, the average slave sold for $40,000, adjusted for the changing purchasing power of the US dollar. Now a “slave” can be “buyed” there for $120, and this brings significant profits to slave owners.
The main conditions that give rise to modern slavery include: social disorganization, economic crisis, political instability.
In more detail, the following reasons for the emergence of modern slavery should be indicated.
1) Socio-political: wars, natural disasters, political or ethnic strife impoverishes most people and forces them to work in slave conditions for meager pay. Often people move to other countries because of these conditions in order to escape poverty. But even there they are rarely lucky, the refugees even more easily become the “prey” of modern slave owners.
2) Socio-economic: the population explosion in the third world countries has practically exhausted the available resources and led to an increase in the supply of labor and a fall in its price. Modernization and globalization of the world economy also contributed to the unprecedented enrichment of the elites and the growing impoverishment of the majority of the population. The forced transition to market agriculture, the loss of common land, as well as the policy of governments that underestimated the income of farmers for the sake of cheap bread for the townspeople, led to the bankruptcy of millions of peasants and their displacement from the land, sometimes into slavery.
3) Socio-legal: these reasons are based on the corruption of the authorities and law enforcement agencies, the absence of laws aimed at combating slavery, the low level of legal awareness of people, their legal illiteracy, the lack of a sufficient number of free legal consultations, as well as the passivity of law enforcement agencies in solving problems, related to human trafficking, protection of their rights, etc.
So, we see that in the modern world the number of potential slaves is so great that the supply exceeds the demand, thereby reducing their price. Cheapness is one of the main distinguishing features of modern slavery. In addition to this feature, Kevin Bales cites other differences between modern and traditional slavery:
1) evasion from registration of the right of ownership;
2) a very high level of profit;
3) an overabundance of potential slaves;
4) short-term relationships;
5) easy replacement of slaves;
6) ethnic differences do not matter.
Thus, modern slavery differs significantly from the slavery of past centuries. There is no single form of slavery, just as there is no single form of marriage. People are inventive and adaptive, and therefore the metamorphoses of human cruelty and forms of exploitation
tions are endless. Contemporary forms of slavery are many and varied. We highlight the most common of them.
1) Labor slavery. This form is closest to traditional slavery. A person is captured, or born, or sold into permanent slavery, with property rights often formalized. With such slavery, people work mainly in agriculture, on construction sites, in the service sector, performing the most difficult, unskilled work. This form of slavery is found everywhere, but most often in North and West Africa and some Arab countries. In Russia, labor slavery is practiced by the Gypsies and the North Caucasian peoples. Traveling around the country in search of work, many so-called “homeless people” end up in real slavery in the villages of the North Caucasian republics or with gypsies, where they are forced to do dirty housework, look after livestock or work in gardens, while not paying anything and keeping them starving in the position of slaves. Labor slavery is inextricably linked with another no less horrifying form - human trafficking.
2) Trafficking in human beings has become global in recent years. According to UN estimates, people are sold into slavery (kidnapped, lured by deceit, etc.) in 127 countries of the world, in 137 states foreign victims of human traffickers are exploited6. In 11 states, a “very high” level of activity of kidnappers was noted, among them Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Lithuania. In Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this level is “high”. 10 states are a favorite place for the transportation of modern slaves; including the USA, Israel, Turkey, Italy, Japan, Germany, Greece. Human trafficking is a common and growing practice. The recruitment of people for the purposes of economic or sexual exploitation is carried out using violence, deceit or coercion. The merchant exercises control and ownership by:
Forcing victims to work against their will;
Management of their freedom of movement, for example, due to the confiscation of their passports and non-payment of wages (if any);
Determining the place and time of work and the level of payment (if any);
The use of practices such as voodoo rituals involving vows of silence, beatings and rape.
3) Debt slavery is the most widespread form of slavery in the modern world. A person becomes collateral for the money borrowed, but the duration and nature of the dependence is not defined, and the work does not reduce the amount of the original debt. Debt can extend to subsequent generations, enslaving the descendants of the debtor. In case of non-payment of the debt, they can seize and sell children into further debt dependence. The right of ownership is not formalized, but there is total physical control over enslaved workers. Debt slavery is most common in India and Pakistan.
4) Slavery by contract. It vividly demonstrates how modern labor relations can be used to mask new forms of slavery. Usually contracts are offered to guarantee employment in some enterprise or factory, but when the workers are brought to the place of work, they find themselves turned into slaves. The contract is used as a lure to make slavery look like a legitimate working relationship. Contract slavery can be found all over the world, most often it is practiced in Southeast Asia, Brazil, and some Arab countries.
