ST 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
1. The purchase and sale of a person, other transactions in relation to a person, as well as recruitment, transportation, transfer, concealment or receipt committed for the purpose of his exploitation - are punishable by forced labor for a term of up to five years or imprisonment for a term of up to six years.
2. The same acts committed: a) against two or more persons; b) in relation to a minor; c) by a person using his official position; d) with the movement of the victim across the State Border of the Russian Federation or with his illegal detention abroad; e) using forged documents, as well as with the seizure, concealment or destruction of documents identifying the victim; f) with the use of violence or the threat of its use; g) for the purpose of removing organs or tissues from the victim; h) in relation to a person who is known to the perpetrator to be in a helpless state or in financial or other dependence on the perpetrator; i) in relation to a woman who is known to the perpetrator to be pregnant - shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of three to ten years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to fifteen years, or without it and with restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years or without it.
3. Acts provided for in parts one or two of this article: a) resulting in death through negligence, causing serious harm to the health of the victim or other grave consequences; b) committed in a way dangerous to the life and health of many people; c) committed by an organized group - is punishable by imprisonment for a term of eight to fifteen years, with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.
Notes.
1. A person who for the first time committed the acts provided for in part one or paragraph “a” of part two of this article, who voluntarily released the victim and contributed to the disclosure of the crime committed, shall be exempt from criminal liability unless his actions contain another crime.
2. In this article, human exploitation means the use of prostitution by other persons and other forms of sexual exploitation, slave labor (services), and servitude.
Commentary to Art. 127.1 Criminal Code
1. From the objective side, human trafficking is characterized by the commission of any of the dispositions provided for in Part 1 of Art. 127.1 of the Criminal Code of actions: a) purchase and sale of a person; b) other transactions in relation to a person; c) recruitment; d) transportation; e) transfer; f) concealment; g) receiving.
2. Purchase and sale means an illegal transaction for compensation, in which one party (seller) transfers one or more people for a fee to the second party (buyer).
3. Other transactions include donation, exchange, pledge and other transactions that do not fall under the concept of purchase and sale.
4. Recruitment in its essence is a non-violent mental influence on the person being recruited, meaning recruitment, hiring, involvement in some organization.
5. Transportation - moving the victim from one place to another by any type of transport.
6. Transfer involves intermediary actions.
7. Concealment means hiding the victim from relatives, friends, law enforcement agencies and other persons interested in the fate of the victim.
8. It is possible to obtain a person, for example, for subsequent transfer, concealment, transportation.
9. The elements of the crime are formal; the crime is considered completed from the moment any of the listed actions are committed.
10. A mandatory feature of the subjective side when recruiting, transporting, harboring, receiving and transferring a person is the purpose of exploiting the person, disclosed in note 2 to the article.
11. Qualifying signs (Part 2 of Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code) and special qualifying signs (Part 3 of Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code) of human trafficking partially coincide with similar signs of kidnapping.
12. According to paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 127.1 of the Criminal Code are responsible for persons who commit human trafficking using their official position. These include officials, state and municipal employees, as well as persons performing managerial functions in a commercial or other organization.
13. The movement of a victim across the State Border of the Russian Federation means both legal and illegal crossing. In case of illegal crossing of additional qualifications under Art. 322 of the Criminal Code is not required. Illegal detention abroad involves holding a person against his will on the territory of a foreign state (clause “d”, Part 2, Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code).
14. The use of forged documents, their seizure, concealment or destruction of documents identifying the victim (clause “d”, part 2 of article 127.1 of the Criminal Code) does not imply their forgery. If the latter occurs, then the actions of the perpetrator will additionally be qualified under Part 1 of Art. 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
15. The use of violence (clause “e” of Part 2 of Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code) involves violence, both dangerous to the life and health of a person (causing minor and moderate harm to health) and non-dangerous (deprivation of liberty, causing physical pain, tying and so on.). In case of causing serious harm to health, the actions of the perpetrator are qualified only under paragraph “a” of Part 3 of Art. 127.1 CC. The threat of violence presupposes the externally expressed intention of a person to cause death or harm to health of any degree to the victim.
