50Mn people worldwide forced to live life of slavery: ILO
According to a report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), in 2021, 50 million people were living in slavery, of which 28 million were forced laborers and 22 million were trapped in forced marriages. The ILO’s report ‘Global Estimates of Modern Slavery’, published on Monday, further stated that the number of people suffering from modern slavery has increased significantly over the past 5 years
According to the report, compared to the 2016 global estimate of 10 million more people living in modern slavery in 2021, women and children are disproportionately more vulnerable.
The ILO report stated that no region of the world is safe from forced labor, more than half in Asia and the Pacific, i.e. 15.1 million people, followed by 4.1 million in Europe and Central Asia, 3.8 million in Africa, 3.6 million people in America and 9 million people in Arab states are forced laborers.
However, if forced labor is considered as a proportion of the population, the ranking of the region changes considerably, with the Arab states having the highest number of forced laborers at 5.3 people per thousand, Europe and Central Asia at 4.4. There are 3.5 people per thousand in the Americas and Asia and the Pacific while 2.9 people per thousand in Africa.
More than half of forced labor is in either middle-income or high-income countries, the report said. On any given day, there are 27.6 million people engaged in forced labour, the total number of women and girls in forced labor is 1.18 million, while more than 3.3 million children are also forced labour.
50Mn people worldwide forced to live life of slavery: ILO
The report noted that in the early months of the global Covid-19 pandemic, there were widespread reports of forced labor linked to the crisis, which led to disruptions in income leading to higher borrowing for workers, leading to debt slavery among some workers. There was an increase in the number of people who did not have access to regular lenders.
50Mn people worldwide forced to live a life of slavery: ILO
The number of men, women and children living in forced marriages increased globally, with an increase of 6.6 million people between 2016 and 2021. An estimated 1.42 million people (two-thirds) of those in forced marriage are in Asia and the Pacific, followed by 3.2 million (14.5 percent) in Africa and 2.3 million (10.4 percent) in Europe and Central Asia
In terms of the population of the regions, the Arab states have the highest rate of forced marriage at 4.8 per thousand people, followed by Asia and the Pacific at 3.3 people per thousand and the United States has the lowest rate of forced marriage at 1.5 per thousand people.
