It is the bicentenary of the 1807 abolition bill — the law passed by the British Parliament to abolish slavery. The law marked the beginning of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and there have been a number of commemorations to mark the event.

It is a shameful episode in history. The figures are staggering. Between the 15th and 19th century twelve million Africans were shipped from West Africa and forcibly taken to the Americas and the Caribbean. They were shipped like commodities, owned, traded, bartered and sold no differently from cattle or livestock by their European masters. Many did not survive the journey. Those who did make it did not live much longer: Conditions on sugar plantations for instance were so harsh that life expectancy rarely exceeded seven years. And lest we Arabs get too comfortable, let us not forget that the other half of Africa was also pillaged with between 9 and 14 million slaves taken from Eastern Africa to the Middle East.

The legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade lives on. Africa was deprived of its most able-bodied men and women for centuries, drained of its lifeblood, stopping the natural course of economic, cultural and social development. Meanwhile Europe prospered. The Industrial Revolution was underpinned by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, not just by slave labor but by the huge wealth created in the colonies.

The inequalities live on. Europe continues to prosper whilst West Africa remains stuck in poverty. The descendants of slaves now living in Europe may have freedom and equality but they are not born with the same opportunities as their white neighbors. Racial discrimination is much less than it was one hundred years ago or ten years ago, but it remains. The legacy of slavery remains strong and present. So should there be a formal apology? Should there be some form of reparation or financial redress as some are calling for?

The Jamaican Parliament is for instance debating whether it should make a formal claim for reparation from the British government. Guyana’s president has also called for European nations to pay reparations for the slave trade.

Then there is the $777 trillion — yes trillion! — demanded by The African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission.

Tony Blair, the British prime minister, has expressed “sorrow and regret” but has stopped short of issuing a formal apology. As for reparations, they are unlikely to be forthcoming any time soon. The British government is somewhat keener to highlight their role in abolishing slavery than in profiting from it.

Apologies matter. Just consider the furor caused in the last few weeks by Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, when he questioned whether the Japanese military had really kidnapped women into sexual slavery during World War II. This of course is a chapter in recent history, some of these “comfort women” are still alive, whereas an apology now for the trans-Atlantic slave trade seems a case of too little too late.

Apologies are important but in my view the row over reparations is a distraction from the real issue. Slavery is not history. Commemorating the abolition of slavery promotes a falsehood if it is not accompanied by a movement to abolish modern-day slavery.

Slavery today is often called by another name. It is rarely as benign-sounding as “comfort women” but the principles are the same. People are forced to work, be it by being forcibly taken or by being duped; their time is not theirs, it is owned and controlled by their “employers”, who will also place restrictions on their movement and physical freedom, threaten them or physically abuse them; they are deprived of their basic humanity and treated as a commodity that can be bought and sold.

It is estimated that there are 12 million people worldwide who are modern-day slaves. What is even more harrowing is that the majority are children. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are over eight million children in slavery today. Some are bonded laborers sold by their families for as little as the price of a pair of European shoes, some are entire families born into a debt that they can never repay, others are kidnapped and trafficked, condemned to a life of misery and exploitation. Some make cloth, some plow the land, many are forced into the sex trade. All of it is illegal, but a vicious cycle of poverty, vested interests, indifference and apathy means it continues to exist.