Global Estimatesof Modern Slavery

FORCED LABOUR AND FORCED MARRIAGE

In partnership with

Global estimatesof modern slavery:
forced labourand forced marriage

GENEVA, 2017

Copyright © International Labour Organization and Walk Free Foundation, 2017
First published 2017

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Global estimates of modern slavery: Forced labour and forced marriage
International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, 2017
ISBN: 978-92-2-130131-8 (print)
ISBN: 978-92-2-130132-5 (web pdf)
Also available in French: Estimations mondiales de l’esclavage moderne: travail forcé et mariage forcé,ISBN 978-92-2-230932-0 (print); ISBN 978-92-2-230933-7 (web pdf), ILO, Geneva, 2017; and in Spanish:
Estimaciones mundiales sobre la esclavitud moderna: Trabajo forzoso y matrimonio forzoso, ISBN
978-92-2-331038-7 (print); ISBN 978-92-2-331039-4 (web pdf), ILO, Geneva, 2017.

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Funding for ILO’s work on the 2016 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery leading to this reportwas provided
by the United States Department of Labor under Cooperative Agreement numbers GLO/10/55/USA andGLO/11/11/USA. This report does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Departmentof Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by theUnited States Government.

4

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

On any given day in 201640

millionMETRICS
40 million people were victims of modern
slavery. This includes:▪▪ 25 million people in forced labour▪▪ 15 million people in forced marriage

PREVALENCE
There were 5.4 victims of modern slavery forevery thousand people in the world in 2016.
There were 5.9 adult victims of modern slavery
for every 1,000 adults in the world and 4.4 childvictims for every 1,000 children in the world.

5.4

per 1,000

GENDER

71%

Women and girls accounted for 71 per cent ofmodern slavery victims.

50%

25%

DEBT BONDAGECHILDREN

Debt bondage affected half of all victims
of forced labour imposed by private actors.

One in four victims of modern slavery werechildren.

IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS, 89 MILLION PEOPLE EXPERIENCED SOME FORM OF MODERNSLAVERY FOR PERIODS OF TIME RANGING FROM A FEW DAYS TO THE WHOLE FIVE YEARS.

5© Lisa KristineTable of contents
Executive summary

9

Introduction

15

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

21

1.1

Main results

21

1.2

Forced labour

28

1.2.1

Forced labour exploitation

32

1.2.2

Forced sexual exploitation of adults and commercial
sexual exploitation of children

39

1.2.3

State-imposed forced labour41

1.3 Forced marriage
Part 2. Ending modern slavery: road forward to 2030
2.1

Building a policy response: prevention and protection

44
49
50

2.2 Building the evidence base53

2.3 International cooperation and partnership

54

Annex: Note on methodology

57

Endnotes

63

Table of contents7© Lisa KristineExecutive
summary
The 2017 Global Estimates of Modern
Slavery are presented as a contribution
to the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), in particular to Target 8.7, whichcalls for effective measures to end forced
labour, modern slavery, and humantrafficking, as well as child labour in allits forms. It is intended to inform policy
making and implementation of target 8.7
and related SDG Targets. These include
eliminating all forms of violence against
all women and girls in public and private
spheres, including trafficking and sexualand other types of exploitation (SDG
5.2), eliminating all harmful practices,such as child, early, and forced marriage
and female genital mutilations (SDG
5.3), ending abuse, exploitation, andtrafficking of children (SDG 16.2), andfacilitating orderly, safe, and responsible
migration and mobility of people,
includingthrough
implementationofplannedandwell-managed
migration policies (SDG 10.7).
The estimates herein are the resultof a collaborative effort between theInternational
LabourOrganization(ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation,in partnership with the International
Organization for Migration (IOM). They
benefited from inputs provided byother UN agencies, in particular the
Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR). In the context
of this report, modern slavery covers a
set of specific legal concepts including
forced labour, debt bondage, forced
marriage, other slavery and slavery
like practices, and human trafficking.
Although modern slavery is not definedin law, it is used as an umbrella termthat focuses attention on commonalities
across these legal concepts. Essentially,

Executive summary

it refers to situations of exploitation thata person cannot refuse or leave becauseof threats, violence, coercion, deception,
and/or abuse of power.
The Global Estimates of Modern Slavery
focus on two main issues: forced labourand forced marriage. The estimate offorced labour comprises forced labourin the private economy (forms of forced
labour imposed by private individuals,
groups, or companies in all sectors
except the commercial sex industry),
forced sexual exploitation of adults
and commercial sexual exploitationof children, and state-imposed forced
labour.
Due to limitations of the data, as detailed
in this report, these estimates are considered to be conservative.

The global figures
An estimated 40.3 million people werevictims of modern slavery in 2016.
In other words, on any given day in2016, there were likely to be more than
40 million men, women, and children
who were being forced to work against
their will under threat or who were living
in a forced marriage that they had notagreed to.
Of these 40.3 million victims:▪▪ 24.9 million people were in forced
labour. That is, they were being forced
to work under threat or coercion as
domestic workers, on construction
sites, in clandestine factories, on farms

9and fishing boats, in other sectors,
and in the sex industry. They wereforced to work by private individuals
and groups or by state authorities. In
many cases, the products they madeand the services they provided ended
up in seemingly legitimate commercial
channels. Forced labourers produced
some of the food we eat and theclothes we wear, and they have cleaned
the buildings in which many of us live
or work.
▪▪ 15.4 million people were living in aforced marriage to which they had
not consented. That is, they were enduring a situation that involved having
lost their sexual autonomy and often
involved providing labour under theguise of “marriage”.
Women and girls are disproportionately
affected by modern slavery, accounting for 28.7 million, or 71 per cent of theoverall total. More precisely, women andgirls represent 99 per cent of victims offorced labour in the commercial sex industry and 58 per cent in other sectors,
40 per cent of victims of forced labour
imposed by state authorities, and 84 percent of victims of forced marriages.
One in four victims of modern slavery
were children. Some 37 per cent(5.7 million) of those forced to marrywere children. Children represented
18 per cent of those subjected toforced labour exploitation and 7 percent of people forced to work bystate authorities. Children who werein commercial sexual exploitation(where the victim is a child, there is
no requirement of force) represented
21 per cent of total victims in thiscategory of abuse.
In the past five years, 89 million people
experienced some form of modern
slavery for periods of time ranging
from a few days to the whole five years.
The average length of time victims werein forced labour varied from a few days
or weeks in some forms imposed bystate authorities to nearly two years forforced sexual exploitation.

10

The regional
figuresModern slavery occurred in every region of the world. Modern slavery wasmost prevalent in Africa (7.6 per 1,000
people), followed by Asia and the Pacific(6.1 per 1,000) then Europe and Central
Asia (3.9 per 1,000). These results should
be interpreted cautiously due to lack ofavailable data in some regions, notably
the Arab States and the Americas.
For forced labour specifically, theprevalence is highest in Asia and thePacific, where four out of every 1,000
people were victims, followed by Europe
and Central Asia (3.6 per 1,000), Africa(2.8 per 1,000), the Arab States (2.2 per
1,000) and the Americas (1.3 per 1,000).
While noting limits of the data in key
regions, particularly the Arab States,
the data suggests prevalence offorced marriage is highest in Africa(4.8 per 1,000), followed by Asia and thePacific (2.0 per 1,000).

Forced labour
This study examined different forms offorced labour, distinguishing between
forced labour imposed by private actors(such as employers in private businesses)
and that which was imposed by states.
Of the 24.9 million victims of forced
labour, 16 million were in the private
economy, another 4.8 million were inforced sexual exploitation, and 4.1 million
were in forced labour imposed by stateauthorities.
FORCED LABOUR EXPLOITATION
An estimated 16 million people were inforced labour in the private economy in2016. More women than men are affectedby privately imposed forced labour, with
9.2 million (57.6 per cent) female and6.8 million (42.4 per cent) male. Halfof these men and women (51 per cent)were in debt bondage, in which personal

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

debt is used to forcibly obtain labour.
This proportion rises above 70 per centfor adults who were forced to work inagriculture, domestic work, or manufacturing.
Among cases where the type of work
was known, the largest share of adults
who were in forced labour were domestic
workers (24 per cent). This was followedby the construction (18 per cent), manufacturing (15 per cent), and agriculture
and fishing (11 per cent) sectors.
Most victims of forced labour sufferedmultiple forms of coercion from
employers or recruiters as a way of
preventing them from being able toleave the situation. Nearly one-quarterof victims (24 per cent) had their wages
withheld or were prevented from leavingby threats of non-payment of due wages.
This was followed by threats of violence(17 per cent), acts of physical violence(16 per cent), and threats against family(12 per cent). For women, 7 per cent ofvictims reported acts of sexual violence.
FORCED SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF
ADULTS AND COMMERCIAL SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN
An estimated 3.8 million adults werevictims of forced sexual exploitationand 1.0 million children were victimsof commercial sexual exploitation in
2016. The vast majority of victims (99per cent) were women and girls. Morethan seven in ten victims were exploitedin the Asia and the Pacific region. Thiswas followed by Europe and Central
Asia (14 per cent), Africa (8 per cent),
the Americas (4 per cent), and the ArabStates (1 per cent).
STATE-IMPOSED FORCED LABOUR
There were an estimated 4.1 million
people in state-imposed forced labouron average in 2016. They included citizens
recruited by their state authorities toparticipate in agriculture or construction
work for purposes of economic
development, young military conscripts
forced to perform work that was not of
military nature, those forced to perform
communal services that were notdecided upon at the community level

Executive summaryand do not benefit them, or prisoners
forced to work against their will outside]
the exceptions established by the ILO
supervisory bodies.

