These three slaves help to explain the realities of modern slavery

These three slaves help explain the realities of modern slavery (by Economy Team in Issues)

Today is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, so we’re taking a closer look at what slavery looks like in 2016

It’s no secret that wages and working conditions are pretty shitty for a lot of people. Fighting global poverty is one of the biggest challenges facing the world, but another major issue that gets significantly less press time is ending slavery (partly because so many people don't realize it's still a thing).
Legal slavery was abolished in most places in the 1800s and has been formally illegal everywhere since the 1980s. But in 2016, at least 21 million people still live in slavery. For context, that’s a little less than the population of Australia, and is roughly double the number of people enslaved at the height of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1700s and 1800s.
Limited as a lot of people's options are, we tend to assume most people have some level of choice over the big questions like where they live, or what kind of work they do – in other words, they role they play in the economy. For modern slaves, this just isn't the case.

It can be difficult to understand what modern slavery is really like, and particularly how it's different from extreme poverty. We’ll use these stories from survivors of slavery gathered by to help explain what slavery looks like in the 21st century.

Full article available at
http://www.ecnmy.org/engage/three-slaves-modern-slavery/