New Zealand has an estimated 600 people living in some sort of slavery, according to a report by campaign group Walk Free Foundation. The anti-slavery foundation released its Global Slavery Index which said nearly 36 million people are enslaved worldwide, two-thirds of them in the Asia Pacific region. The report defined slaves as people subject to Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Slavery’
To be silent is to be unfaithful
Friday, May 16th, 2014
All of us have been and the generations to come, will be born into an inheritance of one kind of another. Part of that inheritance is that we are heirs of a world scarred by the internationalising and industrialising of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past and that much historic prosperity has been Read more
Life and death in a country ignored
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014
There’s something quite peculiar and absurd about being a Nigerian. It’s a country of—so to speak—unspecified data and dimensions. Nigeria is not simply plagued by inexactitude; it cultivates numerical and other forms of fuzziness. The other day, Ikhide Ikheloa, one of Nigeria’s most pugnacious gadflies, was waxing indignant on Facebook and Twitter. His grouse? Nigeria has Read more
American Samoa passes anti human trafficking legislation
Friday, April 4th, 2014
American Samoa’s acting Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga has signed into law legislation that criminalises human trafficking and involuntary servitude. In a letter to the Fono (legislative Assembly) leaders Lemanu said, “We found that there have been past incidents of human trafficking in American Samoa.” “Victims of human trafficking are not limited to a certain age, Read more
Vatican focuses on human trafficking, modern slavery, at Pope’s request
Tuesday, November 5th, 2013The Vatican is hosting an international workshop on human trafficking this weekend (November 2-3), at the request of Pope Francis. The aim is to get an accurate picture of “the real state” of this heinous criminal activity against human dignity in order to explore new ways to better combat it. Recent trends reveal that trafficking Read more
Daughters for sale: India’s child slavery scourge
Tuesday, September 24th, 2013
On the day that Durga Mala was rescued, she lay crying on the stone floor, where she was attempting to cool her back. She was 11 years old and her skin was covered with blisters, from her shoulder blades to her buttocks. A few days earlier, her owners had poured hot oil over her because Read more
Pope: Girls in particular harmed by plague of child labour
Friday, June 14th, 2013
The Holy Father, Pope Francis, Wednesday rallied against the slavery of child labour calling it a “disgusting phenomenon that is constantly increasing, particularly in poor countries.” “There are millions of children, mostly young girls, who are victims of this hidden form of exploitation that often leads to sexual abuse, poor treatment and discrimination,” the Holy Read more