Forced marriage
In 2016, an estimated 15.4 million people
were living in a forced marriage. Of thistotal, 6.5 million cases had occurred in
the previous five years (2012-2016) andthe remainder had taken place prior tothis period but had continued into it.
While men and boys can also be victims
of forced marriage, most victims(88 per cent) were women and girls, withmore than a third (37 per cent) of victims
under 18 years of age at the time of themarriage. Among child victims, 44 percent were forced to marry before theage of 15 years. While noting limits of thedata in key regions, particularly the ArabStates, the data suggests prevalenceof forced marriage per 1,000 people ishighest in Africa (4.8 per 1,000), followedby Asia and the Pacific (2.0 victims per
1,000).

Data sources andmethodology
As no single source provides suitable
and reliable data for all forms of modern
slavery, a combined methodology has
been adopted, drawing on a variety ofdata sources as required. The central
element is the use of 54 speciallydesigned, national probabilistic surveys
involving interviews with more than
71,000 respondents across 48 countries.
Administrative data from IOM databasesof assisted victims of trafficking wereused, in combination with the 54 datasets,
to estimate forced sexual exploitationand forced labour of children, as
well as the duration of forced labour
exploitation. Forced labour imposedby state authorities was derived from11

validated sources and systematic review
of comments from the ILO supervisory
bodies with regard to ILO Conventions
on forced labour.
The methodology used to build these
Global Estimates combined this data,
which covers a five-year reference period
from 2012 to 2016. All the data on casesof forced labour and forced marriagethat took place between 2012 and 2016,
representing a total of nearly 89 million
people, was analysed and processedto build the main estimates of modern
slavery presented in this report.

Conclusions
and way forward
Ending modern slavery will require a
multi-faceted response that addresses
the array of forces – economic, social,
cultural, and legal – that contribute tovulnerability and enable abuses. Therecan be no one-size-fits-all solution;
responses need to be adapted to thediverse environments in which modern
slavery still occurs. But it is nonethelesspossible to identify some overarchingpolicy priorities in the lead-up to 2030
from the Global Estimates and fromexperience to date.
Stronger social protection floors arenecessary to offset the vulnerabilities
that can push people into modern
slavery. Extending labour rights in theinformal economy – where modern
slavery is most likely to occur – is needed
to protect workers from exploitation.
Given that a large share of modern
slavery can be traced to migration,
improved migration governance is vitally
important to preventing forced labourand protecting victims.
Additionally, the risk and typology ofmodern slavery is strongly influenced
by gender, and this must also be taken
into account in developing policy
responses. Addressing the root causesof debt bondage, a widespread means ofcoercion, is another necessary element

12of forced labour prevention, while
improved victim identification is criticalto extending protection to the vast
majority of modern slavery victims whoare currently unidentified or unattended.
Finally, we know that much of modern
slavery today occurs in contexts of statefragility, conflict, and crisis, pointing to
the need to address the risk of modern
slavery as part of humanitarian actions inthese situations.
Further efforts are needed to improvethe evidence base on modern slavery
in order to inform and guide policy
responses in all of these areas. Key
measurement priorities identified throughthe preparation of the Global Estimates
include the improved measurement ofmodern slavery affecting children andspecifically cases of commercial sexual
exploitation involving children andchild marriage. There is also a need tomore effectively capture specific subpopulations such as adult victims offorced sexual exploitation and victims
in conflict contexts. The ability to trackchanges in modern slavery over time
will be critical for monitoring progressin the lead-up to 2030. But perhaps themost important priority is to strengthen
and extend national research and datacollection efforts on modern slavery to
guide national policy responses.
International cooperation in addressing
modern slavery is essential given its global
and cross-border dimensions. Alliance8.7, a multi-stakeholder partnershipcommitted to achieving Target 8.7 of
the Sustainable Development Goals, has
an important role to play in this regard.
The Global Estimates indicate that the
majority of forced labour today exists inthe private economy. This underscores
the importance of partnering withthe business community – alongside
employers’ and workers’ organisations,and civil society organisations – toeradicate forced labour in supply chains
and in the private economy more broadly.
Cooperation should be strengthened
between and among governments andwith relevant international and regionalorganizations in areas such as labour law
enforcement, criminal law enforcement,
and the management of migration in

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

order to prevent trafficking and toaddress forced labour across borders.

Executive summary13© ILOIntroduction
The new Global Estimates presented
in this report indicate that more than
40 million people were caught up in
the grip of modern slavery in 2016. This
alarming figure is a wake-up call to theglobal community, which, through the
adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has committed tothe target of ending modern slavery andhuman trafficking by the year 2030.
Thirteen years is but a moment in human history, and doing away with coercive systems that in some cases havebeen around for centuries – and that inother cases are emerging from new andillegitimate business models, large-scalemigration, crisis, and conflict – will be amonumental challenge. Meeting the ambitious 2030 target to end modern slavery will require renewed political will,
matched by the commitment of sufficient resources, and a major accelerationof national and international efforts.
To be effective, policies and programmes
must be grounded in the best possible
understanding of the root causes ofmodern slavery at both the nationaland global levels. This requires not only
more and better information on thenumbers of people affected by modern
slavery, but also on its various forms andmanifestations, and the ways in whichpeople are caught up in it. This report is
aimed at informing global efforts towards
the 2030 target by helping to fulfil theseinformation requirements. It is also hopedthat the findings presented in the reportwill encourage further research anddata collection efforts by governments,
focused on the national and local
dimensions of modern slavery.
The global and regional estimatespresented in this report were developedby the International Labour Organization(ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation

Introduction

in partnership with the International
Organization for Migration (IOM).2 They
benefited from inputs provided by otherUN agencies, in particular the Office ofthe High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR). The estimates are basedon a jointly developed methodology
summarised in the annex and describedin detail in the methodology report
produced along with this Global
Estimates report.3 They are derived fromvarious data sources, as no one source
was considered sufficiently suitableor reliable. The principal sources are
the Walk Free Foundation’s survey
data for 2014 and 2015, as well as datafrom an additional 26 national surveys
jointly conducted by ILO and Walk Free
Foundation in 2016 and data drawn fromthe IOM’s database of human trafficking
cases since 2012. The terminology utilisedin the report is described in Panel 1.
The report, and the global estimation
exercise that underpins it, forms partof a broader multi-partner effort tomeasure and monitor progress towards
Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals. This effort is taking place
within the framework of Alliance 8.7, amulti-stakeholder partnership committed to ending forced labour, modern
slavery, human trafficking, and child labour in accordance with SDG Target 8.7.
The report charts how far we must stilltravel to honour our commitment toending modern slavery by 2030. Part 1
presents the most complete possible
profile of modern slavery in today’s
world: the main forms of forced labourand forced marriage, their extent andcharacteristics, the means by which persons are trapped in them, and the duration of the abuse. Part 2 discusses key
policy priorities emerging from the Global Estimates in the drive to rid the worldof modern slavery.

15

Panel 1
Statistical concepts and definitions used in this report
In the context of this report,
modern slavery covers a setof specific legal concepts including forced labour, debt
bondage, forced marriage,
slavery and slavery-like practices, and human trafficking.
Although modern slavery is
not defined in law, it is used as
an umbrella term that focuses
attention on commonalities
across these legal concepts.
Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that aperson cannot refuse or leave
because of threats, violence,
coercion, deception, and/or
abuse of power.

example, a woman forced
intocommercial
sexualexploitation is in a forced
situation because of its
involuntary
natureandthe menace she is facing,
regardless of the dangers
and hazards she faces inthis work or whether it ispermitted by law. In recent
years, the ILO has focused on
the two criteria embeddedin the Convention No. 29,
namely, “involuntariness” and“menace of penalty” withregard to determining forced
labour of adults and forced
labour of children.”5

In order to make this setof complex legal concepts
measurable,
the
GlobalEstimates focus on two key
forms of modern slavery:
forced labour and forced
marriage.