16. The purpose of removing organs or tissues from a victim (clause “g”, part 2 of Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code) means their removal for transplantation, experimentation, ritual rituals, etc.
17. A method that is dangerous to the life and health of many people (clause “b” of Part 3 of Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code) is a method that the perpetrator knows to pose a danger to the life and health of at least two persons (for example, difficult conditions keeping people, transporting, etc.).
18. According to Note 1 to Art. 127.1 of the Criminal Code, the conditions for the release of the perpetrator from criminal liability for human trafficking, provided for in Part 1 or paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Art. 127.1 of the Criminal Code are: a) commission of this act for the first time; b) voluntary release of the victim; c) facilitating the detection of the crime committed; d) the absence of other elements of a crime in the person’s actions.
Second commentary to Art. 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
1. The object of the crime coincides with the object of kidnapping.
2. The act consists of alternative actions: the purchase and sale of a person, other transactions in relation to a person, as well as his recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt for the purpose of exploitation. The crime is considered completed from the moment of commission of at least one of the listed actions. The purchase and sale of a person is the transfer of a person for a fee by one person (the seller) to another person (the buyer). In such a situation, both persons (seller and buyer) are subject to criminal liability for human trafficking.
Other transactions in relation to a person are actions aimed at transferring the right of ownership of a person from one person to another, with the exception of purchase and sale (for example, barter or donation).
Recruitment is an activity aimed at attracting other persons or the victim himself to his exploitation.
Transportation means moving the victim from one place to another.
Giving and receiving are paired categories that take place in non-transactional relationships.
Concealment involves hiding the victim from other persons.
3. The subjective side is characterized by direct intent. For recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring and receipt, the purpose of human exploitation is mandatory. Human exploitation refers to the use of prostitution by other persons and other forms of sexual exploitation, slave labor (services), and servitude.
Purchase and sale and other transactions in relation to a person entail criminal liability, regardless of the presence of the specified purpose.
4. The subject of the crime is a person who has reached the age of 16 years.
5. The content of some qualifying and especially qualifying features corresponds to the content of the same features of kidnapping. Specific qualifying features:
- use of one’s official position (involves the use of one’s official capabilities when committing a crime);
- movement of the victim across the State Border of the Russian Federation or with illegal detention abroad (such movement can be both legal and illegal);
- the use of counterfeit documents, as well as the seizure, concealment or destruction of documents identifying the victim (does not require additional qualification of the act under articles of Chapter 32 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
- the use of violence or the threat of its use (involves the use of any violence, with the exception of group violence and violence that resulted in the death of the victim or the infliction of serious harm to his health, as well as the threat to actually use any kind of violence);
- the purpose of removing organs or tissues from the victim (means that the perpetrator pursued the goal of removing individual organs or tissues of the victim for transplantation, rituals, collecting, etc.);
- the helpless state of the victim (a state in which the victim, due to his physical or mental characteristics, is not able to resist or understand the actual side of the actions being performed against him) or his financial or other dependence on the perpetrator (the victim being dependent on the perpetrator or, for example, in official subordination).
Specific especially qualifying features:
- negligent infliction of death, serious harm to the health of the victim or other grave consequences (implies the presence of two forms of guilt: intent in relation to human trafficking and negligence in relation to the listed consequences);
- a method dangerous to the life and health of many people (means that the perpetrator has chosen a method of human trafficking that creates a real threat of causing death or harm to the health of several persons).
6. The note to the commented article provides a special basis for exemption from criminal liability. A person who commits trafficking in persons for the first time, including in relation to two or more persons, is subject to release from criminal liability if he voluntarily releases the victim, contributes to the disclosure of the crime he has committed, and his actions do not contain any other crime.
