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hue

(4,949 posts)
Tue May 20, 2014, 08:36 AM May 2014

UN says forced labor, trafficking, 'modern slavery' generate profits of $150 billion a year

Source: U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nation's labor agency says trafficking, forced labor and modern slavery is big business, generating profits of $150 billion a year.

The International Labor Organization says two thirds of the profits come from sexual exploitation and one third is the result of "forced economic exploitation" that includes domestic and agricultural workers.

ILO Director Guy Ryder said his agency's report Tuesday calls attention to the need "to eradicate this fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice as soon as possible."

The report is based on estimates that 21 million people worldwide are victims of the practice.

It says 55 percent of the victims are women and girls, primarily in commercial sexual exploitation and domestic work, while men and boys were primarily in forced economic exploitation in agriculture, construction and mining.

Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/05/20/un-says-forced-labor-150-billion-a-year-business

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jwirr

(39,215 posts)
1. Sadly I am willing to bet that there are a number of American companies on that list. Maybe some of
Tue May 20, 2014, 09:47 AM
May 2014

the same American companies that we find were using the Nazi slave labor camps. Business has not changed - it is still the bottom line.

theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
7. If there's a list I'd surely like to see it
Tue May 20, 2014, 01:29 PM
May 2014

We need to turn the light on these cockroaches.

I notice in the article it said, "The report said the world's most developed countries, including the entire European Union, accounted for nearly a third of the illegal profits".

Let's have some names. I want to know just who we're doing business with.

wolfie001

(2,252 posts)
2. Tamping down the Labor Movement is definitely a form of forced-work slavery.
Tue May 20, 2014, 10:09 AM
May 2014

Interfering with the discussion of Union representation by corporate/political propaganda/shills is insidious and keeps workers and their children in poverty. "I'm my own Union".......Oh, really?.......Corporate Idiot.......

 

closeupready

(29,503 posts)
3. This is something few Americans and Westerners want to talk about.
Tue May 20, 2014, 10:32 AM
May 2014

I guess because most of us know that many commercial concerns make money, in some aspect, on the debasement of other people. Respecting human rights can be expensive. Providing safe workplace conditions costs money.

K&R

theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
9. The hypocrisy abounds
Tue May 20, 2014, 01:33 PM
May 2014

We can't follow that trail of breadcrumbs because it would lead right back to our own house. Still, if the UN report contains a list of the worst offenders I'd like to see it. These exploiters and abusers can get away with it now because no one's flipped the light switch on this bunch of cockroaches. It's damn time we did.

 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
4. $100 billion in sexual exploitation.
Tue May 20, 2014, 10:58 AM
May 2014

Which is why I want to barf when people deem measures to reduce demand for this exploitation as being 'sex negative.'

 

closeupready

(29,503 posts)
5. But how will they ejaculate/orgasm without sex slavery???
Tue May 20, 2014, 11:04 AM
May 2014

Puritanical prude!!

Translation: +100 to your point.

tclambert

(11,087 posts)
11. $150 billion profit? So Lincoln was WRONG! We coulda been making a fortune.
Tue May 20, 2014, 04:04 PM
May 2014

See what happens when you interfere with the free market, Abe? (By "free" market, I meant free for the slave traders and slave owners, not so much for the slaves.)

Any minute now, the Cato Institute (originally the Charles Koch Foundation) will publish a "study" telling us how many trillions America could have made off the slave trade if we hadn't abandoned it in a fit of government overreach.

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