Slavery, Making a Comeback But It Never Really Left

I posted a little bit last week about human trafficking and forced labor, and today I came across the story of a US couple of SE Asian origins who have been convicted of keeping two Indonesian slaves.

The story of a rich couple hiring two Indonesian girls as housekeepers, and then keeping them past their visa expiration may be a unique example of modern day slavery in the US. Yet I have a feeling that such forced and unfair labor is not at all uncommon. Back in the day, slaves were forcibly imported. But now with increased global migration and stark differences in nations' stability and wealth, the world's poor need little coaxing to leave their homes. What's different is they are promised a better life and they unfortunately believe those promises will be delivered by putting their lives entirely in someone else's money grubbing hands.

Slavery has existed for thousands of years under thousands of different names and forms in different circumstances. There is no reason to believe that just because we had an abolitionist movement that it doesn't exist anymore at all. It'd be great if it didn't, but enslavement is one of those old human vices that just keep coming back.