Slaves and slave owners. Human trafficking in the modern world
July 30 is World Day against Trafficking in Persons. Unfortunately, in the modern world, the problems of slavery and human trafficking, as well as forced labor, are still relevant. Despite the opposition of international organizations, it is not possible to completely combat human trafficking. Especially in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, where local cultural and historical specifics, on the one hand, and a colossal level of social polarization, on the other hand, create fertile ground for the preservation of such a terrible phenomenon as the slave trade. In fact, slave trading networks in one way or another capture almost all countries of the world, while the latter are divided into countries that are predominantly exporters of slaves, and countries where slaves are imported for their use in some areas of activity. At least 175 thousand people “disappear” every year from Russia and Eastern Europe alone. In total, at least 4 million people in the world become victims of slave traders every year, most of whom are citizens of underdeveloped Asian and African countries. Traders of “human goods” receive enormous profits amounting to many billions of dollars. On the illegal market, “human goods” are the third most profitable after drugs and weapons. In developed countries, the bulk of people who fall into slavery are represented by illegally held captive women and girls who were forced or persuaded into prostitution. However, a certain part of modern slaves also consists of people forced to work for free at agricultural and construction sites, industrial enterprises, as well as in private households as domestic servants. A significant proportion of modern slaves, especially those from African and Asian countries, are forced to work for free within the migrant “ethnic enclaves” that exist in many European cities. On the other hand, the scale of slavery and the slave trade is much more impressive in the countries of Western and Central Africa, in India and Bangladesh, in Yemen, Bolivia and Brazil, on the Caribbean islands, and in Indochina. Modern slavery is so large-scale and diverse that it makes sense to talk about the main types of slavery in the modern world.
Sexual slavery
The most widespread and, perhaps, widely publicized phenomenon of human trafficking is associated with the supply of women and girls, as well as young boys, into the sex industry. Given the special interest that people have always had in the field of sexual relations, sexual slavery has been widely covered in the world press. The police in most countries of the world fight against illegal brothels, periodically release people illegally detained there and bring the organizers of profitable businesses to justice. In European countries, sexual slavery is very widespread and is associated, first of all, with the coercion of women, most often from economically unstable countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, into prostitution. Thus, in Greece alone, 13,000 - 14,000 sex slaves from the CIS countries, Albania and Nigeria work illegally. In Turkey, the number of prostitutes is about 300 thousand women and girls, and in total there are at least 2.5 million “priestesses of paid love” in the world. A very large part of them were turned into prostitutes by force and are forced into this occupation under the threat of physical harm. Women and girls are delivered to brothels in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, other European countries, the USA and Canada, Israel, Arab countries, and Turkey. For most European countries, the main sources of prostitutes are the republics of the former USSR, primarily Ukraine and Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Albania, as well as the countries of West and Central Africa - Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon. A large number of prostitutes arrive in the countries of the Arab world and Turkey, again, from the former CIS republics, but most likely from the Central Asian region - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan. Women and girls are lured to European and Arab countries by offering vacancies as waitresses, dancers, animators, models and promising decent sums of money for performing simple duties. Despite the fact that in our age of information technology, many girls are already aware that abroad many applicants for such vacancies are forced into slavery, a significant part is confident that they will be the ones who will be able to avoid this fate. There are also those who theoretically understand what can await them abroad, but have no idea how cruel their treatment can be in brothels, how inventive the clients are in humiliating human dignity and sadistic abuse. Therefore, the influx of women and girls to Europe and the Middle East continues unabated.
