By: Priscila Néri, Posted: Aug 29 08

Regions: Global

Issues: Bonded labor, Human trafficking, Labor, Slavery & forced labor

Tags: Bound by Promises, Debt Bondage, Decent Work, forced labor, Human Trafficking, migrants

Labor Day was born of the desire to recognize the rights and achievements of workers.  Today, however, an estimated 27 million people across the world are being robbed of their most basic rights as workers and as humans. 

These are children, women, men, and families being held as modern day slaves in everywhere from the United States to Brazil, India to Russia, and China to the Ivory Coast.

Modern slavery includes bonded labor (in which slaves are held because of debts that are usually unpayable and unending), child labor, forced sexual labor, migrant labor, and human trafficking.

"The most important thing to understand about modern slavery is that slaves are cheaper today than at any time in human history," says Kevin Bales, co-founder of Free the Slaves and author of Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy.  According to Bales, an average human slave costs $90 today, compared to $40,000 in 1860. 

This video provides a good overview of slavery today--why the numbers are larger than ever before in human history, who's accountable, where it exists, and what you can do to end it: 

For firsthand accounts of life as a modern slave, watch these testimonies collected by the Free the Slaves.  To understand how at least 25,000 workers in rural Brazil are lured into debt bondage every year, watch Bound by Promises, an award-winning video co-produced by WITNESS, CEJIL (Center for Justice and International Law), and Comissão Pastoral da Terra.

Finally, take action and do your part to end global slavery in 25 years.