What is Modern Slavery?

Modern slavery, or human trafficking, is the practice of exploiting adults and children for use as commodities, or objects, in conditions of sexual and labor servitude (definition from Safe Horizon).

Someone may have experienced human trafficking if they were made to labor or provide other services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion and subjected to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Human trafficking is also known as forced labor.

Today, although slavery has technically been outlawed, historical legacies of slavery continue to exist, circumvent laws, and exploit vulnerable working people for capital and profit in a globalized world. We believe that survivors themselves must be at the forefront of the movement to end the system of modern slavery!

Why do we care about this issue?

Although we serve all migrant workers and trafficking survivors, a majority of the workers/survivors that MEMS has supported come from the Philippines, which has a notorious labor export system that attempts to assuage the impacts of rampant poverty in the country, by exporting thousands of workers daily to work around the world and send remittances back home. This systematically targets vulnerable migrant workers in all industries who fall victim to highly exploitative employment and trafficking schemes while perpetuating the globally dominant neoliberal economic framework, which forces the Philippines to remain underdeveloped.

The Philippines’ labor export system has been lauded by world leaders as a viable development framework. But the migrant workers in our community can attest that without genuine, people-centered development in developing nations, migrant workers will continue to be shepherded into dangerous, exploitative, discriminatory employment, often coerced to work for little or no pay, while employers and corrupt governments turn a profit - a system of globalized modern slavery. Only migrant workers who provide the labor power in this system can change our global economy into a more just and dignified one.

Who do we serve?

MEMS exists to serve the brave survivors who speak up and take action against the economic injustices they experience! Trafficking survivors have come out of the shadows through word of mouth in the community, inspired by other survivors who publicly fight back and organize campaigns against their traffickers. Labor trafficking is unfortunately very common and undetected. When those who have felt the brunt of economic exploitation speak up about what’s happening to them, others who are victimized by trafficking and wage theft are empowered to join the ranks of workers fighting back.

We base ourselves in our home of New York City, because it is a global city and a major transport hub for capital and labor power. Thus, growing the anti-trafficking movement here will mobilize our communities to end human trafficking worldwide.