- prostitutes in a Bombay brothel
By the way, a large number of foreign prostitutes also work in the Russian Federation. It is prostitutes from other countries, whose passports are confiscated and who are in the country illegally, who most often are the real “live goods”, since it is still more difficult to force citizens of the country into prostitution. Among the main countries that supply women and girls to Russia are Ukraine, Moldova, and, more recently, also the Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. In addition, prostitutes from foreign countries - primarily from China, Vietnam, Nigeria, Cameroon - are also transported to brothels in Russian cities that operate illegally - that is, they have an exotic appearance from the point of view of most Russian men and are therefore in demand. However, both in Russia and in European countries, the situation of illegal prostitutes is still much better than in third world countries. At least the work of law enforcement agencies is more transparent and effective here, and the level of violence is lower. They are trying to combat the phenomenon of trafficking in women and girls. The situation is much worse in the countries of the Arab East, Africa, and Indochina. In Africa, the largest number of examples of sexual slavery are noted in Congo, Niger, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Unlike European countries, there is practically no chance of liberation from sexual captivity - within a few years, women and girls get sick and die relatively quickly or lose their “saleable appearance” and are thrown out of brothels, joining the ranks of beggars and beggars. The level of violence and criminal murders of women - slaves, whom no one will look for anyway, is very high. In Indochina, Thailand and Cambodia become the center of attraction for trade in “human goods” with sexual overtones. Here, given the influx of tourists from all over the world, the entertainment industry is widely developed, including sex tourism. The bulk of the girls supplied to the Thai sexual entertainment industry are natives of the backward mountainous regions of the north and northeast of the country, as well as migrants from neighboring Laos and Myanmar, where the economic situation is even worse.
The countries of Indochina are one of the world centers of sexual tourism, and not only female but also child prostitution is widespread here. This is precisely why the resorts of Thailand and Cambodia became famous among American and European homosexuals. As for sexual slavery in Thailand, most often it involves girls who are sold into slavery by their own parents. By doing this, they set the goal of somehow easing the family budget and getting a very decent amount by local standards for the sale of a child. Despite the fact that the Thai police are formally fighting the phenomenon of human trafficking, in reality, given the poverty of the deep areas of the country, it is virtually impossible to defeat this phenomenon. On the other hand, difficult financial situations force many women and girls from Southeast Asia and the Caribbean into prostitution voluntarily. In this case, they are not sexual slaves, although elements of forced work as a prostitute may be present even if this type of activity was chosen by the woman voluntarily, of her own free will.
In Afghanistan, a phenomenon called “bacha bazi” is common. This is a shameful practice of turning boy dancers into actual prostitutes serving adult men. Pre-pubescent boys are kidnapped or bought from relatives, after which they are forced to perform as dancers at various celebrations, dressed in women's clothes. Such a boy must use women's cosmetics, wear women's clothes, and please the man - the owner or his guests. According to researchers, the “bacha bazi” phenomenon is common among residents of the southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan, as well as among residents of some northern regions of the country, and among fans of “bacha bazi” there are people of various nationalities of Afghanistan. By the way, no matter how you feel about the Afghan Taliban, they had a very negative attitude towards the custom of “bacha bazi” and when they took control of most of the territory of Afghanistan, they immediately banned the practice of “bacha bazi”. But after the Northern Alliance managed to prevail over the Taliban, in many provinces the practice of “bacha bazi” was revived - and not without the participation of high-ranking officials who themselves actively used the services of boy prostitutes. In fact, the practice of “bacha bazi” is pedophilia, which is recognized and legitimized by tradition. But it is also the preservation of slavery, since all “bacha bazi” are slaves, forcibly kept by their masters and expelled upon reaching puberty. Religious fundamentalists see the practice of bacha bazi as an ungodly practice, which is why it was banned during the reign of the Taliban. A similar phenomenon of using boys for dancing and homosexual entertainment also exists in India, but there boys are also castrated, turning into eunuchs, who constitute a special despised caste of Indian society, formed from former slaves.
