|
|
Blog Feeds
Anti-Empire
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
|
870,000 Human Beings are slaves in Niger national |
miscellaneous |
news report
 Thursday May 15, 2003 22:07 by Mali Grace
 Although Niger recently passed new tougher laws against slavery, more than 870,000 people - about seven percent of the country's population - still live in conditions of forced labour. the results of a survey conducted showed that 870,364 people still worked in servitude. The vast majority - 602,000 - were in the southwestern Tillaberry region, where the capital Niamey is situated.Slavery is a long ingrained tradition in this poor landlocked country of 11 million people on the southern edge of the Sahara, which achieved independence from France in 1960. The International Labour Organization defines as "forced labour" any activity which an individual is forced to perform services under threat of punishment without his or her own consent. This international definition excludes national military service, communal service or work imposed to an individual sentenced to communal service. In Africa, Niger, Mauritania and Sudan are considered the main countries were slavery persists. "We inherited these slaves from our parents, but I did not know it was slavery", said one Tuareg chief . "They are victims who don't want to leave us". According to university professor, El Back Adam, Niger's slaves refuse to leave their masters despite the terrible conditions in which they leave, because at least "they have a roof under their head and something to eat."
|
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (1 of 1)
Jump To Comment: 1No one cares. Everyone just likes to tell jewish people how to respond to islamic extremists who want to kill them, but no one cares about real problems like in africa.