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Rabat – A new report by the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO) has concluded that global numbers of modern slavery are on the rise, with estimations suggesting that the number of people in modern slavery on any given day stands at 50 million.
Modern slavery includes people forced to work against their will, as well as those stuck in marriages that they were forced into. Over 27 million people are in situations of forced labor, says the ILO’s report, adding that nearly 12 million of these are women and over 3 million are children.
Released as part of the ILO’s annual “Global Estimates of Modern Slavery,” the report indicated that the number of people in such circumstances has risen significantly since 2017.
The phenomenon cuts across all ethnic, religious, and economic lines, the ILO emphasized, specifying that over half of all forced labor and a quarter of forced marriages can be found in countries classified as upper-middle income or high-income.
Around 23% of all forced labor was part of forced commercial sexual exploitation in the past year, with 80% of victims being women or girls, the report added. Out of the 3 million children involved in forced labor, more than half of them were victims of sexual exploitation.
An estimated 22 million people were in a forced marriage in 2021, an increase of 6.6 million since 2016, the ILO also said, stressing that the true number is probably far greater than the current estimates.
“These are based on a narrow definition and do not include all child marriages,” the report said. “Child marriages are considered to be forced because a child cannot legally give consent to marry.”
This spike has been driven partly by the COVID-19 crisis and other international circumstances such as climate change affecting the employment market and driving up poverty rates worldwide, noted the report.
Some of the ILO’s findings are echoed in a recent UNDP study, which also concluded that the COVID-induced disruptions and other ongoing crises have led to an unprecedented increase in feelings of anxiety and mental distress worldwide.
The ILO concluded its report by calling on all countries to cooperate to put in place stricter labor regulations, extend social protections, and enforce laws more effectively.
