I did not know that there is such a thing called the Global Slavery Index. I only came to know about it when I started doing some research for this blog. This Index does not give information about slavery throughout the centuries but gives an account of slavery today. This is incredible but true. According to its 2014 estimates nearly 35.8 million people worldwide are living in slave-like conditions.

According to the 2014 report by Global Slavery Report the West African nation of Mauritania has the highest proportion of people in modern slavery at 4% of its population, followed by Uzbekistan (3.97%), Haiti (2.3%), Qatar (1.36%), and India (1.14%).

61% of those living in modern slavery live in the following countries:

• India remains top of the list with an estimated 14.29 million enslaved people,
• Second comes in China (3.24m),
• The other three countries in this league are Pakistan (2.06m), Uzbekistan (1.2m, new to the top five), and Russia (1.05m).

Malta is not studied in the report. Perhaps they will update it next year following the Leisure Clothing scandal.

Slavery is big in numbers and big in business. The United Nations estimates 2.4 million people are trafficked at any given time and their exploitation generates €26.23 billion in annual profits for criminals

The problem is getting worse not better so much so that in March, the Vatican, the Anglican Communion and others launched the Global Freedom Network. The initiative, based at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, aims to prevent modern forms of slavery; to protect, rescue and rehabilitate victims; and to promote concrete measures that condemn or criminalize human trafficking.

Pope Francis dedicated his message for the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2015 to this topic. The theme of the message is “No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters.”

The list of those in slavery is overwhelming – in the negative sense of the word.

Pope Francis includes in the list “the many men and women labourers, including minors, subjugated in different sectors, whether formally or informally, in domestic or agricultural workplaces, or in the manufacturing or mining industry.”

He adds many migrants who suffer a lot in their quest for a better life only to be  detained, at times,  in inhumane conditions. His list includes those in “slave labour”, persons forced into prostitution, including minors, as well as women forced into marriage. The modern scourge of trafficking people for the sale of organs, for recruitment as soldiers, for begging, for illegal activities such as the production and sale of narcotics, or for disguised forms of cross-border adoption. He ends his list by those kidnapped and held captive by terrorist groups.

The list makes for sad reading, indeed.

Men’s (and women’s) inhumanity to other human persons knows no bounds. The human race can reach the highest of heights but can also descend to the lowest of lows.

Slavery, like other forms of exploitation, is based on the belief that some are more equal and have more privileges than others and that these privileges give them the ‘right’ to mistreat others. What a sad picture of humanity this evokes! Evil consequences follow when humans fail to believe that each and every one of us is created in the image of a loving God. Humans are consequently deprived of their freedom, sold and reduced to being the property of others. They are treated as means to an end.

The Pope adds other causes of slavery. These include “poverty, underdevelopment and exclusion, especially when combined with a lack of access to education or scarce, even non-existent, employment opportunities.  Another cause of slavery is corruption on the part of people willing to do anything for financial gain. Slave labour and human trafficking often require the complicity of intermediaries, be they law enforcement personnel, state officials, or civil and military institutions.”

I would have liked to conclude this final blog for 2014 with a brighter and more consoling subject. But alas, reality has to be faced as it is.

The appeal of Pope Francis at the end of his message points towards the way forward:

“We know that God will ask each of us: What did you do for your brother? The globalization of indifference, which today burdens the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters, requires all of us to forge a new worldwide solidarity and fraternity capable of giving them new hope and helping them to advance with courage amid the problems of our time and the new horizons which they disclose and which God places in our hands.”

One hopes that during 2015 more people will heed this appeal.