(from our correspondent) Over 12.3 million people across the world are forced to "hard labour", 20% by the State or army (2.5 million) and 2.4 million as the victims of the trade of human beings. And of all the victims of sex exploitation, "it has estimated that 40-50% are children". Such statistics from the ILO (International labour Organisation) have been relayed by archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Papal Council for Migrants and Travellers, in the speech he gave today at the workshop organised by Ccee (Council of European Bishops Conferences) and by Secam (Symposium of African and Madagascan Bishops Conferences) in Cape Coast, in the Ghana, until November 18th, about "Slavery and new slavery". Hard labour that includes sex exploitation, household chores, farming, especially in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. "Slave practices are also widespread in the farming plantations of Western Africa, in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Togo highlighted mgr. Marchetto as well as in the sugarcane plantations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. India, Nepal and Pakistan too are known for their history of exploitation". (continued)
