Slavery Is Illegal, So Why Are Millions Still Held as Slaves?

Hadijatou Mani was 12 years old when she was sold into slavery in Africa. Her mother was already a slave, and her mother's master sold the girl to a friend for $500. Mani spent the next 10 years cleaning her master's home and working his farm fields without pay. If she worked too slowly, he beat her.
Mani's story sounds like something out of the American slave-trade era of the 1700s, but it isn't. Mani is 24 years old, and she only recently won her freedom. This year, she sued the African country of Niger for not protecting her from slavery. Although Niger outlawed slavery in 2003, Mani's master didn't release her until 2005. On October 27, a West African court ordered Niger to pay Mani $19,000. A lawyer for Niger said his country would abide by the ruling.
"Nobody deserves to be enslaved," Mani says. "We are all equal and deserve to be treated the same."
Mani's case has drawn attention to a disturbing fact: Worldwide, more than 12 million people are trapped in slavery. They are "victims of abominable practices," says United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General Ban Kimoon. Many are children, some as young as 4 years old. "Countless children are forced to become soldiers, work in sweat shops, or are sold by desperate families," Ban says. "The fact that these atrocities take place in today's world should fill us all with shame."AGAINST THE LAW
Slavery is illegal in almost every country, yet people are still forced to work against their will. In Asia, human rights groups have rescued children who were forced to work in clothing factories and shrimp-processing plants. In Africa and Latin America, people have been forced to pick cacao beans and cut sugarcane without pay.
The U.N.'s International Labour Organization says stopping slavery is difficult. Slavery is often kept hidden. U.S. officials say some governments aren't doing much to stop slavery because forced labor has helped fuel their countries' economic growth.MODERN SLAVERY
Slavery today takes many forms. Mani was born into a culture of slavery. In parts of Africa and Asia, some impoverished parents have sold their children to work as slaves. The parents say their children are better off learning to fish or farm than staying home and starving.
A more common form of slavery in South America and Asia looks legal from the outside because the "employers" are sneaky. They lure workers from poor communities to faraway factories or farms. The workers are promised money, but instead, they end up owing money. Their employers charge them for meals and fine them if they don't work fast enough. The workers' debts increase, keeping them enslaved to an employer they can never pay off.
Irma Martinez found herself trapped in another form of slavery when she left the Philippines as a teenager to work in the United States as a maid. She wanted to make money to put her siblings through school and to help her impoverished parents. When she arrived in Wisconsin, though, the couple who hired her took away her passport and threatened to have her arrested as an illegal immigrant if she tried to leave. Martinez worked 15-hour days for 20 years before her employers were arrested. The couple was found guilty of keeping her in forced labor and sentenced to four years in prison.
Illegal immigrants are vulnerable to slavery because they believe they can't turn to the police for help, says Mark Lagon, director of the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Children who are kidnapped by rebel groups in other countries are often manipulated in the same way: They are forced to commit crimes and then told they can never go home because they will be put in prison.STOPPING SLAVERY
The League of Nations, the world's first international governing body, tried to abolish slavery worldwide in 1926. However, in many places, antislavery laws aren't enforced, Lagon says. The U.S. State Department lists more than a dozen countries that it says aren't doing enough to end slavery.
The continuing problem of slavery has been on the minds of ambassadors at the U.N. as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery approaches on December 2., The U.N. General Assembly announced on October 20 that it would build a memorial to commemorate this year's 200th anniversary of the end of the transatlantic slave trade. Kenyan Ambassador Zachary Muburi-Muita called the memorial "a permanent reminder of man's inhumanity to fellow men and a [promise] that never again should such a horrendous institution be allowed… in our society." CE