WUNRN
FEMALE FACES OF MODERN DAY SLAVERY
3 April 2013 - "According to official
estimates there are 21 million people trapped in some form of slavery."
In the past decade, the extent of trafficking for sexual
exploitation has started to become apparent, highlighting one of the most
visible and reported manifestations of modern slavery. Some estimates put the
value of trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation at more than
$7bn a year, although data on this complex criminal industry is hard to
quantify.
Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty Images
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Every year an estimated 10 million girls, some as young as seven
or eight, become child brides. Child marriage is one of the least-acknowledged
forms of modern slavery, yet many girls married in childhood face a life of
sexual and domestic servitude, and are highly vulnerable to domestic violence,
lack of access to education and health services, and have no economic
opportunities or freedom of movement
Jodi Cobb/NGS/Getty Images
Posters of missing girls and women on the wall of a Mumbai train
station. Forced labour, people trafficking, debt bondage and sex trafficking
are all forms of modern-day slavery, an underground criminal industry thriving
in almost every continent and country. The ILO says forced labour generates at
least $44bn a year, while the UN estimates that human trafficking is the
world's third most profitable form of organised crime
Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images