Slavery in the household
Another type of slavery still widespread in the modern world is forced unpaid domestic labor. Most often, residents of African and Asian countries become free house slaves. Domestic slavery is most common in the countries of West and East Africa, as well as among representatives of diasporas of people from African countries living in Europe and the United States. As a rule, large households of wealthy Africans and Asians cannot get by with family members alone and require servants. But servants in such farms often, in accordance with local traditions, work for free, although they do not receive such a bad salary and are considered more like junior members of the family. However, of course, there are many examples of cruel treatment of domestic slaves. Let us turn to the situation in the Mauritanian and Malian societies. Among the Arab-Berber nomads who live in Mauritania, a caste division into four classes is maintained. These are warriors - “Khasans”, clergy - “Marabouts”, free community members and slaves with freedmen (“Haratins”). As a rule, victims of raids on sedentary southern neighbors - Negroid tribes - were enslaved. Most slaves are hereditary, descendants of captured southerners or bought from Sahrawi nomads. They have long been integrated into Mauritanian and Malian society, occupying the corresponding levels of the social hierarchy, and many of them are not even burdened by their position, knowing full well that it is better to live as a servant of a status master than to try to lead an independent existence as an urban pauper, marginalized or lumpen. Basically, house slaves perform the functions of household assistants, caring for camels, keeping the house clean, and guarding property. As for slaves, it is possible to perform the functions of concubines, but more often they also perform housework, cooking, and cleaning.
The number of domestic slaves in Mauritania is estimated at approximately 500 thousand people. That is, slaves make up about 20% of the country's population. This is the largest indicator in the world, but the problematic nature of the situation lies in the fact that the cultural and historical specifics of Mauritanian society, as mentioned above, do not prohibit this fact of social relations. Slaves do not seek to leave their masters, but on the other hand, the fact of having slaves encourages their owners to possibly purchase new slaves, including children from poor families who do not at all want to become concubines or household cleaners. In Mauritania, there are human rights organizations that fight slavery, but their activities encounter numerous obstacles from slave owners, as well as the police and intelligence services - after all, among the generals and senior officers of the latter, many also use the labor of free domestic servants. The Mauritanian government denies the existence of slavery in the country and claims that domestic work is traditional in Mauritanian society and the bulk of domestic servants are not going to leave their masters. A roughly similar situation is observed in Niger, Nigeria, Mali, and Chad. Even the law enforcement system of European states cannot serve as a full-fledged obstacle to domestic slavery. After all, migrants from African countries bring the tradition of domestic slavery with them to Europe. Wealthy families of Mauritanian, Malian, and Somali origin order servants from their native countries, who, most often, are not paid and may be subject to cruel treatment by their masters. Repeatedly, the French police freed from domestic captivity immigrants from Mali, Niger, Senegal, Congo, Mauritania, Guinea and other African countries, who, most often, fell into domestic slavery as children - more precisely, they were sold into the service of rich compatriots by their own parents , perhaps wishing good things for the children - to avoid total poverty in their native countries by living in rich families abroad, albeit as unpaid servants.
Domestic slavery is also widespread in the West Indies, primarily in Haiti. Haiti is perhaps the most disadvantaged country in Latin America. Despite the fact that the former French colony became the first (except for the United States) country in the New World to achieve political independence, the standard of living of the population in this country remains extremely low. In fact, it is socio-economic reasons that encourage Haitians to sell their children to wealthier families as domestic servants. According to independent experts, currently at least 200-300 thousand Haitian children are in “domestic slavery”, which on the island is called “restavek” - “service”. How the life and work of a “restavek” will proceed depends, first of all, on the prudence and goodwill of its owners, or on the lack thereof. Thus, a “restavek” may be treated as a younger relative, or may be turned into an object of bullying and sexual harassment. Of course, most child slaves end up being abused.
