According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), affiliated to the United Nations (UN), one out of every 150 people worldwide is stuck in a system of exploitation called ‘modern slavery’.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), affiliated to the United Nations (UN), one out of every 150 people worldwide is stuck in a system of exploitation called ‘modern slavery’.
The UN says the total number of victims of modern slavery is 50 million. That number was 40 million just four years ago.
What is ‘modern slavery’?
Modern slavery is an overarching term that refers to the exploitation of people in various ways. These applications may include:
forced labor – any work that people are forced to do against their will
debt bondage – people being forced to work to pay off their debts
lineage-based slavery – when people are born into slavery and treated as a commodity to be bought and sold
forced marriage – when someone gets married against their will and cannot leave
slavery in domestic services – this is not always covered by slavery, but domestic servants can be open to abuse and exploitation behind closed doors.
The UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO) says that 49.6 million people live in conditions of modern slavery. That’s roughly one in every 150 people in the world.
An associate professor of political science and an abolitionist activist at the University of Richmond in the United States, Dr. “This often means exploiting vulnerable people for economic gain,” Monti Datta says.
“This is backed up by physical or psychological pressure.”
How many people are forced to work in the world?
The ILO says 27.6 million people are in forced labour.
Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable in this regard.
These people move from poor countries to other countries to work in sectors such as construction, agriculture, ready-made clothing and domestic services, then they are stuck in these jobs and cannot return to their homes.
“We think there are four billion people in the world who are not protected by the law,” says Euan Fraser of the NGO International Justice Mission:
“When employers are allowed to exploit people knowing that they will not be held accountable, people fall prey to forced labor and are trafficked.”
Dr. Datta says India is perhaps the worst country in terms of forced labor.
“The biggest problem here is forced and child labor in places like brick kilns,” he says.
It is estimated that 4.9 million women and children are engaged in sex work worldwide.
“The trauma of this kind of slavery is perhaps worse than fighting in a war,” says Dr Datta:
“It comes with stigma, so it’s hard for survivors to talk about it. It can take years for survivors to recover from physical and psychological damage.”
How many people are in a forced marriage?
The ILO also says that 22 million people worldwide are in forced marriages.
Two-thirds of these occur in the Asia-Pacific region.
Dr. In countries like India and Pakistan, forced marriages involving girls under the age of 18 are prominent, Datta says.
However, data from the ILO shows that forced marriages are most common in the Gulf Arab states. 4.8 out of every 1,000 people in the region are forced into marriage.
Who is responsible for modern slavery?
Private sector employers are responsible for 86% of forced labor (including forced sex work) in the world.
The ILO estimates that employers worldwide make $150 billion in profits from forced labor.
It says $51.8 billion of that money comes from 15.1 million people in the Asia-Pacific region who are forced into labor by employers.
46.9 million dollars of this was obtained in developed countries and the European Union.
However, the ILO says that the region with the highest number of “modern slaves” in the world relative to its population is the Gulf Arab countries, and 5.3 out of every thousand people are in forced labor.
Euan Fraser says that the number of people subjected to forced labor due to the pandemic has increased.
“Because of Covid, many people were stranded abroad or lost their jobs. They had to accept tougher conditions to make money and were therefore more vulnerable to human traffickers,” Fraser says.
“He prepared the most favorable environment for the rise of slavery.”