​There are more people enslaved today than at any time in human history, according to experts (although fortunately slaves now represent a smaller proportion of the world’s population). They are forced to work without pay, under threat of violence, and are unable to escape their bondage. Slaves are forced to work in factories and on plantations, on fishing boats and farms, in gravel pits and mineral mines, in restaurants, homes and  in brothels.
 

Slaves are not as visible as they once were, when human beings under an owner’s whip were paraded in shackles or chains, yet estimates tell us that 20 to 27 million people are enslaved now throughout the world, including in the United States.

When resources in newsrooms are dwindling, few reporters can afford to invest the time needed to thoroughly report on the complexities of global human trafficking. The Schuster Institute is dedicating the necessary resources and time to do investigative coverage of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.



Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner authored the book, "A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern-Day Slavery" (Free Press, 2008), and early in 2012 he published his groundbreaking reporting on slavery in the fishing industry in Bloomberg Businessweek. That article has had an impact on fishing policy in New Zealand and corporate policies in the United States where slave-caught fish was sold to American consumers.  Skinner continues to report for the Schuster Institute on modern-day slavery, making him one of the very few investigative journalists whose work is fully dedicated to covering today’s trade of human beings.