Child labor in industry and agriculture
One of the most common types of free slave labor in Third World countries is child labor in agricultural work, factories and mines. In total, at least 250 million children are exploited worldwide, with 153 million children exploited in Asia and 80 million in Africa. Of course, not all of them can be called slaves in the full sense of the word, since many children in factories and plantations still receive wages, albeit meager wages. But there are often cases when free child labor is used, and children are bought from their parents specifically as free workers. Thus, child labor is used on cocoa bean and peanut plantations in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Moreover, the bulk of child slaves come to these countries from neighboring poorer and more problematic countries - Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. For many young inhabitants of these countries, working on plantations where food is provided is at least some opportunity to survive, since it is unknown how their life would have turned out in parental families with a traditionally large number of children. It is known that Niger and Mali have one of the highest birth rates in the world, with the majority of children born into peasant families who themselves can barely make ends meet. Droughts in the Sahel zone, destroying agricultural yields, contribute to the impoverishment of the region's peasant population. Therefore, peasant families are forced to place their children on plantations and mines - just to “throw them off” from the family budget. In 2012, Burkina Faso police, with the help of Interpol officers, freed child slaves who worked in a gold mine. Children worked in the mines in dangerous and unsanitary conditions without receiving wages. A similar operation was carried out in Ghana, where police also released child sex workers. Large numbers of children are enslaved in Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, where their labor is primarily used in agriculture. Nestle, one of the largest cocoa and chocolate producers, is accused of using child labor. Most of the plantations and enterprises owned by this company are located in West African countries that actively use child labor. Thus, in Côte d'Ivoire, which produces 40% of the world's cocoa bean crop, at least 109 thousand children work on cocoa plantations. Moreover, working conditions on plantations are very difficult and are currently recognized as the worst in the world among other uses of child labor. It is known that in 2001, about 15 thousand children from Mali became victims of the slave trade and were sold on cocoa plantations in Cote d'Ivoire. More than 30,000 children from Ivory Coast itself also work in plantation agriculture, and another 600,000 children work on small family farms, some of them relatives of the owners as well as hired servants. In Benin, plantations employ at least 76,000 child slaves, including natives of that country and other West African countries, including the Congo. Most Benin child slaves work on cotton plantations. In The Gambia, it is common to force minor children to beg, and most often children are forced to beg... by teachers of religious schools, who see this as an additional source of their income.
Child labor is very widely used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and some other countries in South and Southeast Asia. India has the second largest number of child workers in the world. Over 100 million Indian children are forced to work to earn their own food. Despite the fact that child labor is officially prohibited in India, it is widespread. Children work on construction sites, in mines, in brick factories, on agricultural plantations, in semi-handicraft enterprises and workshops, and in the tobacco business. In the state of Meghalaya in northeastern India, in the Jaintia coal basin, about two thousand children work. Children from 8 to 12 years old and teenagers 12-16 years old make up ¼ of the eight thousand miners, but receive half as much as adult workers. The average daily salary of a child in a mine is no more than five dollars, more often - three dollars. Of course, there is no question of any compliance with safety precautions and sanitary standards. Recently, Indian children have been competing with the arrival of migrant children from neighboring Nepal and Myanmar, who value their labor at even less than three dollars a day. At the same time, the socio-economic situation of many millions of families in India is such that they simply cannot survive without employing their children. After all, a family here can have five or more children, despite the fact that adults may not have a job or receive very little money. Finally, we must not forget that for many children from poor families, working at an enterprise is also an opportunity to get some kind of shelter over their heads, since there are millions of homeless people in the country. In Delhi alone there are hundreds of thousands of homeless people who have no shelter and live on the streets. Child labor is also used by large transnational companies, which, precisely because of the cheapness of labor, move their production to Asian and African countries. Thus, in India alone, at least 12 thousand children work on the plantations of the notorious Monsanto company. These are actually slaves too, despite the fact that their employer is a world-famous company created by representatives of the “civilized world”.
In other countries of South and Southeast Asia, child labor is also actively used in industrial enterprises. In particular, in Nepal, despite a law in force since 2000 prohibiting the employment of children under 14 years of age, children actually make up the majority of the workforce. Moreover, the law implies a ban on child labor only in registered enterprises, while the majority of children work on unregistered agricultural farms, in handicraft workshops, as house helpers, etc. Three-quarters of Nepali youth workers are employed in agriculture, with the majority of female workers employed in agriculture. Child labor is also widely used in brick factories, despite the fact that brick production is very harmful. Children also work in quarries and perform waste sorting work. Naturally, safety standards at such enterprises are also not observed. Most working Nepalese children do not receive secondary or even primary education and are illiterate - the only possible life path for them is unskilled hard work for the rest of their lives.