Forced labour of adults is defined, for purposes of measurement, as work for which
a person has not offered him
or herself voluntarily (criterion of “involuntariness”) andwhich is performed undercoercion (criterion of “menace of penalty”) applied byan employer or a third party.
The coercion may take place
during the worker’s recruitment process to force him or
her to accept the job or, oncethe person is working, toforce him or her to do tasks
that were not part of what
was agreed to at the time ofrecruitment or to prevent him
or her from leaving the job.

Forced labour is definedby ILO Forced Labour
Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
as “all work or service thatis exacted from any person
under the menace of any
penalty and for which thesaid person has not offeredhimself voluntarily.”4 While
forcedlabourmaybeparticularly
widespreadincertaineconomic
activities or industries, aforced labour situation isdetermined by the natureof the relationship between
a person and an “employer”
and not by the type ofactivity performed, however
arduous or hazardous theconditions of work may be,
nor by its legality or illegality
under national law. For

16

her parent or parents being
engaged in forced labour.
The coercion may take place
during the child’s recruitment
to force the child or his or her
parents to accept the job or,once the child is working, toforce him or her to do tasks
that were not part of what
was agreed to at the time ofrecruitment or to prevent thechild from leaving the work.

Forced labour of children
is defined, for purposesof measurement, as work
performed by a child undercoercion applied by a third
party (other than his or her
parents) either to the child or
to the child’s parents, or work
performed by a child as adirect consequence of his or

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

Modern slavery

State-imposed forced labour

TYPOLOGY OF
FORCED LABOUR
Forced labour can be foundin its various forms in practically all countries and all economic activities. The typology
depicted above, which wasdeveloped for the global estimates of forced labour, isbased on three main categories of forced labour defined
as follows:▪▪ Forced labour exploitation, imposed by private
agents for labour exploitation,
includingbondedlabour, forced domestic
work, and work imposedin the context of slavery or
vestiges of slavery.
▪▪ Forced sexual exploitation of adults, imposed byprivate agents for commercial sexual exploitation,
and all forms of commercial sexual exploitation ofchildren. This encompasses
the use, procuring, or offering of children for prostitution or pornography.
▪▪ State-imposed
forcedlabour,includingwork
exacted by the public authorities, military, or para-

Introduction

Forced labour

Forced marriage

Forced labour exploitation

Forced sexual exploitationof adults and commercial
sexual exploitation of children

military, compulsory participation in public works, andforced prison labour.
Forced marriage refers tosituations where persons,regardless of their age, havebeen forced to marry without
their consent. A person might
be forced to marry throughphysical, emotional, or financial duress, deception by
family members, the spouse,or others, or the use of force,threats, or severe pressure.
Forced marriage is prohibited
throughtheprohibitions
on slavery and slavery-likepractices, including servile
marriage.6 Child marriage is
generally considered to beforced marriage, given that
one and/or both parties bydefinition has not expressed
full, free, and informed consent. However, there are
exceptions. For example,
in many countries 16 and 17
year-olds who wish to marry
are legally able to do so following a judicial ruling or parental consent.7 It is important to be clear that for the
purposes of these estimates,
the measurement of forced
marriage is limited to what
was captured by the surveys.

That is, forced marriage inthese estimates includes all
marriages of both adults andchildren that were reportedby the survey respondent tohave been forced and without consent, regardless of
the age of the respondent.
Accordingly, the estimates
do not include every instanceof child marriage, as childmarriage is not currently
measured adequately at thescale or specificity required
for a global estimate.8
OTHER RELATEDCONCEPTS
The other main conceptsof modern slavery are slavery, institutions and practices similar to slavery, andtrafficking in persons (often
referred to as human trafficking). These are not included
explicitly in the estimates but
are closely linked to them.
Slavery was first defined in a
Convention adopted by the
League of Nations in 1926
as “the status or conditionsof a person over whom anyor all of the powers attaching to the right of ownershipare exercised”. It thus refers
to control of one person or17persons over others, and isalso considered a serious
criminal offence. The conceptof slavery-like practices was
first addressed in international law in 1956 by means of a
United Nations instrument,
supplementing the earlier
Slavery Convention, covering
a range of institutions andpractices similar to slavery,
including debt bondage, serfdom, and forced marriage.9
While the instrument places
some emphasis on criminal-

isation, it is also acceptedthat the eradication of theseslavery-like practices canbe achieved only over timethrough the necessary legislative and other programmatic measures.
While the concept of trafficking in persons was addressedin a number of earlier instruments, the most recent andwidely accepted definition isthat contained in a Protocol
to the United Nations Convention against Transnational

Organized Crime, adopted in
2000. The definition specifies
that the crime of trafficking
is a process constituted bythree distinct elements – act,means, and purpose (exploitation). Coercion is one of
the means enumerated in the
Protocol, which states thatwhen coercion (or any othermeans) is used to get victims
into an exploitative situation,
actual exploitation need not
happen for a trafficking crimeto have taken place.

Table 1Modern slavery: global results
Number and prevalence of persons in modern slavery, by category, sex and age

Forced labour sub-categories
Forced sexual
Forced labour exploitation of adults
exploitationand commercial sexual
exploitation of children

World

Male
Sex
FemaleAdults
AgeChildren18

Total
forcedState-imposedlabourforced labour

Forced Modern
marriage slavery

4 060 24 850

15 442 40 293

No. (thousands)

15 975

4 816

Prevalence(per thousand)

2.2

0.7

0.5

3.4.

2.1

5.4

No. (thousands)

6 766

29

2 411

9 206

2 442

11 648Prevalence(per thousand)

1.8

0

0.6

2.4

0.6

3.0

No. (thousands)

9 209

4 787

Prevalence(per thousand)

2.5

1.3

No. (thousands)

12 995

3 791

Prevalence(per thousand)

2.5

0.7

0.7

3.9

1.9

5.8

No. (thousands)

2 980

1 024

282

4 286

5 679

9 965

Prevalence(per thousand)

1.3

0.4

0.1

1.9

2.5

4.4

1 650 15 646
0.4

4.2

3 778 20 564

13 000 28 645
3.5

7.7

9 762 30 327

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

Table 2Modern slavery: global results
Number and prevalence of persons in modern slavery, by category, sex and age

World

AfricaAmericas

RegionArab States

Asia andthe Pacific
Europe andCentral Asia

Introduction

Total forced labour

Forced marriage

Modern slavery

No. (thousands)

24 85015 44240 293

Prevalence(per thousand)

3.4

2.1

5.4

No. (thousands)

3 420

5 820

9 240

Prevalence(per thousand)

2.8

4.8

7.6

No. (thousands)

1 280

670

1 950

Prevalence(per thousand)

1.3

0.7

1.9

No. (thousands)

350

170

520

Prevalence(per thousand)

2.2

1.1

3.3

No. (thousands)

16 5508 440

24 990Prevalence(per thousand)

4.0

2.0

6.1

No. (thousands)

3 250

340

3 590

Prevalence(per thousand)

3.6

0.4

3.9

19

© Lisa KristinePart 1.
The scale andmanifestationsof modern slavery
1.1

Main results
AN ESTIMATED 40.3 MILLION PEOPLE
WERE VICTIMS OF MODERN SLAVERY
IN 2016
In other words, on any given day in2016, there were likely to be more than
40 million men, women, and children

who were being forced to work against
their will under threat, or who were living
in a forced marriage that they had notagreed to. In terms of the prevalence ofmodern slavery, there were 5.4 victims
for every thousand people in the worldin 2016. Due to limitations of the methodology and data,10 these estimates are
considered to be conservative.

Figure 1
Modern slavery
Number and percentage distribution of victims of modern slavery, by category
Forced labour
Forced marriage

15,400,000
38%
24,900,000
62%Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

21

OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF VICTIMSOF MODERN SLAVERY, 24.9 MILLIONPEOPLE WERE IN FORCED LABOUR
AND 15.4 MILLION PEOPLE WERE
LIVING IN A FORCED MARRIAGE
It is worth reflecting on what these figures mean:▪▪ 24.9 million people were being forced
to work under threat or coercion as
domestic workers, on construction
sites, in factories, on farms and fishingboats, in other sectors, and in the sex
industry. They were forced to work by
private individuals and groups or bystate authorities. In many cases, theproducts they made and the services they provided ended up in seemingly legitimate commercial channels.
Forced labourers produced some of
the food we eat and the clothes wewear, and they have cleaned the buildings in which we live or work.

This reflects highly gendered patternsof employment and migration and helps
shed light on where prevention and victim
identification efforts should be focused.
But the data also suggests the relevanceof broader patterns of human rights
abuses that disproportionately affectwomen and girls, including domestic andsexual violence and discriminatory beliefs
and practices around access to property,
education, and even citizenship.

