Hundreds of years after it was legally abolished, why does slavery persist? From impoverished and often illiterate Thai farmers to women forced into prostitution; from men tricked into servitude in Brazil’s brutal charcoal industry to entire families trapped as bonded labourers in Pakistan’s feudal brick kilns – Al Jazeera investigates the flourishing modern slave trade, asking why millions of people are are enslaved today.
It is a form of slavery that is passed down from one generation to the next, enslaving millions.
It is a nation built on the abolition of slavery, but there are at least 40,000 slaves in the US today.
There are at least 8.4 million child slaves in the world today, many of them held as forced labour.
Poverty-stricken men from the north of Brazil are often lured to remote camps where they are used as slave labour.
There are an estimated 1.4 million sex slaves in the world today and international trafficking is on the rise.
China is the world’s factory, but does a dark secret lurk behind this apparent success story?
Watch our panel of experts discuss modern-day slavery in a televised debate moderated by Rageh Omaar.
India has the world’s largest number of slaves, among them an increasing number of women and girls sold into marriage.
Some journeys start with ‘boyfriends’, others with organised gangs – most end up on the streets of Western cities.
In this eight-part series, Rageh Omaar uncovers the truth about the flourishing modern slave trade.
For the cost of a bridge or a light-railway system, 27 million people could be taken out of slavery once and for all.
‘I do not want to consume their suffering with my morning cup of coffee.’
This new series gives a voice to modern-day slaves, goes in search of the slave masters and asks why slavery persists.
Far from ending with the abolition of slavery, the trade in human beings is thriving more than ever before.
