Condemn slavery in any form, says expert

People should be courageous to declare that there is no more room for slavery now said the expert during the Sharjah book fair

The phenomenon of human trafficking, exploitation of minors and domestic helpers is a modern form of slavery, and though different from the older ways of slavery and individual practices of people, should be condemned openly as a crime against humanity, an expert has said.
Professor Salah Trabelsi of the Université Lumière Lyon 2 in France said during a session on the "Slave Route Project" of the Unesco at the Sharjah International Book Fair that people should be courageous to declare that there is no more room for slavery now.
"We have to clean our countries, empower our students, adopt new culture and new interpretation. We need to condemn this modern phenomenon in strictest sense," he said.
He has travelled around the Middle East, Africa, the US and Europe to urge governments to address the issue comprehensively and draw geographically where this slavery happens.
He said that "Slavery in Arab World" is his specialisation but slavery is not confined to Arab countries and the US and Europe but exists across the globe even at this modern times. "Slavery is always pictured in the US and Europe involving African slaves because of the racial discrimination. Yet, in truth, only 20 per cent of the slaves were Africans. The rest were from other countries, including Malaysia, Korea, China and the Balkans."
Trabelsi said that in the past, slavery was between black and white but it was across continents though Tunisia became the first to ban slavery. "We need to discard slavery through education, culture and dialogues to come to terms in work, identity, mindset, justice and in seeking to emancipate ourselves from this.
"Slavery is not confined to Islam or Arab and Europe. In a conference in the US, I commented on the slavery involving England and the Islamic World. I said religion is not responsible for this practice," he said.
The French professor argued that somehow, there is a misrepresentation of the issue of slavery involving equality to human hatred. "We are now entering into a new era, and we need to educate all, especially the youth, to understand all chapters of society."
Ali Moussa Iye, chief of section of the History and Memory for Dialogue Section of Unesco that sponsored the session, said that Unesco collated all historical facts and called researchers from other countries for their Slave Route Project in 1994.
- afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Sharjah