▪▪ 15.4 million people were living in aforced marriage to which they had
not consented. That is, they were enduring a situation that involved having
lost their sexual autonomy and often
involved providing labour under theguise of “marriage”.
WOMEN AND GIRLS AREDISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTED
BY MODERN SLAVERY, ACCOUNTING
FOR 71 PER CENT OF TOTAL VICTIMSThe estimates suggest that far more females than males are affected by modern
slavery (71 per cent versus 29 per cent).
This varies across forms. Women andgirls are disproportionately victimised
above all for forced labour in the private
economy (including domestic work andthe sex industry) and forced marriage.
Women and girls represented 99 percent of victims of forced sexual exploitation and 84 per cent of victims of forced
marriages.

22

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

Figure 2
Modern slavery and sex of victim
Percentage distribution of victims of modern slavery, by sex and category

Female

100%

Male
80%

40.6%
57.6%

60%

71.1%
84.2%
99.4%

40%
59.4%
42.4%

20%
28.9%

15.8%

0.6%

0%
Modernslavery

Forced labour
exploitation

Forced sexual
exploitation

State-imposed
forced labour

Forced marriage

Forced labour

The Global Estimates indicate that
men are disproportionately subject tostate-imposed forms of forced labour,reflecting the impact on men of abusive
conscription and imprisonment, and toforced labour in sectors that traditionallyinvolve manual labour (construction,
manufacturing, and agriculture/fishing).
They also confirm that men and boys
can be victims in all aspects of modern
slavery, including forced sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Accordingly, it
is critical that preventative efforts reflect
this risk profile and also that national laws
and responses to victimisation make allowance for male victims.

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

ONE IN FOUR VICTIMS OF MODERNSLAVERY IN 2016 WERE CHILDREN
BELOW THE AGE OF 18 YEARSOne of the most alarming findings of themodern slavery estimates is the extent
to which children are victims. One-quarter of all modern slavery victims –10 million persons in all – were children.
Children were especially likely to fallvictim to forced marriage. Some 37 per
cent, or 5.7 million, of those forced tomarry were children. Children represented 21 per cent of the victims of forced
sexual exploitation, 18 per cent of thosesubjected to forced labour exploitation,and 7 per cent of people forced to workby state authorities.

23

Figure 3
Modern slavery and age of victim
Percentage distribution of victims of modern slavery, by age and category

100%

Children

6.9%
24.7%

18.7%

21.3%

Adults
36.8%

80%

60%
93.1%
40%

75.3%

81.3%

78.7%
63.2%

20%

0%
Modernslavery

Forced labour
exploitation

Forced sexual
exploitation

State-imposed
forced labour

Forced marriage

Forced labour

There is in fact only a small difference
between children and adults in terms
of prevalence of modern slavery. There
were 5.9 adult victims of modern slavery
for every 1,000 adults in the world and4.4 child victims for every 1,000 children in the world. When examining therates of prevalence by form of modern
slavery, adults were more likely than children to be victims of all three forms offorced labour; however, children weremore likely than adults to be victims offorced marriage. For every 1,000 children, there were 2.5 victims of forced
marriage, while for every 1,000 adults
there were 1.9 victims of forced marriage.

24

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

Figure 4
Modern slavery and age of victim
Prevalence (per 1,000 persons) of modern slavery, by age and category

Children
Adults

5.9
4.4

2.5

2.5

1.9
1.3
0.4
Modernslavery

Forced labour
exploitation

0.7

Forced sexual
exploitation

0.1 0.7

State-imposed
forced labour

Forced marriage

Forced labour

Forced labour of children takes two predominant forms. It can result from theirguardians themselves being in forced
labour, in which case the children workwith their parents or at least for thesame employer. Or the children may bein forced labour on their own as a resultof trafficking, deceptive recruitment, or
coercive means used by their direct employer. In the former case, parents are
more likely to be aware of their children’ssituation and working conditions. In thelatter case, parents are less likely to beaware, as with children who migrate
alone or are trafficked into forced labour,
particularly domestic work.
THERE WAS A TOTAL OF 89 MILLION
VICTIMS OF MODERN SLAVERY OVER
THE PERIOD FROM 2012 TO 2016;
THE TIME DURATION VARIED WIDELY
Over the five-year period from 2012 to2016, 89 million people were either inforced labour for a minimum number ofPart 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

days or entered into a forced marriage.
Of these, 82.7 million were victims offorced labour and 6.5 million had been
forced to marry against their will. Thereis wide variation in how long victims ofmodern slavery remain in their situation.
While some manage to escape after a
few days or weeks, others are trappedfor years, as is the case for those in traditional forms of hereditary bonded labourand some forced marriages. For victims
registered by IOM after 2012, the average
duration in forced labour exploitation wasslightly over 20 months and for the victims of sexual exploitation it was 23
months. Victims of forced labour imposed by state authorities were exploited for a duration that varied from a few
days per month (for example, when authorities force people to participate inillegal communal services) to several
years for some cases of prison labour orforced labour in the context of military
service.

25

Figure 5
Regional prevalence of modern slavery
Prevalence of modern slavery (per 1,000 population), by region and category

7.6

Forced labour
Forced marriages

5.4

2.8

6.1

3.9
4.0

3.4

4.8

2.1

3.3
1.9

3.6

2.2
1.3

2.0
1.1

0.4
World

AfricaAsia andthe Pacific

THE PREVALENCE OF MODERNSLAVERY IS HIGHEST IN AFRICA
There were 7.6 victims for every
thousand people in the Africa region. Thiswas followed by the Asia and the Pacificregion (6.1 per 1,000), Europe and Central Asia (3.9 per 1,000), the Arab States(3.3 per 1,000) and finally the Americas(1.9 per 1,000). Regional prevalence rankings differed for the two main categories
of modern slavery – forced labour andforced marriage. Asia and the Pacific had
the highest prevalence of forced labour(4.0 per 1,000) and Africa the highest
prevalence of forced marriage (4.8 per
1,000). The regional figures are important but should be interpreted with care,

26

Europe andCentral Asia

Arab States

0.7
Americasbearing in mind critical gaps and limitations of the data.11 This is especially thecase in Central Asia and the Arab States,
where few surveys have been conducted despite numerous reports of forced
labour and forced marriages occurring.12
Far more research and survey work is required at the national level to provide amore comprehensive picture.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

Figure 6
Regional distribution of modern slavery
Number (in thousands) and percentage distribution of victims of modern slavery, by region

Asia and the Pacific
Europe and Central Asia
Africa3,600
9%Americas
Arab States

25,000
62%
9,230
23%

1,950
5%
520
1%

THE POPULOUS ASIA AND PACIFICREGION IS HOST TO BY FAR
THE LARGEST ABSOLUTE NUMBER
OF VICTIMS OF MODERN SLAVERY
Figures for the absolute numbers of
persons in modern slavery underscoredthe importance of the Asia and Pacificregion, where 62 per cent of all victims
of modern slavery worldwide were located. This was followed by the Africa region (23 per cent), Europe and Central
Asia (9 per cent), the Americas (5 percent), and finally the Arab States (1 percent). The Asia and the Pacific region has
the highest share of victims across all
forms of modern slavery, accounting for73 per cent of victims of forced sexual
exploitation, 68 per cent of those forced
to work by state authorities, 64 per centof those in forced labour exploitation,and 42 per cent of all those in forced
marriages.

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

27

1.2

Forced labour
Table 3Forced labour
Number and prevalence of persons in forced labour, by category, sex and age

Forced labour sub-categories
Forced labour
exploitation

World

Total
forcedlabourNo. (thousands)

15 975

4 816

4 060

24 850Prevalence(per thousand)

2.2

0.7

0.5

3.4.

