Nearly 50 million people globally are living in “modern slavery” on any given day, the United Nations revealed in a report Monday, marking a significant increase from the same assessment five years ago.
The International Labor Organization, a UN agency, estimated that nearly 28 million people were living in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriages at the end of 2021 — an increase of 10 million from 2016.
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“It is shocking that the situation of modern slavery is not improving,” ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said in a news release. “Nothing can justify the persistence of this fundamental abuse of human rights.”
Modern slavery occurs in nearly every country, the report said. Over half of the forced labor cases and a quarter of forced marriages have been discovered in upper-middle-income or high-income countries, according to the joint study by ILO, the International Organization for Migration, and the international human rights group Walk Free.
Forced marriages saw the sharpest incline, with an increase of 6.6 million cases compared to the same report in 2016. Although 65% of the forced marriages were found in Asia and the South Pacific, the highest number per capita was in Arab countries, where 4.8 in 1,000 people were in forced marriages, according to the report. However, numbers are expected to be even greater when including marriages to children under 16.
Roughly 86% of forced labor cases are found in the private sector, of which 23% are a result of forced commercial sexual exploitation, according to the study. State-imposed forced labor accounts for the other 14%.
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The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and armed conflict have all contributed to the slavery crisis, according to the study.
Ending state-imposed forced labor, extending social protection, and strengthening legal protections, including by raising the legal age of marriage to 18, are listed as recommendations for ending modern slavery.
