Despite the popular Western perception of slavery as a shameful historic abomination, the slave trade is still big business, with an estimated 8.5 million children being exploited as commodities globally. As part of the Abolition of Slavery season, Rageh Omaar takes a remarkable journey across three continents to expose the truth about contemporary slavery and discover why it is still in existence.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade - National Service of Commemoration is tomorrow at 11.30am on BBC1; [web address removed]
BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE: focuses on the abolition of slavery in its March edition. On sale now, priced £3.60 The Inside Story: page 74

THE INSIDE STORY His mother sells him to a fishing master in Ghana, but the fate of Maloway (right) is not the most shocking in This World: Child Slavery with Rageh Omaar (9.00pm BBC2). "This isn't a normal documentary where we film children, then just walk away," says producer Barbara Arvanitidis. "We've had to drop three films because of ethical issues. There was a story in the Americas of two children being abused that we wanted to film and then bring in the police. But we discovered the police and social services were already involved - and doing nothing to help."

DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK
This World: Child Slavery with Rageh Omaar
9.00pm BBC2 I You may wish to pour yourself a stiff drink before watching this, because it's just as grim as you'd expect. Whether it's youngsters sold into domestic service, boys taken as fishing "apprentices" in Ghana, kids mining for Peruvian gold or young girls made to work in Cambodian brothels, the idea of child labour is abhorrent. But it's estimated there are 8.5 million child slaves around the world.
Many are forced to work through poverty, some are tricked into it and others don't understand what they're letting themselves in for. But none should suffer in the way Rageh Omaar's film reveals.
It's a shocking litany of long hours and hard work with little financial reward. Ali, smuggled into Saudi Arabia to beg, is as terrified of his liberators as of his captors; Raoul, rescued from a Delhi sweatshop, isn't greeted with open arms but wails of "Why have you come home to add to my problems?" from his mother. And no viewer could feel comfortable observing Maloway's mother happily selling her 12-year-old son to a fishing master for just £25 (see the Inside Story, above right). While it's futile merely to weep as you watch, it's impossible not to be moved by their plight. JR