Slavery

The Developed World Is Missing the Point About Modern Slavery

Earlier this month, the Walk Free Foundation — an Australian NGO — released the first ever “modern slavery index,” which hoped to highlight the countries most affected by modern slavery, and the countries that still need to resolve the problem. The countries that scored worst are, perhaps unsurprisingly, all in the developing world: North Korea, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, India, China and Qatar. The countries that performed best were all in Europe and North America.

Like many studies from Western NGOs, it would appear that Walk Free’s findings shed light on wrongs done elsewhere, but avoid looking closer to home (such as the conditions of aboriginal Australians and the labor exploitation on Australian-owned mines in Africa). Their index may be a useful data set, but charity and trafficking experts have argued that it presents an “unsophisticated” understanding of the problem — and thus risks giving the wrong impression.