Over two million people get conscripted into slavery each year - with women increasingly important as the criminals.

This evening I did a Sydney Radio 2GB interview on the Bill Crews Programme in which we discussed the continuing problem of slavery and the slave trade. Despite what people may have learnt in school, slavery is still a problem today. One aspect of this crime is the trafficking in persons.

The United Nations has just published a report on the international people trafficking situation. The report's figures - 2 million more recruited each year to join a total of around 10 million - are rubbery. People die in slavery and their deaths are not recorded as "slaves". Some governments - such as those of China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Libya - don't co-operate in the collection of statistics. Some governments are reluctant to admit that slavery could ever take place on their soil.

No one ever admits to actually owning "slaves" and so the many more millions of people in all forms of slavery are just as obscure. I would not be surprised if the total figure were not at least 50 million people worldwide. For example, "debt bondage" occurs when a person has to work off a debt that has been incurred by his or her family. The slaves cannot read or write and so cannot calculate when the debt has been worked off (assuming it existed in the first place). They often just keep working until they die of exhaustion. Similarly a lot of popular items - such as sporting equipment - are made by child labour.

Unfortunately even Australia gets a mention in this new UN report on people trafficking ("Global Report on Trafficking in Persons"). Eight people in Australia were convicted with trafficking-related offences in five years. At least it shows that the Australian law and order system is addressing the problem.

Internationally, most of the victims (79 per cent) are trafficked for sexual purposes. Most victims are female and some males are also victims.

Women are often also among the criminal element who recruit and sell the victims. They are trusted by the potential victims and so they are effective recruiters.

But there are some signs of progress in the overall international campaign against slavery and the slave trade.

First, there is an increasing public recognition that there is in fact a problem. Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been active on this matter for years. I have been a member of the London-based Anti-Slavery Society (now called Anti-Slavery International) since the 1960s. It was founded in 1839 and the NGO used to have a lonely role but now other NGOs have also taken up the issue. (I am also involved in the Melbourne-based Anti-Slavery Society).

Opposition to slavery and the slave is in fact one of the oldest - if not the oldest - formal human rights cause in the world. But governments have short memories. Therefore it is necessary for NGOs to keep on keeping on. Politicians come and go - but NGOs remain.

At the end of this article there are some NGO websites that people can access to learn more. For example, the Melbourne-based Anti Slavery Society had a fund-raising campaign to buy young girls out of a form of sexual slavery by evil witch doctors in West Africa and then re-educate the victims for a new life. They have also sold greeting cards (with pictures drawn by freed slave children) as a fund-raising effort.

Second, governments have been obliged by public pressure to get involved. It is interesting that the countries that are often the most unco-operative on the matter of people trafficking are also the ones that don't have any independent human rights NGOs operating inside their borders.

Even President Bush's United States - which was so hostile to all UN international treaties - ratified the year 2000 Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

Brazil for example rescued 4,634 slaves in 2008 from remote ranches and plantations. The freed slaves were paid US$2.4 million in compensation.

In the UK it has been reported that organized gangs (often run by Vietnamese) are trafficking children to suburban UK homes to work on cannabis farms. During 2005-7, two-thirds of the 1,500 cannabis farms raided by police were run buy Vietnamese gangs. A discovery of the anti-drug campaign has been that many of the "gardeners" were young children forced to sleep in attics and cupboards.

Even Australia has had to be on its own learning curve on people trafficking. The category 457 visa for temporary workers is now to be subject to even tougher regulation. This has been used to bring women into this country to work in the hospitality industry but then they are forced to work in a brothel. They cannot speak English and are anyway terrified of telling any of their customers that they are being held against their will. Besides, which customer is going to go a police station and report what he had just seen in a brothel?

Third, consumers are getting more responsible in their purchasing power. For example, consumers are increasingly concerned where certain items are being made and whether they are being made by child labour. For example, the international Rug Mark campaign ensures that carpets sold in Western and other stores are not made by child labour.

When a person votes for a politician on this or any other matter they can only make a decision once (say) every three or four years. But with responsible consumerism, a person gets to vote every time they spend a dollar - or decides not to do so.

On the issue of slavery and the slave trade, consumers often want to buy goods with a clear conscience.

LINKS Anti-Slavery Society, Anti Slavery Organization, ACRATH

Fr Claude Mostowik msc operates a free social justice daily newsletter service: mscjust@smartchat.net.au