1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,244 ♪ (music) ♪ 2 00:00:01,244 --> 00:00:03,339 (Bryce Plank) Slavery used to look like this. 3 00:00:03,339 --> 00:00:04,824 Then it evolved into this. 4 00:00:04,824 --> 00:00:07,057 And today, it looks like this. 5 00:00:07,513 --> 00:00:11,156 In fact, there are an estimated 45.8 million people 6 00:00:11,156 --> 00:00:12,470 living in modern slavery 7 00:00:12,470 --> 00:00:15,031 across 167 different countries. 8 00:00:15,292 --> 00:00:17,563 They fall into three general categories: 9 00:00:17,563 --> 00:00:19,566 children held in the commercial sex trade; 10 00:00:19,566 --> 00:00:21,478 adults held in the commercial sex trade; 11 00:00:21,478 --> 00:00:25,952 and any other laborer made to work through force, fraud, or coercion. 12 00:00:26,529 --> 00:00:30,062 The trafficking victim often looks like anybody else at work 13 00:00:30,062 --> 00:00:32,513 in a mine, on a farm, in a factory. 14 00:00:32,703 --> 00:00:35,986 Many are lured by promises of a steady job in another country, 15 00:00:35,986 --> 00:00:39,174 only to have their passports confiscated when they arrive. 16 00:00:39,174 --> 00:00:42,172 However, many slaves work in their native countries 17 00:00:42,172 --> 00:00:44,301 or even the cities where they were born. 18 00:00:44,764 --> 00:00:46,761 According to the Global Slavery Index, 19 00:00:46,761 --> 00:00:49,858 these ten countries are home to the most modern slaves. 20 00:00:49,858 --> 00:00:53,438 They each suffer from income inequality, discrimination, and classism, 21 00:00:53,438 --> 00:00:55,173 and entrenched corruption. 22 00:00:55,608 --> 00:01:00,570 Number ten, Indonesia, produces about 35% of the world's palm oil. 23 00:01:00,570 --> 00:01:04,646 The many small palm plantations present an immense challenge to inspectors 24 00:01:04,646 --> 00:01:06,905 trying to crack down on child labor. 25 00:01:06,905 --> 00:01:08,810 The country's many islands are also home 26 00:01:08,810 --> 00:01:10,897 to tens of thousands of enslaved fishermen 27 00:01:10,897 --> 00:01:14,172 trafficked from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. 28 00:01:14,927 --> 00:01:17,487 Number nine is the Democratic Republic of Congo. 29 00:01:17,487 --> 00:01:21,635 20,000 of the DRC's more than 870,000 slaves 30 00:01:21,635 --> 00:01:24,655 live in one of the most hellish landscapes on the planet, 31 00:01:24,655 --> 00:01:27,441 a vast ore mine in the east of the country. 32 00:01:27,928 --> 00:01:31,105 The terrorist group Boko Haram gets overshadowed by ISIS, 33 00:01:31,105 --> 00:01:33,053 although it kills more people. 34 00:01:33,053 --> 00:01:35,287 When it comes to enslavement, one of its tactics 35 00:01:35,287 --> 00:01:37,816 is to give Nigerian entrepreneurs loans 36 00:01:37,816 --> 00:01:41,922 and then force them to join their group if they fail to repay fast enough. 37 00:01:42,781 --> 00:01:43,880 Seventh is Russia. 38 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:46,923 55% of the slaves there work in construction. 39 00:01:47,119 --> 00:01:50,274 Foreigners are lured mainly from nearby Azerbaijan, 40 00:01:50,274 --> 00:01:53,151 the "stans," Ukraine, and North Korea-- 41 00:01:53,151 --> 00:01:56,267 thanks to this border on the far eastern edge of Russia. 42 00:01:56,980 --> 00:02:01,050 The North Korean government is the world's largest single slaveholder. 43 00:02:01,050 --> 00:02:03,843 Not only does it force more than 1 million of its people 44 00:02:03,843 --> 00:02:08,010 to toil in labor camps and other similarly hopeless situations, 45 00:02:08,010 --> 00:02:12,175 but it actually loans out some people to work in neighboring China and Russia, 46 00:02:12,350 --> 00:02:14,639 then pockets most of their wages. 47 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:18,242 This exploitation generates about $2.3 billion each year 48 00:02:18,242 --> 00:02:19,846 for the Kim Jong-Un regime. 49 00:02:20,611 --> 00:02:23,397 The fifth most enslaved country, Uzbekistan, 50 00:02:23,397 --> 00:02:26,179 is the world's sixth largest producer of cotton. 