In Bangladesh, 56% of the country's children live below the international poverty line of $1 a day. This leaves them no choice but to work in heavy production. 30% of Bangladeshi children under 14 years of age are already working. Almost 50% of Bangladeshi children drop out of school before completing primary school and go to work - in brick factories, balloon factories, agricultural farms, etc. But the first place in the list of countries that most actively use child labor rightfully belongs to Myanmar, neighboring India and Bangladesh. Every third child aged 7 to 16 years works here. Moreover, children are employed not only in industrial enterprises, but also in the army - as army loaders, subject to harassment and abuse by soldiers. There were even cases of children being used to “clear mines” from minefields - that is, children were released into the field to find out where there are mines and where there is free passage. Later, under pressure from the world community, the military regime of Myanmar began to significantly reduce the number of child soldiers and military servants in the country’s army, but the use of child slave labor in enterprises and construction sites and in agriculture continues. The bulk of Myanmar children are used to collect rubber, in rice and cane plantations. In addition, thousands of children from Myanmar migrate to neighboring India and Thailand in search of work. Some of them fall into sexual slavery, others become free labor in the mines. But those who are sold to households or tea plantations are even envied, since working conditions there are disproportionately easier than in mines and mines, and they pay even more outside of Myanmar. It is noteworthy that children do not receive wages for their work - their parents receive it for them, who do not work themselves, but act as supervisors for their own children. If children are absent or young, women work. Over 40% of children in Myanmar do not attend school at all, but devote all their time to work, acting as family breadwinners.
Slaves of war
Another type of use of actual slave labor is the use of children in armed conflicts in third world countries. It is known that in a number of African and Asian countries there is a developed practice of purchasing, and more often kidnapping, children and adolescents in poor villages for the purpose of subsequent use as soldiers. In the countries of West and Central Africa, at least ten percent of children and adolescents are forced to serve as soldiers in the formations of local rebel groups, and even in government forces, although the governments of these countries, of course, do their best to hide the fact of the presence of children in their armed units. It is known that the majority of child soldiers are in the Congo, Somalia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
During the Civil War in Liberia, at least ten thousand children and adolescents took part in the fighting, and approximately the same number of child soldiers fought during the armed conflict in Sierra Leone. In Somalia, teenagers under 18 years of age make up almost the bulk of the soldiers and government troops and formations of radical fundamentalist organizations. Many of the African and Asian “child soldiers” cannot adapt after the end of hostilities and end up as alcoholics, drug addicts and criminals. The practice of using children forcibly captured from peasant families as soldiers is widespread in Myanmar, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and the Philippines. In recent years, child soldiers have been actively used by religious fundamentalist groups fighting in West and Northeast Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, as well as international terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, the use of children as soldiers is prohibited by international conventions. In fact, the forced conscription of children into military service is not much different from slavery, only children are exposed to an even greater risk of death or loss of health, and also endanger their psyche.
Slave labor of illegal migrants
In those countries of the world that are relatively developed economically and are attractive to foreign labor migrants, the practice of using free labor of illegal migrants is widely developed. As a rule, illegal labor migrants who enter these countries due to the lack of documents allowing them to work, or even identification, cannot fully defend their rights and are afraid to contact the police, which makes them easy prey for modern slave owners and slave traders. Most illegal migrants work on construction sites, manufacturing enterprises, and agriculture, and their work may not be paid or paid very poorly and with delays. Most often, the slave labor of migrants is used by their own fellow tribesmen, who arrived in the host countries earlier and created their own businesses during this time. In particular, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, in an interview with the Russian BBC Service, said that most of the crimes related to the use of slave labor of people from this republic are also committed by natives of Tajikistan. They act as recruiters, intermediaries and human traffickers and supply free labor from Tajikistan to Russia, thereby deceiving their own compatriots. A large number of migrants who turn to human rights organizations for help have, over the years of free work in a foreign land, not only not earned any money, but also undermined their health, even becoming disabled due to terrible working and living conditions. Some of them were subjected to beatings, torture, and bullying; there were also frequent cases of sexual violence and harassment against migrant women and girls. Moreover, the listed problems are common to most countries of the world in which a significant number of foreign labor migrants live and work.
