Today is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. 2 December marks the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.

The focus of this day is on eradicating contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

Today, 21 million women, men and children are trapped in slavery all over the world. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has teamed up with prominent artists, athletes and advocates in its new campaign to End Slavery Now.

In 2007 the UN marked the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on 25 March. In 2008 the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade became an annual observance.

DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions) Research Institute (DISK-AR) executive Serkan Öngel spoke about the slavery of workers in Turkey.

Öngel remarked that some 20 million people across the world are being subjected to slavery work, and that 1,6 million among them are living in the region which involves Turkey as well.

According to Öngel, it is mainly women and children, and workers in the construction, manufacturing and service sectors in Turkey that are facing the most challenging working conditions. Öngel said this was because of wrong practices such as the widespread subcontracting system, the opening of private employment offices and removal of the severance payment.

“We are heading towards a process in which the freedom of buying the labor of workers becomes an object of trade. These working conditions could be described as a kind of slavery”, Öngel underlined and noted that it could well be said that slavery came into our lives in different ways today as people are being forced to work under severer conditions every day.

Öngel also remarked that the slavery in the work life also deprived workers of their right to association, adding that Turkey is among the 20 countries with the highest rate of violations of union rights, and is witnessing a remarkable decrease in unionization since 1986 when one of four workers was member of a union, while today only one of twenty workers is member to a trade union. According to Öngel, the lack of organization also forces workers to bow to severe working conditions.

Also putting emphasis on the slavery work in prisons, DISK-AR executive remarked that many prisoners in Turkish jails were working in slavery conditions under the pretext of 'training', and these included inmates who worked for seven TL a day.