The International Labour Organization (ILO) has revealed in a report titled “Profits and Poverty, The Economics of Forced Labour” that approximately 27.6 million people worldwide are being exploited through forced labor.
The ILO’s report highlights that 3.5 individuals per every 1,000 are working under conditions akin to slavery or servitude in the present era.
The report coincides with the almost 100-year anniversary of the ILO Forced Labour Convention signed in 1930, in which member states committed to “suppress the use of forced labor in all its forms.”
In its report, the ILO mentions that the exploitation of forced labor in the industrial sector generates an annual total profit of $35.4 billion, averaging $4,944 per victim in the industry.
This is followed by profits derived from the service sector at $20.9 billion, averaging $3,407 per exploited worker. Next are profits from agriculture at $5.0 billion, averaging $2,113 per person, and finally profits from domestic work at $2.6 billion, averaging $1,507 per person.
The report continued that other sectors make up smaller shares, but they encompass hundreds of thousands of individuals, including those coerced into begging on the streets and engaging in illicit activities.
According to experts, forced labor is defined as any work or service extracted from an individual under threat of penalty, without the person’s voluntary consent to perform it.