No. (thousands)

6 766

29

2 411

9 206

Male

Prevalence(per thousand)

1.8

0

0.6

2.4

No. (thousands)

9 209

4 787

1 650

15 646

FemalePrevalence(per thousand)

2.5

1.3

0.4

4.2

No. (thousands)

12 995

3 791

3 778

20 564

Prevalence(per thousand)

2.5

0.7

0.7

3.9

No. (thousands)

2 980

1 024

282

4 286

Prevalence(per thousand)

1.3

0.4

0.1

1.9

Sex

Adults
AgeChildrenThis section of the report presents themain findings related to forced labour
using three broad categories: forced
labour exploitation,13 forced sexual
exploitation,14 and state-imposed forced
labour.15
Forced labour, as set out in ILO Forced
Labour Convention, 1930 (No.29),16 refers
to “all work or service which is exacted
from any person under the menace ofany penalty and for which the said person
has not offered himself voluntarily”.
Men, women, and children are forced
to work in various settings across theglobe, with examples of forced labour
found in garment making in South Asian
factories, digging for minerals in Africanmines, harvesting tomatoes on North
American farms, working as domestic
workers in East Asian homes, working

28

Forced sexual exploitation of adults
State-imposedand commercial sexual exploitation offorced labourchildrenon farms in Latin America, begging inEuropean cities, and constructing highrise buildings in the Gulf States, among
other sectors and geographic areas.
Regardless of the setting, an identifying
feature of situations of forced labour islack of voluntariness in taking the job or
accepting the working conditions, andthe application of a penalty or a threatof a penalty to prevent an individualfrom leaving a situation or otherwise
to compel work. Coercion can takemany forms, ranging from physical andsexual violence or threats against family
members to more subtle means such as
withholding of wages, retaining identity
documents, threats of dismissal, andthreats of denunciation to authorities.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

AN ESTIMATED 24.9 MILLIONPERSONS WERE VICTIMSOF FORCED LABOUR IN 2016
Among the 24.9 million people in any
form of forced labour, 16 million werevictims of forced labour exploitation ineconomic activities such as agriculture,
construction, domestic work, and manufacturing, 4.8 million were victims offorced sexual exploitation, and 4.1 million
were victims of forced labour imposedby state authorities.

Figure 7
Forced labour
Number and percentage distribution of victims of forced labour, by sub-category

Forced labour exploitation
Forced sexual exploitation
4,100,000
17%

4,800,000
19%State-imposed forced labour

16,000,000
64%

A SIGNIFICANT SHARE OF VICTIMSOF FORCED LABOUR WEREEXPLOITED OUTSIDETHEIR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE17
Almost one of every four victims of forced
labour were exploited outside theircountry of residence. As illustrated
in Figure 8, victims of forced sexual
exploitation appear most likely to havebeen exploited outside their country ofresidence, while, not surprisingly, almost
all forced labour imposed by stateauthorities took place within the bordersof their own countries. It should be
noted, however, that these differencesby typology were driven in part by thedifferences in the data sources used formeasuring them.18

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

29

Figure 8
Forced labour and migration
Percentage of victims of forced labour living outside their country residence, by form of forced labour

100%

80%

60%

40%

74%

20%
23%

14%

1%

Forced labour
exploitation

State-imposed
forced labour0%
Forced labour (total)

Forced sexual
exploitation

The large share of victims exploited
outside their country of residence points
to the high degree of risk associated with
migration in the modern world, particularly for migrant women and children,
who are likely to be the most vulnerable.

This point is taken up further in Panel 2.
The fight against modern slavery is thus
integrally related to global initiatives
to promote orderly, safe, and regularmigration, such as the global compact
for safe, orderly and regular migration.

Panel 2Migration and the risk of exploitation
Although most migration isvoluntary and has a positive
impact on individuals and societies, migration can increase
vulnerability to human trafficking and exploitation. Irregularmigrants,
forinstance,
may be subjected to kidnap
and ransom demands, extortion, physical violence, sexual abuse, and trafficking inpersons. They may start theirjourneys by willingly placing
themselves in the hands of30

smugglers and become trafficked along the way. Oncethey reach their destination,
migrants who have travelled
through regular and irregularchannels remain vulnerable totrafficking in persons and other forms of exploitation due tolanguage barriers, challenges of social integration, andunscrupulous employers andlandlords who take advantage of their limited knowledge of local conditions andreduced bargaining power.
Large-scale
displacement
caused by humanitarian crises
such as armed conflicts, natural disasters, and protracted
unrest can also create vulnerable populations who can
become victims of trafficking.19
Migrant workers and job seekers, who constitute the majority of international migrants,
are vulnerable to humantrafficking throughout their

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriagemigration process. Labour
migration is an increasingly
complex and dynamic phenomenon taking place within
and between all regions of
the world. In certain migration
corridors, such as between
Asia and the Arab States andwithin South-East Asia, thenumber of international migrants, the large majority ofwhom are migrant workers,
has tripled since 1990. Temporary labour migration, particularly of low-skilled workers, is exceeding permanent
flows, and this presents a significant governance challenge
in terms of ensuring decent
work and reducing migration
costs for this category of migrant workers.20 Many migrant
workers are concentrated in
specific economic sectors
such as domestic work, manufacturing, construction, andagriculture. Special attention
is required for domestic workers, who are among the mostvulnerable groups of workers.
Several recent reports havedocumented the clear links
between human trafficking
and migration. The United
Nations Office on Drugs andCrime (UNODC) reports thatapproximately 60 per cent ofvictims of trafficking in persons detected between 2012
and 2014 were from outside
the country where they were
exploited.21 IOM also documented the predatory behaviour and the kinds of enabling
environments in which humantrafficking and associatedforms of abuse and exploitation flourish along key migration routes. For example,
approximately three-quartersof respondents in IOM’s Flow
Monitoring Surveys conducted on the Central Mediterranean route to Europe from
North Africa (primarily Libya)
reported direct experiencesof abuse, exploitation, coercion and practices that may
amount to human trafficking.22 Findings from a recent
report by UNICEF and IOM
also shed light on the risks oftrafficking and exploitation

NINETY-FOUR PER CENT OF MODERNSLAVERY VICTIMS WERE EXPLOITEDIN A COUNTRY IN THE SAMEINCOME-BASED REGIONAL GROUPING
AS THEIR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE
Poverty is often cited as an important risk
factor for modern slavery, and relative
wealth disparities between countries areoften cited as a pull factor. While poverty
can drive a decision to migrate for labour,
it can also act as a barrier to migration,
as members of the poorest groups are often unable to raise the money required toreach their destination, whether throughaccessing loans in their local communities
or from others in the migration industry.
But to date there has been limited empiri-Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

among children and youth on
the move through the Mediterranean Sea.23
Opportunities for exploitation of migrant workers can
include charging recruitment
fees, providing false promises about salaries or working
conditions, or even the nature of the job itself. Migrant
workers may find themselves
employed under substandard working conditions, being paid at wage levels below national standards andcounterparts, and sometimes
kept under these conditions
due to their immigration status, difficulties in changing
employment linked to restrictive visa regimes, and/or debt bondage. While protections for migrant workers
are increasing in some areas,
particularly through bilateralagreements, there is a continued need to reform therecruiting and contracting
systems that place migrant
workers at risk of forced labour and human trafficking.

cal data providing insight into the connection between income levels and forced
labour movements. To explore this issue,
the estimates of victims of forced labour
were examined according to the income
levels of the victims’ country of residence
and of the country where the exploitation
took place. The results suggest very little movement across income groupings.
Ninety-four per cent of victims of forced
labour were exploited in a country thatwas in the same income-based regionalgrouping as their country of residence.
People who were exploited in the lowand lower-middle-income groupings were
almost exclusively residents of countries
that were in the same income grouping.

31

1.2.1 Forced labour
exploitation
This sub-section refers to persons inforced labour exploitation imposed byprivate actors other than for commercial
sexual exploitation.
AN ESTIMATED 16 MILLION PEOPLE
WERE VICTIMS OF FORCEDLABOUR EXPLOITATION IMPOSEDBY PRIVATE ACTORS IN 2016

Females accounted for a significantly larger share of total victims (57 percent) than males (43 per cent). Nearly
20 per cent of the victims of forced labour exploitation were children, who
may have worked alone, far from theirfamilies, or together with their parents.
Among cases of forced labour exploitation where the type of work was known,24
the largest share – almost a quarter – wasin domestic work. This was followed by
the construction (18 per cent), manufacturing (15 per cent), and agriculture andfishing (11 per cent) sectors.

Figure 9
Sector of forced labour exploitation(a) Sectoral distribution of victims of forced labour
exploitation(a), (b)(b) Sex distribution of victims of forced labour
exploitation, by sector of economic activity(a), (b)Female

Male

1%

11%

60%

15%
40%
18%

32
Personal services48
Wholesale and trade
Accommodation andfood service activities

48

61

92
100

Agriculture, forestries,
and fishing90

Manufacturing

82

82

68

Construction
20%

18

Construction

10%

10
18

Mining and quarrying

Manufacturing

9%80%

Begging52

52

Personal services

4%7%

Wholesale and trade

100%

39

Domestic work
24%
8

Mining and quarrying

Begging

Agriculture, forestries,
and fishing

Domestic work

Accommodation andfood service activities

0%

Note: (a) These figures are based on cases of forced labour exploitation where industry was reported. Information on the industry was available for 65 per cent of total cases of forced labour exploitation; and (b) with the
exception of begging, categories are based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Rev.4 (1-digit level). For further detail and explanation see United Nations Statistics Division(https://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regcst.asp?Cl=27).

