Introduction
Even though the term ‘slavery’ has been mainly associated with the dark page in the history of Western society’s development, modern researchers like Bales point to the failure to recognize that slavery runs rampant. However, the new world’s slave system is transcontinental and post-colonial, with various degrees of institutionalization, as well as socioeconomic, gender, and racial bias. With the growing divide between the wealthiest and the poorest, it is easy for the former to abuse the ‘disposability’ of the latter. The implications of Bales’ research are far-reaching as it challenges the exploitation of vulnerable humans in the global economy.
Current Incidences of Slavery
Bales is vocal about the fact that modern slavery is a booming business, with the number of slaves increasing continuously. According to the U.S. Department of State (2022) report on human trafficking, in 2020, 109,216 victims of human trafficking were identified, while there were 9,876 convictions for related crimes. Gathering accurate statistics on victims and perpetrators has been challenging due to the lack of national reporting structures’ uniformity, which prompts a conclusion that the issue is not taken as seriously as it should have been.
In addition to blatant kidnappings of people, especially women and children, the traffickers often lure individuals from impoverished regions with promises of earnings. When they arrive at their destinations, they become slaves of their recruits, with the ownership reinforced through severe violence and a power imbalance. Bales (2012) writes that the business is extremely lucrative as young girls could be used as sex slaves and bring up to $10,000 a month. If the slaves refuse to obey, they are likely to be violently beaten or even murdered with no further repercussions for traffickers.
Legislative Efforts Against Slavery
The international community has reached the consensus that slavery is illegal. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly notes that no person shall be subjected to slavery while the slave trade shall be banned in all of its manifestations. Nevertheless, when slaves are bought today, they are not necessarily considered in ownership but rather subjected to control, and violence is used for the maintenance of such control. For modern slaveholders, the absence of a legal framework for ownership is beneficial because they can gain complete control over individuals without having any responsibility for ownership.
Conclusion
The implication of Bales’ work is that slavery must only be thought of as a crime, and more robust and decisive actions must be taken on the part of the international community to prevent its occurrence and punish perpetrators. The scholar notes that modern slavery has been hiding behind different masks and “legal smoke screens while victims have been denied their personal freedom” and, at large, abandoned (Bales, 2012, p. 6).
In such a sense, slavery is not taken seriously, while thousands of crimes are being swept under the rug because of the limited regulatory frameworks and the lack of resources available to international bodies to track the instances of human trafficking and abuse. Moreover, bringing the global population to a relatively adequate level of socioeconomic prosperity appears to be an impossible task at this time, which means that there will always be persons vulnerable to different types of exploitation. Slavery must be called out explicitly and considered a violation of human rights no matter whether it is ‘modern’ or a thing of the past as it continues affecting the most vulnerable.
References
Bales, K. (2012). Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy. University of California Press.
U.S. Department of State. (2022). 2022 trafficking in persons report. Web.