Twenty-first Century Slavery: A Psychosocial Exploration of Human Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling, and Enslavement in Africa

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and enslavement as global phenomena, public health concerns, gross violations of human rights, and crimes against humanity and the state. The twenty-first century slavery revolves around illegal control, including forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery and slavery-like practices, and human trafficking. Thus, SDG Targets 5.2 and 8.7 stipulated that immediate and effective measures should be taken by all concerns to eradicate forced labor- end modern slavery, human trafficking, sexual and other types of exploitation, as well as to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor among others. The desktop approach was used to identify the varied forms of these menaces and their perpetrators. A wide range of secondary sources of data in peer-reviewed and edited conference proceedings, workshop proceedings, and published articles in local and international journals were consulted to obtain an in-depth appreciation of the problem being investigated. The paper further highlighted the psychosocial effects of human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and enslavement. The article concludes with recommendations for ending all forms of slavery in the global community in line with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.