32

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

DIFFERENCES BY SEX IN THE
TYPOLOGY OF FORCED LABOUR
EXPLOITATION WERE CONSIDERABLE
Male victims were much more likely thanfemale victims to be in the mining, manufacturing, construction, and agriculture
sectors. Nine out of every 10 victims involved in begging were also male. Female victims of forced labour exploitation were much more likely to be in theaccommodation and food services industry and in domestic work.

Within each of these broader economic
activity areas, forced labour exploitation can take on a number of forms.
They range from the servile practices
still found in parts of the world’s poorer
countries, often the vestiges of slavery
or longstanding practices of ethnic andsocial discrimination, to the abuses in the
supply chains of major modern companies. Some of these issues by sector are
reviewed Panel 3.

Panel 3Forms of forced labour exploitation in the private economy
DOMESTIC WORKThe domestic work sector, which accounted for
24 per cent of identified
forced labour exploitation
cases, is now receiving more
attention for its employment
potential but also for theabuses occurring within it,
including extreme violence.
There has been a steady increase in the overall numberof persons, mainly migrant
women, seeking employment
in this sector. Significantly,
the ILO’s most recent global
estimate of migrant workers
has a special focus on migrant domestic workers.25
Worldwide, there are currently an estimated 67 million
domestic workers, of whomsome 11.5 million are migrant
domestic workers and almost
three-quarters are women.
The
Asia and the Pacificregion hosts the largest
share, with almost a quarterof the world’s female migrant
domestic workers, followedby Europe with 22.1 per centand the Arab States with

19 per cent. Moreover,high-income countries account for 9.1 million domestic
workers globally, amounting
to about 80 per cent of thetotal.
With a few exceptions,domestic workers are excluded from the protections in
national labour laws. Common grievances have included unpaid wages, the withholding of wages, lack ofovertime pay, long hours andheavy workloads, inadequacyof rest days, absence of healthcare and maternity leave,poor living conditions, and issues related to contracts andtheir termination. There has
however been some progressin recent years, notably since
the ILO’s Domestic Workers
Convention, 2011 (No. 189)
was adopted.
The coercion domestic workers often face, and which inmany cases leads to forced
labour situations, typicallystems from recruitment andjob placement mechanisms.
As has been widely doc-

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

umented, the fragmented
nature of recruitment canlead to “excessive fees, working conditions akin to forced
labour, contract substitution, visa trading, and ineffective complaint and grievance procedures”. Excessive
recruitment fees are oftentransferred to workers in
the form of direct payments,
large loans requiring repayment at extremely high interest rates, or salary deduction
schemes.26
The situation can be exacerbated when migrant
domestic workers are tied
for a lengthy period of time
to one employer by visa arrangements. In such situations, they may suffer restrictions on their freedomof movement, leaving themisolated and alone and withno effective remedy against
abusive treatment.
CONSTRUCTION
In the construction industry,
which is estimated to employ
7 per cent of the global work-33

force and where 18 per centof identified forced labour
exploitation cases occurred,
employment conditions arenotoriously demanding anddangerous, with high levels of
industrial accidents. However, there are indications thatthe use of bogus “self-employment” schemes havecontributed to the growth ofcoercive practices.27
MANUFACTURING
In the manufacturing sector,
which made up 15 per centof identified forced labour
exploitation cases, coercion
has been documented mainly in the lower-income countries. While attention has
long focused on the abusesin small garment or footwear
factories in the largely informal sector of the South Asian
countries, growing awareness of global supply chain
risks has led to coercion being
detected in the productionof a range of products that
until recently had escaped
public attention. Just one example is the manufacture ofgarments for medical use – alarge global industry producing some 150 billion pairs ofgloves per year and with amarket value of more than
US$ 5 billion – for which mostproduction is outsourced tofactories in Asia that rely on
migrant workers. The documented concerns at manyof these factories include excessive working hours andproduction targets, paymentof high recruitment fees, illegal retention of passports,
and in some cases illegal imprisonment and beatings ofworkers.28 At the higher endof the manufacturing scale,34

abuses in the electrical andelectronics industry have also
received global attention,with some major electronics, telecommunications, andtechnology brands encountering criticism over labour
exploitation, including forced
labour, in their supply chains.
Another high-profile issue involves pressure on high-techcompanies to ensure that
their products do not containminerals – such as tantalum,
tungsten, and cassiterite –that are produced in conflictzones where forced labour
may have been imposed byrebel groups.
COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE AND FISHING
Commercial agriculture ispart of the broader agriculture and fishing sector, where
12 per cent of identified forced
labour exploitation cases
occurred. Much of the lowpaid work in commercial agriculture is seasonal, meaningthat the coercion may be ofshort duration. A common
feature is the presence of labour providers, who can be
employment as well as recruitment agents, generally
responsible for the payment
and working conditions of
the workforce. Known by amultiplicity of names, illegitimate agents have been
widely responsible for the
typical range of abuses suchas non-payment or late payment of wages, restriction
on physical movement, violence, and threats. Moreover,cases of such abuse havebeen widely documented in
the agricultural sector of thewealthier as well as poorer
countries.

The seafood industry, whichis part of the larger agriculture and fishing sector,
has also drawn international
attention, particularly after media reporting in 2014
named specific companies
alleged to be tainted withslavery in their supply chains.
The most severe cases, documented on some deep-sea
fishing vessels in the Asian
region, have involved physical brutality and even lossof life. Yet this industry poses unique challenges forpreventing abuses. Difficult
conditions are inherent to
the fishing industry, which
typically involves long hours
of work and strenuous activity in a challenging marine
environment. On top of this,the proliferation of modern
factory ships and the globalisation of the fishing industry
have greatly complicated efforts to protect workers on
vessels, which may be at sea
for long periods, in distantfishing grounds, and well beyond the reach of national labour inspection systems.
Migrant workers are at anespecially high risk of coercion in this industry. They are
increasingly manning vessels operating out of a wide
range of both developed anddeveloping countries, largely
because nationals of thesecountries find the salaries too
low for the rigorous work andthe lengthy periods at sea.
And in many cases the entire
business operation is illegal(involving illegal brokerageand illegal fishing in addition
to serious violations of labourlaw), and the vessel owners
can use undocumented migrants both to cut costs andGlobal estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

to escape the attention oflaw enforcement authorities.
Recently, IOM’s Global Assistance Fund for victims of trafficking and other migrants invulnerable situations contributed to assisting 600 men
from foreign fishing boats
in Indonesian waters. Some
had not been on dry land
for years. One of the victims
had been separated from his
family, without any contact,for 22 years.
Apart from the abuses
against fishers at sea, co-ercive practices have also
been documented in otherindustry activities including
onshore seafood processing.
The risks of abuse are highest
when there is extensive useof contract labour, and notably when temporary workers
are recruited from abroad
under special visa arrangements.

through legally recognise recruitment agencies, leading
to personal debts that must
be repaid through deductions from wages. And when
the labour brokerage is informal and the workers haveno contracts of employment,
there is considerable risk offurther abuse.

Many migrant fishers enter
thedestination
country
through networks of recruitment agents, often incurringhigh brokerage fees, evenwhen they are engaged

MOST VICTIMS SUFFERED MULTIPLE
FORMS OF COERCION FROMRECRUITERS OR EMPLOYERS
In cases of forced labour, it is importantto understand the means of coercion at
both the recruitment and employment
stages. For example, were violence orthreats of violence used? How important was the debt factor? Were workers
physically prevented from leaving theworkplace? And in the case of migrant
workers, was the coercion or deception used at the initial place of recruitment, in the country of origin, and/or at
the workplace? The ILO has developed
indicators on these concerns,29 enabling
national statistical offices and research
institutes to undertake national surveys
on the forced labour of both adults andchildren.

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

The Global Estimates have shed significant light on these issues. Withholdingof wages, or the threat that this would
be done, was the most common meansof coercion, experienced by almost aquarter of people (24 per cent) forced
to work. This was followed by threats ofviolence (17 per cent), acts of physicalviolence (16 per cent), and threats against
family (12 per cent). The estimates also
confirm that different forms of coercion
may be used depending on whether thevictim is male or female, a finding that
can help inform victim identification andresponses. For example, the estimatessuggest that male victims were more
likely to be subjected to threats against
family, withheld wages, confinement,
denial of food and sleep, and threats oflegal action. In contrast, female victims
of forced labour suffered higher rates ofsexual violence and were more likely tohave their passports withheld.

