12 million humans trapped in slavery and activist reveals most are children

Published on Tuesday 17 October 2006 00:36

AT LEAST 12 million people, most of them children, are trapped in slavery, a human rights activist said yesterday.

Children are ensnared in pornography and prostitution and exploited as cheap labour and child soldiers.

"They are more vulnerable, cheaper to hire and less likely to demand higher wages or better working conditions," Sarah Williams, of Anti-Slavery International, said of the 8.4 million children who are slaves.

Ms Williams painted a grim picture of slavery worldwide. Thousands of people have been abducted and enslaved in Sudan since the outbreak of civil war in 1983, she said.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Burma have been forced to work as farm labourers, army porters or construction workers for little or no pay.

Women are trafficked from Albania and Moldova and forced into prostitution in France, Italy and Britain. Men are trafficked in Mexico to work on US farms.

The child sold as a camel jockey, the woman forced into prostitution, the migrant worker whose passport is confiscated by his gangmaster boss - all in effect are slaves, she said.

She was speaking at a London seminar reviewing how Britain plans to mark the bicentenary next year of the abolition of its slave trade.

In the run-up to the bicentenary, the British government has said it is contemplating whether to issue a "statement of regret", but no decision has yet been made on the emotive issue.