According to one study, around 50 million people worldwide live in forced labour. The number has increased by 25% in the last five years. The authors estimate that 28 million people are being forced to work and 22 million are living in forced marriages, where they are exploited primarily as domestic servants.
The Modern Slavery Report 2021 was presented today in Geneva by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Walk-Free Foundation, which works against slavery.
According to the study, nearly a quarter of those affected are sexually exploited for commercial purposes. Most of this group – four out of five – are women. About two-thirds of those forced into marriage are women and girls. The number has increased by 6.6 million in five years, in part due to the economic hardship caused by the CoV pandemic.
Partially mandated by the state
While most forced labor takes place in the private sector, there is also state forced labor. 3.9 million people are affected. For example, the report mentions the Xinjiang region of China.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has just published a report that hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other members of Muslim minorities were held in camps against their will and forced to work. China denies all the allegations.
The report claims that there is also state-imposed forced labor in North Korea and Pakistan. He cites several other countries in which prisoners and strikers are used for forced labor, including Botswana, Moldova and the Philippines.