Recently, and reminiscent of the slave trade of a few hundred years ago, a ship carrying hundreds of people was turned away from Benin, a country on the west coast of Africa.

Officials suspected that the children packed on board were human slaves.

This is one example of the thriving and yet hidden slave trade in woman and children in Africa.At this moment, millions of men, women, and children—roughly twice the population of Rhode Island—are being held against their will as modern-day slaves. Sometimes referred to as bonded laborers (because of the debts owed their masters), public perception of modern slavery is often confused with reports of workers in ‘low wage jobs’ or inhumane working conditions. However, modern-day slaves differ from these workers because they are actually held in physical bondage (they are shackled, held at gunpoint, etc.).Modern-day slaves can be found laboring as servants or concubines in Sudan, as child “carpet slaves” in India, or as cane-cutters in Haiti and southern Pakistan, to name but a few instances. There are currently over 20 million people in bondage!

Where does this slavery take place? Who are the faces behind these atrocities?The slave trade in Africa was officially banned in the early 1880s, but forced labor continues to be practiced in West and Central Africa today. About 200,000 children from this region are sold into slavery each year. Many of these children are sold into the domestic, agricultural, and sex industries of wealthier, neighboring countries.Up to 90,000 blacks are owned by North African Arabs, and often sold as property in a thriving slave trade for as little as $15 per human being.Animist tribes in southern Sudan are frequently invaded by Arab militias from the North, who kill the men and enslave the women and children. The Arabs consider it a traditional right to enslave southerners, and to own chattel slaves (slaves owned as personal property).Physical mutilation is practiced upon these slaves not only to prevent escape, but to enforce the owners’ ideologies. Often their Achilles tendons are cut because they refused to become Muslims. Others are branded as one would do to cattle.

Accounts of human beings as modern slaves extends far and wide. Though most Westerners believe slavery was abolished with the American Emancipation Proclamation more than a century ago, the horrors of human beings held in bondage flourishes today.

We all have a responsibility to bring these horrors to the attention of governments, particularly in Africa, so that there is more effective legislation put in place to punish slave traders. The ’slap-on-the-wrist’ for such offenders is the common reason why this crime against humanity persists.