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UNITED NATIONS – Yeonmi Park presents herself as a former slave of North Korea. She had never seen a map of the world. She almost died of hunger. After undergoing anesthesia surgery without anesthesia at the age of 13, she saw human bodies piled up outside the hospital, eyes starved by rats.
Convinced that she would die in North Korea, she says The mother fled to China, where human traffickers sold her for $ 200. Two years later, after escaping across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, Ms. Park found refuge in South Korea. She has no idea what happened to her North Korean parents, Park said.
"The scariest thing for me tonight, crossing the desert," she said, "has been forgotten.Noone knows that I have existed in this world."
Ms . Park, 24, a student at Columbia University in New York, Thursday recalled her ordeal at a press conference held at the United Nations to publish a new poll on modern slavery. and sexual exploitation
.
The investigation, known as the Global Slavery Index, was launched five years ago by a human rights group called the Walk Free Foundation. Based on thousands of interviews and other research, the index measures the extent of modern slavery and the measures taken to combat it, country by country.
The 2018 edition of the index estimates that more than 40 million people worldwide are trapped in modern slavery – including what Walk Free was calling a surprisingly high number in the countries developed as the United States, France, Germany and others.
"Since these are also the countries that react most to modern slavery, means that these initiatives are in vain," said the survey. "It stresses, however, that even in countries with seemingly sound laws and systems, there are critical gaps in the protection of groups such as irregular migrants, homeless people, underground workers and some minorities. "
In the United States, more than 400,000 people, or one in every 800 people, live in modern slavery, according to the report. The United States is also the largest importer of what the report calls "at-risk" products, or those manufactured at least in part by workers doing forced labor.
These products, estimated at at least $ 354 billion, include phones, computers, clothing and food such as fish and cocoa, according to the report. The United States imports more than 40% of the total
"Modern slavery is a First World problem," said Andrew Forrest, an Australian businessman and co-founder of the Walk Foundation Free. "If you are a CEO or an investor and you are not ready to consider human rights, you do not deserve to be CEO or investor."
prevalence of modern slavery. Of its 25 million inhabitants, about one in ten is classified as a modern slave. The North Korean state requires many children and adults to work in agriculture, construction and construction of roads without pay in the "communal work", according to the report [19659002] Eritrea, the isolated African nation neighboring Ethiopia, has the second highest prevalence of modern slavery, according to the survey. Other countries with high rates include Burundi, the Central African Republic and Afghanistan.
Park, who was crying as she recounted her own escape, called the survey "not important" in advertising the problem.
"These people are simply born in the wrong place and that is why they are punished – their place of birth," she said.
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