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8.27.2009

there are more slaves today than any time in human history

With the long list of problems plaguing our world, at least we can say we've eliminated slavery. Right? Think again. The headline pretty much says it all: There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History.

One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history -- an estimated 27 million.

That is insane. Globally, the highest concentrations of the slave trade are in South Asia -- India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan. There possibly more slaves in India than the rest of the world combined, but the problem is often simply dismissed as poverty and "exploitative labor practices."

Read this interview with Benjamin Skinner, an investigative journalist who researched modern-day slavery for four years, posing as a buyer at illegal brothels and interviewing convicted human traffickers. His first book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery, is available in paperback.