Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised. Millions of people worldwide today exist in a state of slavery.
They have been trafficked across borders, forced into fields, sold to brothels, imprisoned as servants in private homes. They work in Bangladeshi factories, on Thai fishing boats, in New York City nail salons. They are cheated, marginalized, terrorized and dehumanized.
An estimated 20.9 million people, 27% of whom are children, live as modern day slaves. Their labor generates more than $44 billion annually in illegal profits.
Despite United Nations and international laws forbidding slavery, no country is immune.
Victim advocates, labor experts and law enforcement officials say the problem is getting worse, given the worldwide economic crisis, ongoing wars, and the dislocating impacts of climate change.
The chains of contemporary slavery are not made of iron and, at times, they are difficult to be spotted.
Modern Day Slavery is a project of the NOOR Foundation intended to emphasize the urgency and visually address the issues at stake concerning slavery in our world today. It is designed to raise awareness of the epidemic of slavery that is still nowadays a big, urgent, and serious problem.
Modern Day Slavery, which is supported by Lexis Nexis International, is composed of ten chapters, with the first three now ready and presented below.