Slavery has been illegal in every country since the last country to do so, Mauritania, criminalised the practice in But while slavery is illegal, it has not disappeared.
Contemporary slavery in the form of indentured labour, debt bondage or domestic servitude still exists in many places — including the richest countries of the world.
In a startling personal piece , US journalist Alex Tizon recalled how when he grew up in the Philippines, an impoverished young woman named Eudoica Pulido, known as Lola, was brought to live with the family as their domestic help. If this sounds like an exceptional case, research on the conditions for migrant domestic workers in the UK reveals that the reality of domestic work should make us all uncomfortable. Domestic work is difficult to regulate. In the Philippines, domestic workers like Pulido are not bought and sold, but they are as effectively indentured as slaves.
They work for their food and lodging and receive a small allowance, but this is never enough for them to leave their employer. Most is sent back to their own family. Migrant domestic workers, in contrast, rarely owe money to their employers directly. They pay brokers, agents, and governments for services, and repay loans to banks, finance companies, loan sharks and relatives instead. Like Eudocia Pulido, to repay these debts they must often forgo a personal life, intimate relationships, raising children and honouring family obligations.
They thought Pulido was living a comfortable life in America. Perhaps she was working to repay the cost of her ticket? Perhaps she had forgotten them? Her relatives in Tarlac never saw the money or boxes of goods and gifts they anticipated.
