UN Celebrates End of Slave Trade, But It Hasn't Ended Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - "Global March Against Child Labour" For Immediate Release - Wed, 22 Aug 2001 UN CELEBRATES END OF SLAVE TRADE AS RECORD NUMBER TRAFFICKED 23 August 2001 - The UN celebrates today the abolition of the slave trade as a record high number of people are being trafficked against their will. The United Nations has proclaimed August 23rd as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, but this will bring little joy to the children and adults still being trapped for prostitution, domestic servitude, forced beggary and other abuses. With conservative estimates placing the number of trafficked humans at 700,000 each year, the issue is hardly just a matter of historical reflection. A rapidly growing problem, the present rate of trafficking is already ten times greater than the trans-Atlantic slave trade at its peak. By the US government's own estimates, if current trends continue, more people will be forcibly brought to the United States in the next ten years than in four centuries of the slave trade. Children are the easiest prey for traffickers. This past April the world was shocked when a slave ship carrying at least 43 children docked on the West African coast - but this was only the tip of the iceberg. In all corners of the world, the young flesh of children is a valued commodity for easy exploitation. Over 3,000 Albanian children have been trafficked to Italy and Greece where they are forced to beg or clean car windows. Every year an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Nepali girls, some as young as 9 or 10 years old, are trafficked to the red light districts of Indian cities. In some parts of Benin, one in every six children is sent abroad for a life of domestic servitude. Cleophas Mally, President of WAO-Afrique and the Francophone African Coordinator for the Global March is outraged at the apathy that lets this practice continue. "I call on all governments, international agencies and civil society to join forces and finally put an end to this modern day slave trade." The Global March Against Child Labour, representing over 2000 partner organisations in 140 countries, is appealing to the UN for action. The movement is calling for the formation of an Emergency Taskforce to Stop Child Slavery and Trafficking. Speaking on behalf of the Global March and Child Workers in Nepal, Gauri Pradhan asks, "A lot has been said about this issue but very little has been done, it's high time we act." The challenge is no small order. As always, greed is the engine driving this slave trade, with the annual earnings from trafficking reaching up to between $5 billion and $7 billion. Often the very officials paid to protect women and children are the wealthy beneficiaries of the trade. Organised crime is now also a major player in the field as the profits from human trafficking rival those of drug smuggling and gun running. "Humanity is trying to engrave slavery as history, but instead, we have entered a new century with the globalisation of modern-day slavery," says Kailash Satyarthi, Chairperson of the Global March. "We must end this shame for humankind without delaying a single day." -30- For more information, please contact: Global March International Secretariat L-6 Kalkaji, New Delhi-19, India Tel: (91 11) 622-4899, 647-5481 Fax: (91 11) 623-6818, 621-8210 E-mail: yatra@del2.vsnl.net.in childhood@globalmarch.org globalmarch@yahoo.com Website: www.globalmarch.org ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-08.22.01-13:02:50-3346