by Nadia Ramoutar,   MMM Communications Coordinator                          22.07.2026

Recently, I was talking with someone who is a history scholar and the topic of slavery came up. He felt confident that slavery no longer really occurred in the world. But, based on my work with the MMM Sisters for over five years, I knew this was not the case.  When asking the question “does slavery still exist in our world?” the answer is sadly yes, for almost 50 million people.  That number has increased over the past few years, and it appears that cases are increasing instead of declining due to more poverty, famine and political violence in the world.

Perhaps when we think of slavery we only have the chattel slavery model that the British used in transporting slaves to the Americas, but there are many other forms which unfortunately are still going on today.

While travelling to visit the MMM missions in Tanzania, I met many communities members who were attending a community conference on preventing human trafficking.  Many parents, grandparents and community leaders were gathered to discuss what could be done to stop any more children being lured by human traffickers.  It was shocking really to realise the threat many children were under because basically they are poor.  Also, it was disturbing to learn that in many cases a family member is the reason why a child or person is trafficked into slavery. Often the family member might not understand the dangers they have just sold someone into – and sometimes they do but their own tragically poor life clouds their decision making.

Where are most slaves from and where are most of them going?  The Global Slavery Index (GSI) provides national estimates of slaves in 160 countries. I am fortunate to live in one of the ten least likely countries in the world to have slaves – but in Ireland we recently saw two men convicted for trafficking people to our country and restraining them against their will.  It is shocking to know that in almost every country in the world, people are being mistreated and exploited.  A look at the GSI index shows that many wealthy countries are the heaviest users of modern slaves.

It is also disturbing that 70 percent of modern slaves are girls and women, so many are trafficked or help against their will and being used for sexual purposes. There are many MMM Sisters involved in efforts to prevent sex trafficking and also to help and treat victims afterwards.  The truth however, is that not enough is being done.  We need to more in improving and implementing laws.  There is little being done to get ahead of this heinous trend.  We need to find ways to help communities protect their most vulnerable people and keep them out of slavery.

It’s hard to fight an invisible enemy.  The lack of knowledge about modern slavery makes it easier to trade people against their will.  That’s a trend we can all help end by educating ourselves.