3071-The political economy of new slavery

David Ould 73
there is a real need for much better information on the issues discussed
above. Such information will allow governments, local people and NGOs
to seek solutions that will allow those freed from slavery to remain free.
A whole set of practical measures are necessary to enable people who
have been enslaved to enjoy their human rights properly. Most importantly,
this creates an obligation on states to provide some material assistance
to enable former slaves to become self-sufficient economically and
avoid perpetual dependence. The failure of states to do this on many
occasions has meant that slavery has only been half-abolished, 8 that the
victims are left in a limbo of dependence on their former exploiters or
others, and that long-term resentment builds up. While a legal basis
prohibiting slavery is essential, it is only once slaves are free, both in
their own eyes and in the eyes of their former exploiters, and no longer
in a position of dependence, that the process of ending slavery has been
completed. Such issues can be seen today in India and Nepal when
people are freed under their respective bonded labour abolition laws, as
discussed by Krishna Upadhyaya in Chapter 7 of this book. In Europe
today, however, we don’t have the odd case of trafficking. Anti-Slavery
International does not believe the claims made by some activists that
half a million or more women are trafficked into the European Union
each year, but we know that there are tens of thousands of cases – a very
substantial pattern – resulting in women (mainly) being forced to earn
money for others in all sorts of ways, with commercial sex as the most
profitable. Translating the message of experience over two centuries
into the contemporary context of combating trafficking in human
beings, all this means that having good law to identify trafficking as
a criminal offence and prescribe realistic penalties is a necessary first
and last step, but completely insufficient to actually bring about an end
to trafficking by itself. Consequently, if policy-makers limit themselves
to strengthening repressive laws without embarking on a corresponding
set of preventative and protective measures, then they will be liable to
be accused of condoning slavery and forced labour.
Slavery and the slave trade, one of the oldest forms of abuse of human
beings by other humans, is alive and well. It is thriving not only on
the other side of the world, in societies we might consider to be
‘traditional’, but also under our noses here in the European Union.
The lack of avenues for legal migration is forcing potential migrants
into the hands of unscrupulous agencies, including traffickers and we
all have a responsibility for ensuring that such people are protected
from enslavement. Slavery in the twenty-first century is sometimes
portrayed by anti-globalization activists as a by-product of globalization