27.6 million people engaged in forced labour in 2021: ILO
A study by the International Labour Organization (ILO), released in Geneva on Tuesday, has found that forced labour generates illegal profits worth $36 billion per year.
This is an increase of 37% of such illegal profits since 2014 and the study said this is fuelled by both a growth in the number of people forced into labour, as well as higher profits generated from the exploitation of victims. For the study, surveys have been conducted among workers, including Indians in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The report titled “Profits and poverty: The economics of forced labour” also estimates that traffickers and criminals are generating close to $10,000 per victim, up from $8,269 (adjusted for inflation) a decade ago. “Total annual illegal profits from forced
It perpetuates cycles of poverty and strikes at the heart of human dignity, says report
labour are highest in Europe and Central Asia ($84 billion), followed by Asia and the Pacific ($62 billion), the Americas ($52 billion), Africa ($20 billion), and the Arab States ($18 billion),” the report said.
The report also said forced commercial sexual exploitation accounts for more than twothirds (73%) of the total illegal profits, despite accounting for only 27% of the total number of victims in privately imposed labour. “After forced commercial sexual exploitation, the sector with the highest annual illegal profits from forced labour is industry, at US$35 billion, followed by services (US$20.8 billion), agriculture (US$5.0 billion), and domestic work (US$2.6 billion). These illegal profits are the wages that rightfully belong in the pockets of workers but instead remain in the hands of their exploiters, as a result of their coercive practices,” ILO DirectorGeneral Gilbert F. Houngbo said.
“Forced labour perpetuates cycles of poverty and exploitation and strikes at the heart of human dignity. We now know that the situation has only got worse. The international community must urgently come together to take action to end this injustice,” said the ILO DirectorGeneral.
There were 27.6 million people engaged in forced labour on any given day in 2021, the report said, meaning 3.5 people for every 1,000 people in the world. “Between 2016 and 2021, the number of people in forced labour increased by 2.7 million,” it said.