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Human Trafficking - Slavery of the 21st Century

Slavery has long been abolished... Right?

According to estimates from the United Nations (UN), there are approximately 30 million enslaved people around the world today – which is more than at any other time in human history.

What is the situation in Austria?

✗ Austria also has modern forms of slavery. Some people here in Austria have to work under very degrading conditions.
✗ Men, women and children come to Austria in the hope of finding a better life here.
✗ With images of the "Golden West" in their minds, they commit to contracts, in which they often lose everything: their home, their family, their freedom and dignity.
✗ The profits go to those, who deal with human beings as a "commodity".
Zitat zum Menschenhandel „Jeder von uns weiß, was Sklaverei ist. Wir kennen sie aus Schulbüchern, Fernsehdokumentationen und Kinofilmen. Sklaverei ist furchtbar. Sklaverei ist unmenschlich. Und Sklaverei ist Geschichte. Letzteres ist leider ein Irrtum …“. E. Benjamin Skinner, Menschenhandel: Sklaverei im 21. Jahrhundert (2008) "Everyone knows what slavery is, from school, from television documentaries, or from the movies. The abolition of slavery belongs to the triumphs of history. It is an integral component of the path to human rights, democracy, and a free society. And it belongs to history. That is, however, a huge mistake. [...]" E. Benjamin Skinner, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (2008)

Austria is a transit or destination country of human trafficking. Origin countries of human trafficking include poorer regions, for example in Eastern Europe, Africa or Asia.