Learn the Issue
"When you thaw shrimp to put on your barbecue, it’s likely that the last person who handled that shrimp was a slave."
Kevin Bales
President of Free the Slaves
Who is DisposablePeople.org?
DisposablePeople.org is a resource tool founded to make human trafficking and modern slavery information available to the community including the Spanish speaking parts of the world. To read DisposablePeople.org in Spanish please visit GenteDesechable.com. Everyday we are tainted by slave labor, usually unknowingly, from the coffee we drink in the morning to the phone calls we receive daily in our cell phones. DisposablePeople.org fights against human trafficking at different levels and in industries that use slave labor.
These are our core beliefs:
- We believe in freedom for all individuals regardless of race, religion, gender or age.
- We believe in prevention as a proactive approach to ending slavery worldwide.
- We believe we can end slavery together.
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is the illegal transportation of people without their consent usually for exploitation purposes.
What is modern slavery?
Forced labor. Free the Slaves estimates that there are 27 million slaves around the world today, more than ever before in human history. People are bought and sold like property and forced to work under physical and mental threat usually without pay. Modern slavery can take many shapes including sex slavery, child labor and child prostitution.
Shrimp and the love-hate relationship with the little crustacean...
What used to be a more sophisticated item nowadays seems to be everywhere and in every presentation, fresh, frozen, breaded, tail on, tail off, deveined, big, medium, small, farm raised, wild caught. Nevertheless, most of them share something darker below that pinkish color --the slave or child labor often utilized to catch, clean and process the shrimp. It is this illegal labor that usually goes unnoticed once the popular crustacean enters the global market making it nearly impossible to track down.
Everyday, hundreds of children are being held slaves in the shrimp industry, where beatings are guaranteed and unspeakable sexual abuse is directed toward them robbing them of their childhood their future and their lives. These children often end up dead and disposed after they are no longer able to produce goods for their slaveholder. This is why, even though DisposablePeople.org despises all types of slavery, we believe that one of the most brutal ones is the catching, cleaning and processing of the shrimp. If there is anything worse than being a slave is being a child slave. For an in-depth report, please read The True Cost of Shrimp by Solidarity Center.
10 Facts about human trafficking
- There are 27 million slaves in the world today. (1)
- At least 14,500 slaves are trafficked each year into the US. (2)
- The average cost of a human slave is $90. (3)
- The U.S government estimates that between 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked each year across international borders. (4)
- One sixth to one half of these people are children. (5)
- In 2004 there were 218 million children engaged in child labor. (6)
- Many slave-produced goods might reach your home without you realizing their origin.
- Your actions will affect global slavery, buy Fair Trade.
- It is possible to end slavery in 25 years. (7)
- "Slavery probably crept into your life several times today."(8)
(1) (2) (3) (7) FreeTheSlaves
(4) Unicef.org, A Report on Child Protection
(5) International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(6) Unicef.org, Child Protection Information Sheet
(8) Kevin Bales, The Slave Next Door
According to the US Department of Labor, there are about 122 goods from 58 countries that are believed to be produced by child labor. You can read the reports here:
The Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor
US Department of Labor 2008's Findings of The Worst Forms of Child Labor
You can also read more information here United States Department of Labor