The Russian Federation uses free labor of illegal migrants from the republics of Central Asia, primarily Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as from Moldova, China, North Korea, and Vietnam.
In addition, there are known facts of the use of slave labor by Russian citizens, both in enterprises and construction companies, and in private farms. Such cases are suppressed by the country's law enforcement agencies, but it can hardly be said that kidnappings and, especially, free labor in the country will be eliminated in the foreseeable future. According to a report on modern slavery presented in 2013, there are approximately 540 thousand people in the Russian Federation whose situation can be described as slavery or debt bondage. However, when calculated per thousand people, these are not such large figures and Russia occupies only 49th place in the list of countries in the world. The leading positions in the number of slaves per thousand people are occupied by: 1) Mauritania, 2) Haiti, 3) Pakistan, 4) India, 5) Nepal, 6) Moldova, 7) Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, 9) Gambia, 10) Gabon.
Illegal migrant labor brings many problems - both to the migrants themselves and to the economy of the country receiving them. After all, migrants themselves turn out to be completely unguaranteed workers who can be deceived, not paid their wages, placed in inappropriate conditions, or not ensured compliance with safety regulations at work. At the same time, the state also loses, since illegal migrants do not pay taxes, are not registered, that is, they are officially “non-existent.” Thanks to the presence of illegal migrants, the crime rate increases sharply - both due to crimes committed by migrants themselves against the indigenous population and each other, and due to crimes committed against migrants. Therefore, the legalization of migrants and the fight against illegal migration is also one of the key guarantees for at least partial elimination of free and forced labor in the modern world.
Can the slave trade be eradicated?
According to human rights organizations, in the modern world tens of millions of people are in virtual slavery. These are women, adult men, teenagers, and very young children. Naturally, international organizations are trying to the best of their ability to combat the fact of the slave trade and slavery, which is terrible for the 21st century. However, this struggle does not actually provide a real remedy to the situation. The reason for the slave trade and slavery in the modern world lies, first of all, in the socio-economic plane. In the same “third world” countries, most child slaves are sold by their own parents due to the impossibility of maintaining them. Overpopulation in Asian and African countries, mass unemployment, high birth rates, illiteracy of a significant part of the population - all these factors together contribute to the persistence of child labor, the slave trade, and slavery. The other side of the problem under consideration is the moral and ethnic decomposition of society, which occurs, first of all, in the case of “Westernization” without relying on one’s own traditions and values. When it is combined with socio-economic reasons, very favorable soil arises for the flourishing of mass prostitution. Thus, many girls in resort countries become prostitutes on their own initiative. At least for them, this is the only opportunity to earn the standard of living that they are trying to lead in Thai, Cambodian or Cuban resort towns. Of course, they could stay in their native village and lead the lifestyle of their mothers and grandmothers, engaged in agriculture, but the spread of mass culture and consumer values reaches even the remote provincial regions of Indochina, not to mention the resort islands of Central America.
Until the socio-economic, cultural, and political causes of slavery and the slave trade are eliminated, it will be premature to talk about eradicating these phenomena on a global scale. If in European countries and in the Russian Federation the situation can still be corrected by increasing the efficiency of law enforcement agencies and limiting the scale of illegal labor migration from and to the country, then in the Third World countries, of course, the situation will remain unchanged. Perhaps it will only get worse, given the discrepancy between the rates of demographic and economic growth in most African and Asian countries, as well as the high level of political instability, associated, among other things, with rampant crime and terrorism.
