Friday, February 15, 2008

More on Modern Slavery

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about a case from the Fourth Circuit where a women was prosecuted with conspiring (along with her in absentia husband) to enslave a girl from Nigeria. Just to show such things aren't limited to Maryland, here's a BBC story about similar situations in the UK:

Penny was almost 29 when she was trafficked from Rwanda to the UK, tricked into believing she could start a new life.

Instead, she ended up trapped in a small flat in south-west London.

She had unwittingly stepped into a trap laid by a trafficker, becoming a commodity in what campaigners say is the world's fastest growing illegal trade - in people.

Yet when Penny agreed to meet the agent, introduced to her by a friend, she was unaware that human trafficking even existed.

'I didn't think about the consequences. I just took the opportunity to get out of the country,' Penny said.
The numbers are pretty grim:
Penny's story is just one of many that remain hidden. The UN estimates that some 2.5 million people are in forced labour at any given time, as a result of trafficking.
In the 21st century, it's hard to imagine that such things go on.

1 comment:

Shark Girl said...

My mind can't even process information like this very well. It just shuts down. I've heard it's happening in the United States also and I just can't understand how people can do this to another person.