The modern day slaves include women forced into prostitution, imprisoned domestic staff, and field and factory workers. They have been trapped in conditions of slavery.
Professor Bernard Silverman, who compiled the statistical analysis behind the figures and, in his opinion, this modern day slavery is very seldom revealed and, hence, it poses a major challenge to assess its scale.
As per the National Crime Agency, a large proportion of the victims documented in 2013 were from overseas, although the UK was the third most common country of origin apart from Romania, Poland, Albania and Nigeria.
In order to combat this evil, plans are being worked out for coordinated action across Government departments, agencies and law enforcement in the UK and internationally. The strategy would be on lines similar for countering terrorism and fight organized crime. The objective would be to identify those responsible for such activities and try and prevent additional cases apart from raising awareness for the victims.
In this connection it may be mentioned that modern day slavery in the form of bonded labor is rampant in India. As per this report of BBC indicates, people who are forced into bonded labor have no chance to escape and, if caught, they suffer physical injuries like cutting off the hands.
While reporting on the subject, CNN has revealed that the Walk Free Foundation has found that globally, almost 36 million people are subject to modern slavery. India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Russia account for nearly 22 million people (61%) who are suffering in bondage with the worst offender being India which accounted for an estimated 14.29 million people.
The report defines human slavery as "human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, or commercial sexual exploitation."
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