Walk Free: 248,000 “slaves” in Algeria

A total of 45 million people in the world including 248,000 Algerians suffer from “modern slavery.” Algeria is ranked 20th worldwide out of 167 nations in terms of slavery presence, according to Walk Free organization.

Walk Free said that Algeria does not fight modern slavery as governmental actions were not appropriate in this regard. Services offered to slavery victims are limited and legal framework to fight this phenomenon is weak.

Modern slavery consists in human traffic, sexual exploitation and forced marriage.

The organization uses a number of criteria to talk about slavery: political rights, social, economic and medical rights including financial rights and granted money, prevention against tuberculosis, to have access to drinking water and early death.  

The Australian organization also said the number of modern slavery victims increased by 28 percent compared to two years ago.

It added that India counts the largest number of people submitted to slavery (18.35 million) and North Korea has the smallest number (4.37 percent of its population).

Qatar is the first Arab country for the number of slaves. They are estimated at more than 30,000. In Mauritania, there are 43,000 slaves, 85,000 in Tunisia and 219,000 in Morocco.