Slavery in Pakistan
Why does slavery still exist?
There is a combination of social and legal factors that enable slavery to still exist in Pakistan.
Inherited debt: When someone dies their heirs become responsible for any debt they might have. In the west, when someone dies, the estate is responsible for the debt. If the estate cannot pay then the debt is a loss to the loaner.
Indentured servitude: According to Wikipedia, indentured servitude is not technically slavery, but given a contract constructed with ill intent it is very easy for an indenture to become permanently bound in their contract.
Persecution of Christian: Those born into a Christian family are treated as 2nd class citizens. The continually have trouble finding work and housing. This article by Aljazeera describes their plight. The article does not reference slavery, but all it takes is one unexpected medical cost and a family can fall into indentured servitude.
These factors combine to create a situation where impoverished christians can fall into servitude and remain there for generations under the thumb of exploitive land owners.
Is slavery legal in Pakistan?
Technically, slavery is not legal in Pakistan. But as this article published by Der Spiegel slavery is widespread. Because of the feudal nature of Pakistan society there is a class of people that are effectively above the law.
How many people are in bondage in Pakistan?
According to this article in Pakistan Today there are over 3 million people living in slavery in Pakistan. The most prevalent form is forced labor, but some are exploited for sexual use.
Why not just buy a brick factory?
One would think that we could raise the money to buy a factory and convert all of the slaves to freemen with a paying job. But given the interwoven nature of Pakistani business the people the people that buy the bricks would just buy them elsewhere from a factory owned by a cousin. Then the workers would fall back into servitude somewhere else because they have no other skill after generations of servitude.
What are we doing about it?
We are working closely with Pakistani Christians to free families individually by paying their debt and providing a financial foundation where they can remain financially independent.