A global network of forced labour syndicates made a whopping $236 billion between 2014 and 2023, a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said.
The report also found that the $236 billion represents a 36 per cent jump from the $64 billion practitioners of the illicit trade made before 2014.
The report submitted that huge profit is one of the major incentives for the thriving trade.
The ILO report, ‘Profit and poverty: The economics of forced labour’ estimates that traffickers and criminals are generating close to $10,000 per victim, up from $8,269 (adjusted for inflation) a decade ago.
“Total yearly illegal profits from forced labour are highest in Europe and Central Asia ($84 billion), followed by Asia and the Pacific ($62 billion), America ($52 billion), Africa ($20 billion) and the Arab $18 billion),” the report said.
Indeed, when illegal profits are expressed per victim, annual illegal profits are highest in Europe and Central Asia, followed by the Arab States, the Americas, Africa and Asia and the Pacific.
Details of the report showed that forced commercial sexual exploitation accounts for more than two-thirds to 73 per cent of the total illegal profits, despite accounting for only 27 per cent of the total number of victims in privately imposed labour.
It maintained that the numbers are explained by the huge difference in per-victim profits between forced commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of non-state forced labour exploitation – $27,252 profits per victim for the former against $3,687 profits per victim for the latter.
It added: “After forced commercial sexual exploitation, the sector with the highest yearly illegal profits from forced labour is industry, at $35 billion, followed by services ($20.8 billion), agriculture ($5.0 billion), and domestic work ($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, because of their coercive practices.”
It further revealed that there were 27.6 million people engaged in forced labour on any given day in 2021, saying, “This figure translates to 3.5 people for every thousand people in the world. Between 2016 and 2021 the number of people in forced labour increased by 2.7 million.”
In his comments on the findings, the Director General of ILO, Gilbert Houngbo said: “People in forced labour are subject to multiple forms of coercion, the deliberate and systematic withholding of wages being amongst the most common. 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, safeguard workers’ rights, and uphold the principles of fairness and equality for all.”
The report stressed the urgent need for investment in enforcement measures to stem illegal profit flows and hold perpetrators accountable.It recommends strengthening legal frameworks, providing training for enforcement officials, extending labour inspection into high-risk sectors and better coordination between labour and criminal law enforcement.
It insisted that while forced labour cannot be ended through law enforcement measures alone, it noted that enforcement actions must be part of a comprehensive approach that prioritises addressing root causes and safeguarding victims, underlines the report.