35

Figure 10
Means of coercion(a) Percentage of victims of forced labour
exploitation, by means of coercion(b) Percentage distribution of means of coercion,by sexFemaleMale

0.9%
Kept drunk/drugged

5.7%

Withheld passport orother documents

54
48 51

Physical violence
23.6%

Threats of violence
Withheld wages

DEBT BONDAGE, THROUGH
THE MANIPULATION OF DEBTBY EMPLOYERS OR RECRUITINGAGENTS, AFFECTED MORE
THAN HALF OF ALL VICTIMSOF FORCED LABOUR EXPLOITATION
Debt bondage is defined for the purposeof the estimates as being forced to work
to repay a debt and not being able toleave, or being forced to work and not
being able to leave because of a debt.
Just over half the men and women in

36

0%
Kept drunk/drugged

Other

2
Had to repay debt

Threats against family
17%

40%

20%

Threats of legal actions

Had to repay debt

Sexual violence

16.4%

77

35

Locked in work or
living quarters

Threats against family

Too far from homeand nowhere to go

68
62 63 65 66

Punished through deprivation of food, sleep, etc.

14.5%

87 89

Locked in work or living quarters

11.8%

Punished throughfine/financial penalty

80%

60%

Withheld wages

Threats of legal actions

23

98

Threats of violence

9.1%

32
38 37 35 34

11

65

Punished throughdeprivation of food,sleep, etc.

Physical violence

6.7%

46
52 49

Punished through fine/financial penalty

6.7%

Sexual violence

Withheld passport or other documents

6.6%

100%
13

Too far from home and nowhere to go

4.1%
4.3%
5%

forced labour exploitation worldwide
were held in debt bondage. The figure
rises to more than 70 per cent of the total for adults forced to work in agriculture, domestic work, or manufacturing.
It is likely that these estimates reflect a
mix of cases of both traditional forms ofbonded labour and newer forms of debt
bondage where recruitment fees andagency charges become the debt thatbinds. Situations of debt bondage are
discussed in more detail in Panel 4.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

Figure 11
Debt bondage
Percentage of victims of forced labour exploitation who are held in debt bondage, by sex and region

100%

Total
88.7
Male

80%

Female

69.6
60.9

55.1

60%

40%
43.4

52.5

47.0

54.4

37.9
44.7

20%

34.3
21.3

0%

50.9

54.9

54.2

50.8

36.3

35.9

World

Asia

AfricaArab States

Americas

Europe andCentral Asia

A regional analysis found that debt
bondage was most common in Asia,
Africa, and the Arab States, where roughly one-half of all victims of forced labour
exploitation were in situations involving
debt bondage. In the two remaining regions, the Americas and Europe andCentral Asia, a little more than one-thirdof victims of forced labour exploitation were in debt bondage. In the ArabStates, female victims of forced labour
exploitation were much more likely thanmale victims to be in situations involving

debt bondage. Eighty-nine per cent of
all female victims of forced labour exploitation were held in debt bondage inthe region, compared to 45 per cent of
all male victims. The opposite patternprevailed in the Asia and the Pacific andthe Europe and Central Asia regions,where debt bondage affected a greater
share of male victims of forced labour
exploitation than female victims. Similar
proportions of men and women were in
debt bondage among those forced towork in Africa and the Americas.

Panel 4Situations of debt bondage
In most cases of debt bondage, the initial debt grows at a
rate that is unable to be met,
and the individual (sometimes together with family
members) is unable to leave
the work as the debt mounts
and cannot be paid withthe level of compensation
the worker may be getting.
A male survey respondent
in Bangladesh described theunmanageable increase in
the debt he owed: “I took loan
to maintain the family. Later it became a high amountPart 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

including the interest andoriginal amount. To give backthe loan they made me workforcefully and I paid back theloan by working for them.”
In these situations, the debt
can last for years or even37generations.
Often,
such
debts transfer from one
family member to another,as illustrated by a male survey respondent residing in
Tunisia who described being
forced “…to sell the drugs to
repay debts of my brother
who was in an Italian prison atthat time”. Others described
the burden of such loans
and the situations of vulnerability they experienced. For
example, a 30 year-old malevictim of forced labour in India described the situation heand his wife faced as having“…become a curse on both ofus. We had threats against
our family and we also got
the threat that we would be
evicted from our house andthe village. There were also
threats of violence”.
Debt bondage in the context of labour migration andtrafficking is a trend that canbe seen across a number ofcountries and sectors. A recent report to the UN Human
Rights Council said “the vast
majority of people trafficked
to countries in North America, Europe and the Middle
East and to other developed
countries are migrant workers who are trafficked into

38

a variety of jobs including
construction work, domestic work, agricultural work,
factory work, and quite frequently for prostitution areoften controlled through debt
bondage and other mechanisms”.30 This is due primarily to the often illicit andprohibitive recruitment fees
taken by recruiters and/or
employers to enable the migration.
Patterns of Asian bonded
labour have evolved since thefirst laws and policies on thesubject were adopted morethan 40 years ago,31 when it
was seen as a largely agrarianphenomenon. Most bonded
labourers were sharecroppers who took loans fromtheir landlords to cover theirfamilies’ subsistence needs or
expenses related to ill health,dowry, marriages, funerals,
or festivals. These traditional
bonded labour systems werecharacterised by feudal relationships in agriculture andby unequal power relations
based on caste. Often they
were inter-generational, withchildren born into bondage,
paying off debts accumulated by their forebears.

Such traditional forms ofbonded labour still survive throughout South Asia,
particularly in rural areas
where land and tenancy reforms have not taken place,and where landowners still
enjoy wide powers. Yet muchof today’s bonded labour isassociated more with internalmigration, the involvementof labour contractors and recruiting intermediaries, andwork in a range of sectors in
the informal economy. Mining, brick-making, fish-processing, gem-cutting, andcarpet-weaving are among
the industries, many of themhazardous, where bonded labour has been detected. New
patterns of bondage can also
be seen in large and small
scale commercial agriculture,
where seasonal unemployment has led to conditions ofbondage involving the debtbased attachment of casualand migrant workers, thoughof a much shorter duration
than the old forms of bondage in agriculture.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

1.2.2 Forced sexual exploitation of adults
and commercial
sexual exploitationof children

4.8 MILLION PEOPLE - ALMOSTEXCLUSIVELY FEMALE - WERE
VICTIMS OF FORCED SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION IN 2016
Women and girls accounted for morethan 99 per cent of all victims offorced sexual exploitation. More than70 per cent of victims of forced sexual exploitation were in the Asia and thePacific region, followed by Europe andCentral Asia (14 per cent), Africa (8 percent), the Americas (4 per cent), and theArab States (1 per cent).32 Informationfrom the IOM database suggested thatthe duration of exploitation was typically protracted; victims were exploited
for an average of about two years (23.1
months) before being freed or managing
to escape.

This sub-section refers to persons inforced labour and services imposed byprivate actors for sexual exploitation.
This includes women and men who have
involuntarily entered a form of commercial sexual exploitation, or who haveentered the sex industry voluntarily but
cannot leave. It also includes all forms ofcommercial sexual exploitation involving
children.

Figure 12
Regional distribution of forced sexual exploitation
Percentage distribution of victims of forced sexual exploitation, by region (in 000’s)

Asia and the Pacific
Europe and Central Asia

700
14%

Africa400
8%Americas200
4%Arab states
<1
1%

3,500
73%

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

39

CHILDREN COMPRISED MORE
THAN A FIFTH OF ALL VICTIMS OF
COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
More than 1 million of the victims offorced sexual exploitation – 21 per centof all victims – were children under theage of 18 years. In accordance with the
ILO’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), all children foundin any type of commercial sexual activity exploitation are considered victimsof commercial sexual exploitation. Child
victims of commercial sexual exploitation are particularly difficult to detect, either through efforts by law enforcement
and child protection agents or throughsurvey data collection. The true figure
is likely far higher than the current estimates.

1.2.3 State-imposed
forced labour

forced labour exploitation imposed by
the State. This includes forced labour
exacted by the military, compulsory participation in public works, and forced
prison labour. The last category includes
not only forced labour camps but also
work imposed in semi-privatised or fully
privatised prisons.
AN ESTIMATED 4 MILLION PEOPLE
WERE IN STATE-IMPOSEDFORCED LABOUR AT ANY
GIVEN POINT IN TIME IN 2016
When the ILO’s first instrument on forced
labour was adopted in 1930, and evenmore so when the second instrument
was adopted during the height of theCold War in 1957, state-imposed forced
labour was a major global issue andcause for concern. More recently, withthe rise in the number of detected cases of forced labour imposed by private
actors, much of the concern has shifted away from that imposed by States.
Nevertheless, with some 4 million persons affected, state-imposed forced labour remains a major problem.

