Did you know, human traffickers are exploiting twenty-five million people annually, this is almost half the population of our country and these individuals are being used for the profit of their captors.

Human trafficking is one of the most horrendous trafficking that can be committed especially when it involves the vulnerable people in our community, from children, to young girls and adults. To think of that this trafficking ring benefits to a profit of $150 billion a year from our loved ones.

Human trafficking otherwise can be defined as modern slavery involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex work against the will of the person being trafficked.

Today there are approximately 45.8 million people caught in the trap of modern slavery around the world. This includes 10 million children,15.4 million people forced in marriage, and 4.8 million people forced in sexual exploitation.

One might think, that a country such as ours such issues are unheard of but on the contrary, we are no exemption. Our children, daughters, sons and our loved ones all do fall prey to this. Where this greed and hunger for money there is a person that will go the extra mile to ensure some sort of financial security.

We have of cases where people have been enticed to seek jobs abroad only to get there and have their passports and any means of them travelling back be taken away and them being subjected to forced labor, minimum pay and harsh treatment from their so-called employers.

Who is affected? People who are vulnerable to trafficking include those experiencing economic hardship, lack of social safety net, natural disasters, or political instability. Our women and children are disproportionally affected by human trafficking, making up as much as 71 percent of all trafficking victims, including 99 percent of all sexual exploitation.

So, what do we do to curb down all of this, we take up our mantle much to the streets and create awareness to those victims fallen prey to human trafficking, we inform and educate people to better financial possibilities and we show up when they call out for help.

Descent-based slavery describes a situation where people are born into slavery because their ancestors were captured into slavery and their families have ‘belonged’ to the slave-owning families ever since. Slave status is passed down the maternal line.

This form of slavery can still be found across the Sahel belt of Africa, including Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad and Sudan. Many other African societies also have a traditional hierarchy where people are known to be the descendants of slaves or slave-owners.

People born into descent-based slavery face a lifetime of exploitation and are treated as property by their so-called ‘masters’. They work without pay, herding animals, working in the fields or in their masters’ homes. They can be inherited, sold or given away as gifts or wedding presents.

Women and girls typically face sexual abuse and rape, and often have to bear their masters’ children. In turn, their children will also be owned by their masters.

Children can also be taken away from their mothers at an early age. They start work at an early age and never attend school.

Escaping slavery is enormously challenging. It is hard for people to adapt to independent life and find decent work. Many thousands of people who have long left their masters (even generations before) still bear the social status of ‘slave’ and as such face ongoing discrimination.

Obtaining identification documents to access the most basic civil rights such as the right to vote and go to school, or to open a bank account, can be a challenge because of lack of birth certificates for people of slave descent.

Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child and an adult or another child under a certain age, typically age eighteen. The vast majority of child marriages are between a girl and a man, and are rooted in gender inequality.

Although the age of majority (legal adulthood) and marriageable age are usually designated at age 18, both vary across countries and therefore the marriageable age may be older or younger in a given country

Child marriage violates the rights of children and has widespread and long-term consequences for child brides and child grooms

Also known as debt bondage or debt slavery, it is the most common form of modern slavery. Despite this, it’s the least known.

Debt bondage occurs when a person is forced to work to pay off a debt. They are tricked into working for little or no pay, with no control over their debt.

Most or all of the money they earn goes to pay off their loan. The value of their work invariably becomes greater than the original sum of money borrowed.
Child marriage:Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child and an adult or another child under a certain age, typically age eighteen.[1] The vast majority of child marriages are between a girl and a man, [2][3] and are rooted in gender inequality.[2][4]

Although the age of majority (legal adulthood) and marriageable age are usually designated at age 18, both vary across countries and therefore the marriageable age may be older or younger in a given country
Child marriage violates the rights of children and has widespread and long-term consequences for child brides and child grooms
Descent based slavery: Descent-based slavery describes a situation where people are born into slavery because their ancestors were captured into slavery and their families have ‘belonged’ to the slave-owning families ever since. Slave status is passed down the maternal line.

This form of slavery can still be found across the Sahel belt of Africa, including Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad and Sudan. Many other African societies also have a traditional hierarchy where people are known to be the descendants of slaves or slave-owners.

People born into descent-based slavery face a lifetime of exploitation and are treated as property by their so-called ‘masters’. They work without pay, herding animals, working in the fields or in their masters’ homes. They can be inherited, sold or given away as gifts or wedding presents.

Women and girls typically face sexual abuse and rape, and often have to bear their masters’ children. In turn, their children will also be owned by their masters.

Children can also be taken away from their mothers at an early age. They start work at an early age and never attend school.

Escaping slavery is enormously challenging. It is hard for people to adapt to independent life and find decent work. Many thousands of people who have long left their masters (even generations before) still bear the social status of ‘slave’ and as such face ongoing discrimination.

Obtaining identification documents to access the most basic civil rights such as the right to vote and go to school, or to open a bank account, can be a challenge because of lack of birth certificates for people of slave descent.

Forced labour is any work or service which people are forced to do against their will, under threat of punishment. Almost all slavery practices contain some element of forced labour.
It affects millions of men, women and children around the world. It is most often found in industries with a lot of workers and little regulation. These include:

Agriculture and fishing
Domestic work
Construction, mining, quarrying and brick kilns
Manufacturing, processing and packaging
Prostitution and sexual exploitation
Market trading and illegal activities
Forced labour is the most common element of modern slavery. It is the most extreme form of people exploitation.

Although many people associate forced labour and slavery with physical violence, in fact the ways used to force people to work are more insidious and ingrained in some cultures.

Forced labour often affects the most vulnerable and excluded groups, for example commonly discriminated Dalits in India. Women and girls are more at risk than boys and men, and children make up a quarter of people in forced labour.

Migrant workers are targeted because they often don’t speak the language, have few friends, have limited rights and depend on their employers.

Forced labour happens in the context of poverty, lack of sustainable jobs and education, as well as a weak rule of law, corruption and an economy dependent on cheap labour

What is child slavery?
Childhood should be a time to grow, learn, play and flourish in safety. But, an estimated 10 million children around the world don’t have that chance. Instead, they wake up each day trapped in modern slavery.

Some have been forced into back-breaking work in mines, brick kilns, sweatshops and private homes. Others are forced into sexual exploitation, begging or selling drugs. And it happens closer than we would like to think– children in the Kenya are often just as vulnerable to trafficking or exploitation.

Children, especially children from disadvantaged backgrounds, are particularly vulnerable to slavery as they can be more easily manipulated or tricked than adults. They are easily controlled and unlikely to demand higher wages or better working conditions.

Some are far away from their families, while others have no one to look out for them, or no wider support network to recognise the signs that they are being exploited.

Common forms of slavery of children
Children used by others for profit in prostitution, pornography, or other forms of sexual exploitation
Children forced into begging, petty crime or the drug trade.
Forced labour, for example in agriculture, factories, construction, brick kilns, mines, bars, tourist industry or in private homes.
Children forced to take part in armed conflicts. This includes not only child soldiers, but also porters or girls taken as ‘wives’ for soldiers and militia members.
Children forced to marry. When a child doesn’t consent to a marriage, (or doesn’t fully understand consent), is exploited within their marriage, or is not able to leave, that child is in slavery.