51 00:02:26,179 --> 00:02:28,046 It has benefited from forced labor, 52 00:02:28,046 --> 00:02:30,730 as the government puts more than 1 million people to work 53 00:02:30,730 --> 00:02:35,359 using threats of debt bondage, heavy fines, asset confiscation, 54 00:02:35,359 --> 00:02:37,058 and police intimidation. 55 00:02:37,721 --> 00:02:40,609 Slave recruiters in Bangladesh promise poor families 56 00:02:40,609 --> 00:02:42,709 that their boys will be given a job, 57 00:02:42,709 --> 00:02:45,749 only to be enslaved on a faraway island and beaten 58 00:02:45,749 --> 00:02:48,505 to clean fish for up to 24 hours straight. 59 00:02:48,790 --> 00:02:53,384 Often, these fish are exported as cat food for our pets here in the West. 60 00:02:53,384 --> 00:02:57,697 Sometimes, the boys meet a gruesome death when they are eaten by tigers 61 00:02:57,697 --> 00:02:59,530 while searching for firewood. 62 00:03:00,370 --> 00:03:01,699 Third is Pakistan, 63 00:03:01,699 --> 00:03:05,757 which has suffered through decades of conflict, terrorism, and displacement, 64 00:03:05,757 --> 00:03:08,912 especially along its northwestern border with Afghanistan. 65 00:03:08,912 --> 00:03:12,232 Its provinces have not raised the minimum age of marriage, 66 00:03:12,232 --> 00:03:16,641 which has allowed the widespread problem of forced and child weddings to continue. 67 00:03:17,313 --> 00:03:21,359 Over 250 million Chinese have migrated within the country 68 00:03:21,359 --> 00:03:23,062 to find better opportunities, 69 00:03:23,244 --> 00:03:25,973 creating the ideal conditions for human trafficking. 70 00:03:26,317 --> 00:03:29,170 Each year, 58 million children are "left behind" 71 00:03:29,170 --> 00:03:32,961 as their parents search for work in one of China's many booming cities. 72 00:03:33,494 --> 00:03:37,432 Every year, up to 70,000 children fall into forced begging, 73 00:03:37,432 --> 00:03:40,000 illegal adoption, and sex slavery. 74 00:03:40,990 --> 00:03:45,216 And number one is India, which has by far the most victims of modern slavery. 75 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:47,655 While economic growth has greatly reduced 76 00:03:47,655 --> 00:03:50,020 the percentage of its citizens living in poverty, 77 00:03:50,020 --> 00:03:55,195 the country's sheer size still results in more than 270 million Indians 78 00:03:55,195 --> 00:03:57,326 living on less than $2/day. 79 00:03:57,777 --> 00:04:01,009 It's unsurprising then that intergenerational bonded labor, 80 00:04:01,009 --> 00:04:02,200 forced child labor, 81 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:04,088 commercial sexual exploitation, 82 00:04:04,088 --> 00:04:05,239 forced begging, 83 00:04:05,239 --> 00:04:07,633 forced recruitment into nonstate armed groups, 84 00:04:07,633 --> 00:04:09,176 and forced marriage 85 00:04:09,176 --> 00:04:10,819 all exist in India. 86 00:04:11,047 --> 00:04:13,581 The good news is that the government's already created 87 00:04:13,581 --> 00:04:16,124 many of the laws necessary to fight the epidemic, 88 00:04:16,124 --> 00:04:18,725 but the challenge is effectively enforcing those laws 89 00:04:18,725 --> 00:04:22,423 and tracking improvements and areas of continued need. 90 00:04:22,938 --> 00:04:25,897 On the flip side, these are the countries rated as the ten best 91 00:04:25,897 --> 00:04:27,368 at fighting modern slavery. 92 00:04:27,638 --> 00:04:31,356 As you can see, no country has completely eradicated the problem, 93 00:04:31,356 --> 00:04:34,146 and leaders on this issue-- like the United States-- 94 00:04:34,146 --> 00:04:36,897 can even contribute to it by consuming products 95 00:04:36,897 --> 00:04:40,130 that were, at some point in their supply chain, 96 00:04:40,130 --> 00:04:41,947 touched by slave labor. 97 00:04:42,446 --> 00:04:44,476 While it can be hopeless to be a slave, 98 00:04:44,476 --> 00:04:46,953 the rest of us can help by raising awareness, 99 00:04:46,953 --> 00:04:48,575 helping an anti-slavery group 100 00:04:48,575 --> 00:04:52,094 or pressuring government officials around the world to take action. 