How Many Slaves Work For You?

Activists from the organisation Gemeinsam für Afrika (Together for Africa) sold off ‘slaves’ during a fictional slave auction in Berlin on Friday, reports Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. Similar demonstrations were held in six other German cities.

Gemeinsam für Afrika estimates that at least 40 million people around the world live in slave-like conditions. 18 percent of them come from Africa. Spokeswoman Susanne Anger explained:

When people are in serious need, for instance, when they come as refugees to us in Europe, it's relatively easy to compel them to do slave labour.

Often, people are lured to work in Europe with the promise of free lodging and food, while in reality, they have to spend their meagre wages on room and board, water and even rental fees for tools.

Slave labour is used in the production of everything from cotton in Uzbekistan to tea in India to shrimps in Southeast Asia. It is concealed behind our tomatoes and cucumbers, our mobile phones and even bio-fuels. Experts estimate that yearly some €128 billion in profits are generated by enslaving people. 

Activists call for customers to pay more attention to what they buy.

When something is unbelievably cheap, it's easy to imagine that it's been produced extremely cheaply and that at the very end of the chain, there's someone who received even less.

Gemeinsam für Afrika and other groups calculate that an average of 60 slave labourers work for the typical Western consumer. If you would like to know what your Slavery Footprint is, you can take this test by Made In A Free World.