According to global estimates for 2021, almost 50 million people – every day – around the world are in a situation of modern slavery, the International Labor Organization said in its latest report. These people were either forced to work against their will or survive a marriage into which they were forced, the report said, stressing that “modern slavery is the very opposite of social justice and sustainable development”.
The numbers revealed in the report are staggering. While 27.6 million are in forced labor, 22 million are trapped in forced marriage. Alternatively, 11.8 million women and girls are forced to work against their will, and 3.3 million of the 27 million are children. The ILO further emphasizes that no region of the world is exempt from forced labour. More than half of the total – 15.1 million workers – come from Asia and the Pacific. It is followed by Europe and Central Asia (4.1 million), Africa (3.8 million), America (3.6 million) and Arab states (0.9 million).
However, in terms of population share, the number is highest in the Arab states (5.3 per thousand inhabitants), followed by Europe and Central Asia (4.4 per thousand), the report points out. In the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, this number is the same on a global average – 3.5 per thousand. While in Africa this number is 2.9 per thousand.
Also worrying is that 86 percent of these cases are deposited in private economies. “State-mandated forced labor accounts for the remaining 14 percent of people in forced labor,” the UN agency points out. “When population is taken into account, forced labor is highest in low-income countries (6.3 per thousand people), followed by high-income countries (4.4 per thousand). Compared to 2016 global estimates, there was an increase in forced labor of 2.7 million, representing an increase in the prevalence of forced labor from 3.4 to 3.5 per thousand people worldwide, it said.
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