101 00:04:52,450 --> 00:04:54,758 Kevin Bales, a professor of contemporary slavery 102 00:04:54,758 --> 00:04:58,096 and the lead author of the study on which this video is based, 103 00:04:58,096 --> 00:04:59,676 described to NPR's Fresh Air 104 00:04:59,676 --> 00:05:03,340 one of the many instances where he's seen slaves being freed. 105 00:05:04,344 --> 00:05:07,297 (Dave Davies) "Can you share an example of where that's worked, 106 00:05:07,297 --> 00:05:09,988 where locals with the support of the organization 107 00:05:09,988 --> 00:05:11,584 have liberated slaves?" 108 00:05:11,584 --> 00:05:13,940 (Dr. Kevin Bales) Sure. I've got lots of those. 109 00:05:13,940 --> 00:05:19,423 But I think the one that I most find really rather thrilling, myself, 110 00:05:19,423 --> 00:05:22,412 is how in Northern India, more than ten years ago, 111 00:05:22,412 --> 00:05:24,997 we began to work with a local organization. 112 00:05:24,997 --> 00:05:27,579 Those young men who had come to freedom 113 00:05:27,579 --> 00:05:30,934 began to operate with our support to go into other villages 114 00:05:30,934 --> 00:05:32,838 where the entire village was enslaved 115 00:05:32,838 --> 00:05:35,143 in hereditary slavery and working in quarries. 116 00:05:35,521 --> 00:05:38,949 Because they were the same ethnicity, they would slip in in the evenings 117 00:05:38,949 --> 00:05:41,367 and meet with people having their supper, 118 00:05:41,367 --> 00:05:44,940 and they would say, "Oh, so who do you work for around here? 119 00:05:44,940 --> 00:05:46,550 You all work for the same person! 120 00:05:46,550 --> 00:05:48,630 Oh, you're all working in the mines! 121 00:05:48,630 --> 00:05:50,375 But where's the school?" 122 00:05:50,375 --> 00:05:51,889 "Oh, there is no school." 123 00:05:51,889 --> 00:05:55,275 And they'd start this Socratic dialogue 124 00:05:55,275 --> 00:05:58,923 that would lead in time to an awakening 125 00:05:58,923 --> 00:06:01,243 of an understanding of an alternative. 126 00:06:01,567 --> 00:06:04,449 It's important to remember when you're in hereditary slavery, 127 00:06:04,449 --> 00:06:06,539 you have no notion of freedom. 128 00:06:06,539 --> 00:06:11,452 But when the image and truth of freedom is awakened in your mind, 129 00:06:12,350 --> 00:06:14,520 people really do become unstoppable. 130 00:06:14,990 --> 00:06:17,963 There would come a time when those young men would say, 131 00:06:17,963 --> 00:06:19,817 "I used to be in the same situation. 132 00:06:19,817 --> 00:06:22,022 I used to live in a village just like this one, 133 00:06:22,022 --> 00:06:24,651 but now we have a school and we even have a clinic, 134 00:06:24,651 --> 00:06:26,520 and we have jobs" and so forth. 135 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:28,708 Then people would say, "How do you get there?" 136 00:06:28,708 --> 00:06:32,186 And then, what we found there is that in those villages, 137 00:06:32,186 --> 00:06:33,565 the women would step forward. 138 00:06:33,565 --> 00:06:36,320 Even though it's a very male-dominated society, 139 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:38,090 the women would step forward and say, 140 00:06:38,090 --> 00:06:41,319 "We will lead this even if it leads to our deaths." 141 00:06:41,734 --> 00:06:45,766 Because, they would say-- not to me, but to my women colleagues-- 142 00:06:45,766 --> 00:06:48,680 "We don't want our daughters to be raped the way we were raped 143 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:51,043 by the slaveholders, by the slavemasters." 144 00:06:51,043 --> 00:06:52,629 And they would push that along. 145 00:06:52,629 --> 00:06:55,391 (Bryce) You can learn more about this study through the link below. 146 00:06:55,391 --> 00:06:56,720 You can help spread this video 147 00:06:56,720 --> 00:06:59,540 by hitting the like button and sharing it with your friends. 148 00:06:59,540 --> 00:07:00,620 Thanks for watching. 149 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:03,975 Until next time, for TDC, I'm Bryce Plank.