Contract slavery exists in Russia as well. The situation of slaves in Russia is in fact the construction workers who arrive in Moscow and a number of other large cities from the provinces and former Soviet republics. Many unemployed people, hoping to improve their financial situation, turn to recruitment agencies and other firms, promising
giving them big money for "shift work" in Moscow or the Far North. There they find themselves in the position of slaves, working for 12 hours and huddling in appalling conditions in change houses, in workshops or at facilities under construction. Their salaries are paid much less than promised, or they are paid nothing at all.
In addition to the above forms of modern slavery, which are the most widespread in the world, there are other easily identifiable forms of enslavement.
5) Physical slavery. This form is one of the most cruel and inhumane. The sources of this slavery are physically handicapped people who are forced to beg.
6) Sexual slavery is characterized by the absolute control of one person over another and is not always associated with any financial reward. It includes:
Exploitation of prostitution, when a prostitute systematically transfers her earnings to third parties;
Forced prostitution against the will of a person;
Forced marriages and the sale of wives is a recent form of sexual exploitation associated with media alerts about women who are ready to marry, so-called mail-order brides, who later become the slaves of their husbands.
Previously, the main suppliers of sex slaves were Asian countries - Thailand and the Philippines. After the collapse of the USSR, the role of the main suppliers of women began to play former republics Union: Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Russia. In the past 10 years, hundreds of thousands of women have been trafficked from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics into prostitution in more than 50 countries. Another type of sexual slavery can be attributed to the involvement of children in the porn industry. Under the fear of violence, children are forced to act in porn films and engage in prostitution.
7) Military slavery. Men fall into this slavery to participate in armed conflicts. This also includes government-supported slavery. In today's Burma, the capture and enslavement of civilians by the government and the army is widespread. Tens of thousands of men, women and children are used as porters in military campaigns against the locals or as laborers in government construction projects. In this case, the motive is again economic benefit: not so much making a profit, but reducing transport or production costs during a military campaign.
8) Conscription slavery - slavery, when commanders, taking advantage of their position, use soldiers as slaves. This phenomenon is most common in the territory of the former USSR - soldiers perform hazing tasks, while commanders receive material rewards. It often happens that a soldier is sold into slavery, and documented he is declared missing or a deserter.
9) Penitentiary slavery is a completely new form of slavery. It is found everywhere. This form is to use the labor of prisoners. Penitentiary slavery is very beneficial, since persons in places of deprivation of liberty are only partially citizens of the state (rights are “withdrawn” for the time of correction), which, in turn, allows cheap and gratuitous use of labor.
10) Religious slavery is mainly accompanied by the involvement of people in various religious sects. People sell their property, housing and give all the money to "spiritual" leaders in order to become full members of the sect. In the future, they turn into disenfranchised slaves, completely obeying the will of their so-called "spiritual" mentors. In some countries, due to custom, girls and young women are made ritual slaves to atone for the sins committed by their members.
families. For example, in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, women are handed over to local shamans, for whom they cook, clean, satisfy sexual needs until the shamans release them, usually after the birth of several children.
Enslavement can also be called such cases as the use of people as donors for transplantation of organs and tissues, forced pregnancy and childbearing, fictitious adoption7.
The main consequences of modern slavery include the deterioration of the health of the individual affected by slavery. Irritability, insomnia, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are common psychological manifestations among victims of slavery. Unsanitary and cramped living conditions, combined with poor nutrition, contribute to the emergence of many adverse factors that threaten health, such as various types of scabies, tuberculosis and others. infectious diseases. Slavery can lead to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Therefore, despite the fact that these people are far from society, their exploitation affects general health population.
From the foregoing, we can conclude that modern slavery is not only a problem of violation of human rights and national
security, but also entails serious consequences for the health of the nation.
Summing up, it should be said that modern slavery is one of the unresolved problems in modern society. Among the causes that give rise to modern slavery, the most relevant are still socio-political, socio-economic and socio-legal reasons. First of all, the solution of the problems of poverty, as well as the social and legal protection of the population, will, in our opinion, minimize this problem.
1 Slavery Convention [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://www.un.org/russian/documen/convents/ convention_slavery.htm
2 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2007 [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://www crime.vl.ru.228.10.2008 Title. from the screen.
3 Makarov S.N. Implementation of international legal obligations to combat slavery and the slave trade in the criminal legislation of Russia: dis. ... cand. legal Sciences. M., 2004. 208 p.
4 Giddens E. Sociology. Moscow: Editorial URSS. 1999. S. 196-197.
5 Vanchugov V.V. modern slavery. [Electronic resource]. Access mode http://www.humanities.edu.ru/db/msg/80132
6 The report “Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns” was published in 2006 [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://www crime.vl.ru.228.10.2008 Title. from the screen.
7 Mizulina E.B. Human trafficking and slavery in Russia: international legal aspect. M.: Jurist, 2006.