Nine Everyday Products You Never Knew Were Made By Slaves

Slavery still exists. In fact, there are more people in slavery today than at any other point in history. And it's not a distant problem that doesn't affect us. Most of us are unwittingly loading products into our shopping trolleys that have been produced by people in slavery.
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Who fished the prawns for tonight's curry? Or - for that matter - who harvested the rice? When it comes to our food shop, we're increasingly used to checking that the chicken is free range, but when the prawn label says 'responsibly sourced' it's not the welfare of the prawn that we're talking about. It's whether people have been violently assaulted, starved - and sometimes even murdered - to put those prawns onto my plate.

Slavery still exists. In fact, there are more people in slavery today than at any other point in history. And it's not a distant problem that doesn't affect us. Most of us are unwittingly loading products into our shopping trolleys that have been produced by people in slavery.

Today is Anti-Slavery Day, and International Justice Mission (IJM) - the largest international anti-slavery organisation - is challenging you to look around this kitchen and find nine everyday products that often have slavery in their supply chains. Then join us in taking action to end slavery, for good.

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Did you find them all?

1. Roses

Nothing says 'I love you' more than roses (except maybe chocolate). But of the 40 million slaves today, as many as one in four are children - many of them forced to work on rose farms, picking thorny flowers until their fingers bleed.

2. Prawns

In the UK, we consume around 85,000 tonnes of prawns each year - many of them from Thailand. Forced labour slavery is widespread in Thailand's seafood industry. Traffickers force labourers work up to twenty hours a day, underpaid, and often subject to extreme violence.

IJM is backing the Thai government's work to stamp out slavery in its fishing industry by launching a new programme to rescue people out of slavery and hold the traffickers accountable under local Thai laws.

3. Jewellery

Was the price of your necklace the price of someone's freedom? Slave owners in the global mining industry trap entire families in slavery for generations. Conditions are so dangerous that the use of children in gold and diamond mining officially falls under the worst forms of child labour. Sadly that doesn't stop it from happening.

4. Carpet

Not an item we often associate with slavery but thousands of children work in India's carpet industry. Some have even been sold to traffickers by their own parents. The Indian government is cracking down on slavery across the country with the support of organisations like International Justice Mission - in fact, they' are aiming to end slavery by 2030.

5. Wood

Slavery is a global industry generating an estimated $150bn a year.

Slaves trapped in wood cutting facilities around the world can be forced to produce one tonne of wood a day. Kalpanna and her family spent four painful years enslaved in a tree cutting unit. She remembers their hunger, as the owner left them without food for days. She had to watch her little boy fall sick and pass away due to lack of medical care. There was nothing she could do to save him. Here's how IJM partnered with Indian authorities to rescue Kalpanna.

6. Chocolate

Life for those who farm chocolate is often anything but sweet. Many cocoa farmers and workers live below the poverty line, earning less than $2 a day. Young children have been found working as slaves after being abducted or sold into slavery. Beatings are common and many will never see their families again. That's enough to make us all think twice next time we pick up a chocolatey treat at the checkout.

7. Clothing

What's the true cost of my new pair of shoes? The International Labour Organisation estimates that 152million children - more than twice the population of the UK - are engaged in child labour. In the worst cases, these children are slaves living in desperate conditions. Many child labourers are making textiles, shoes and garments to satisfy the demand for cheap, fast fashion in the west. Corners are cut, making serious injuries and fires commonplace.

Ajay was enslaved in a factory making high heels along with 10 other teenage boys and young men. They lived, slept and worked in one room. When IJM and local police rescued them he said: "I thought of running away, but others who had run away were brought back and beaten with iron rods, tortured with long needles and locked in a room for several days."

8. Coffee

We drink around 70 million cups of coffee in the UK every day. The unpalatable truth is that some of that coffee has been produced by people in forced labour slavery, many are children who are being denied access to education and basic human rights.

9. Rice

Was the rice in your cupboard produced by sleep-deprived, starving families like Gopi's working 15 hour days in paddy fields?

IJM's undercover investigators around the world are on the ground every day helping find slaves like Gopi and partnering with local police to rescue them so that they get their freedom back. And we don't stop there - our teams of lawyers help convict slave owners and put them into prison where they can't enslave anyone else.

What's the solution?

At IJM we've found that slave-owners and traffickers aren't especially courageous when they're faced with the prospect of lengthy prison-sentences. In fact, we've seen levels of slavery drop dramatically when we've helped equip local police and courts to enforce laws.

Slavery is illegal pretty much everywhere and increasingly global governments are starting to tackle it. So here's the good news: it is possible to end slavery in a generation.

But ending slavery needs each of us to be part of the solution. So, if you don't want to worry about whether your shopping is keeping someone in slavery, join us in stamping it out, for good. Take action now: www.ijmuk.org/donate