This sub-section refers to persons inFigure 13
State-imposed forced labour
Number and percentage distribution of victims of state-imposed forced labour, by form of state-imposed
forced labour

Abuse of conscription
Obligation to perform work beyond normal civic
obligations or minor communal services

591,000
14.6%

Compulsory prison labour
325,000
8%

2,582,000
63.6%

40

Compulsory labour for the purposeof economic development

563,000
13.9%

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

Of the total number of people instate-imposed forced labour, the majority (64 per cent) were forced by theirgovernment to work for the purpose offurthering economic development. However, while the overall number and percentage appears high, only a few States
actually resort to this kind of forced
development work. Fifteen per cent of
those in state-imposed forced labour
were subjected to abuse of conscription
and 14 per cent were forced to carry out
prison labour under conditions that violate the pertinent ILO standards. The remaining 8 per cent were either forced toperform work or services going beyond
normal civil obligations, or to perform
communal services exceeding the natureand scope of these activities as permitted by the ILO standards. The share ofmen in forced labour imposed by stateauthorities is higher than that of women,
essentially because more men than women are affected by abuse of conscription
and prison labour in all concerned countries.
CHILDREN REPRESENTED 7 PERCENT
OF VICTIMS OF STATE-IMPOSEDFORCED LABOUR
The main forms of forced labour in whichstate authorities were found to use
children were in the abuse of the obligation to participate in minor communal
services or civic obligations and, to a certain extent, in work for purposes of economic development. More than half theforced labourers in the former category
were children, specifically North Koreanchildren who are compelled as part oftheir schooling to engage in work that
far exceeded the goals of vocational education and was also highly demandingin physical terms. Globally, few children
were found in forced prison labour, orin abuse of conscription, although data
gaps in these areas remain large.34 The
forced recruitment of children by armed
groups and armed forces was excluded
from the estimates due to a lack of reliable data.

Part 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

FORCED LABOUR IMPOSED BY
THE STATE VARIED CONSIDERABLY
IN TERMS OF DURATION
Among cases of forced labour imposedby state authorities, not only the type ofwork varies widely, from picking cotton
to constructing roads, but so does thelength during which victims are exploited.
A typical case of short duration, generally a few weeks, is found in States that
requisition their citizens for the purposeof economic development work, suchas the forced participation of students,
unemployed, or any individual in public construction, industrial, or agricultural projects. This is also the case forthe abuse of communal services wherea large share of a population is forced
to perform “community work” that is
not for the benefit of their communities and has not been decided upon bymembers of those communities. In thesecases, the forced labour usually involves
a large group of citizens for a few days
per month. On the other end of the spectrum, some countries force military conscripts to perform non-military tasks fora number of years. And forced labour inprison varies between a few weeks forcases of people in administrative detention to many years for long term sentences.

41

Panel 5
Forced prison labour
Forcedprisonlabourdeserves separate treatment.
The ILO Conventions establish broad principles regarding the conditions in which
prisoners can or cannot be
required to work; and, incases where they are required
to work, the limitations on
private sector involvement inprison labour.
Generally, prisoners who
have been duly sentenced
by a court of law can berequired to work. They cannot be required to work before sentencing, or when
they are in administrative detention. And even if prisoners have been sentenced bya court of law, they cannot
be required to work if they
have been imprisoned for arange of ideological, political,
and other reasons specifically mentioned in the ILO’s
Abolition of Forced Labour
Convention, 1957 (No. 105).
Moreover, there need to be
specific guarantees of protection for prisoners placedat the disposal or private individuals, companies, or associations, including thoseconfined in private prisons. In
the latter case, guidance has
been provided by ILO supervisory bodies on factors toensure that labour is provided voluntarily and not underthe menace of any penalty.
Of the 563,000 persons estimated to be in forced prison
labour, 202,000 are in ad-

42

ministrative detention centres. While the administrative
imposition of imprisonment
involving forced labour appears to have declined inrecent years, a number ofcountries in East and SouthEast Asia have responded to
the rise in substance abuseby establishing laws and policies that allow for compulsory detention without trial in acourt of law, and the imposition of compulsory labour,
as a means of treatment for
persons suspected of being
dependent on drugs. Reports on such “rehabilitation
centres” in several countries
have highlighted the lack ofdue process and legal assistance. Additionally, in somecases, migrants and refugees
have also been forced towork when confined in detention centres pending administrative processing.
The use of forced prison labour for political and otherimpermissible reasons is particularly difficult to assess.
There is, not surprisingly, noavailable data on penal sanctions imposed on politicalactivists, journalists, or members of dissident groups inrepressive regimes.35
Nor are statistics generally
available concerning the various ways in which privatecompanies can be involvedin or benefit from compulsory prison labour. It is now
generally recognised thatthe private use of prison
labour (either through privatised prisons or throughcontracts between publicprison agencies and privatecompanies) is widespreadin certain countries and canprovide significant revenue
for the private agencies concerned. There have been policy debates in a number ofcountries since the first steps
were taken as of the 1980s to
seek more private sector involvement in prison administration. Proponents of private
sector involvement in prison
industries argue that this can
reduce incarceration costs
and contribute to rehabilitation. Opponents argue thatit can increase exploitation,and that the authority forpunishment is a core government function that should
not be delegated to the private sector. Furthermore, inmost cases, labour and social
security laws are not applied
to prisoners, meaning that
prison labour can constituteunfair competition with freelabour.
On this subject, there has
been substantial dialogue
between the ILO supervisory bodies and those Member
States that have ratified thefirst forced labour Convention. The supervisory bodies
have pointed to the need forconvincing indicators thatthe choice to work is voluntary.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

1.3

Forced marriage
Table 4Forced marriage
Number and prevalence of persons in forced marriage, by sex, age, and region

Number (000s)
World
Sex
Age grouping

15 442

2.1

Male

2 442

0.6

Female13 0003.5

Adults9 762

1.9Children

5 679

2.5

Africa

5 820

4.8

670

0.7

Americas
RegionPrevalence (per 1,000 persons)Arab States
Asia and the Pacific
Europe and Central Asia

AN ESTIMATED 15.4 MILLION PEOPLE
WERE LIVING IN SITUATIONSOF FORCED MARRIAGE IN 2016
Forced marriage refers to situations
where persons, regardless of their age,have been forced to marry without theirconsent.37 Forced marriage is prohibited
through the prohibitions on slavery andslavery-like practices, including servile
marriage.38
There are many reasons for forced
marriage, some of which are closely
linked to longstanding cultural practices.
In some parts of the world, young girls
and women are forced to marry in exchange for payment to their families, thecancellation of debt, or to settle family
disputes. In countries with significant levels of conflict, they can be abducted byarmed groups and forced to marry fighters, enduring all manner of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Forced marriages also occur in developed nations,with women and girls being forced tomarry foreign men for cultural reasons,or in order to secure another person’sPart 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

170

1.1

8 440

2.0

340

1.1

entry into the country. Once forced tomarry, many victims are placed at greater risk of being subjected to other formsof exploitation, including sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and other formsof forced labour. Children are especiallyvulnerable in these situations.
An estimated 15.4 million people were
living in situations of forced marriage
in 2016. In a total of 6.5 million of thesecases, the forced marriage occurred
during the five-year period from 2012
to 2016, while the remainder occurredprior to this period but continued into
it.40 In terms of prevalence, 2.1 out of
every thousand persons worldwide were
living in forced marriage in 2016. It is important to note that the measurement offorced marriage is at an early stage andboth the scope and the methodologies
are likely to be further refined. Accordingly, the current estimates should beconsidered to be conservative.

43

THE AFRICA REGION AND THE ASIA
AND THE PACIFIC REGION HAD
THE HIGHEST NUMBER AND
PREVALENCE OF FORCED MARRIAGE
More than 90 per cent of all forced
marriages took place in two regions: Africa and Asia and the Pacific. The prevalence was by far the highest in Africa
at 4.8 victims for every 1,000 people,
followed by the Asia and the Pacific re-gion (2.0 per 1,000), and then by theEurope and Central Asia region and theArab States region (1.1 per 1,000) and theAmericas (0.7 per 1,000). These regional
figures, however, were affected by differences across regions in data availability. There are numerous reports of forced
marriage in Central Asia and the Arabregion,41 for example, but few surveys on
the issue have been conducted there.

Figure 14
Forced marriage across regions(b) Prevalence of forced marriage per 1,000
persons), by region

5,818,00038%

4.8Americas
Europe and Central Asia
Arab states

1.1

0.7

Americas

Africa1.1

Arab States

173,000
1% 341,0002%2.0

Africa667,000
4%

World

2.1

Europe and Central Asia

8,444,000
55%

Asia and the Pacific(a) Number and percentage distribution of victims
of forced marriage

Asia and the PacificNote: These figures are based on national household surveys conducted in 48 countries, involved interviews
with more than 71,000 respondents aged 15 years or older. See methodological annex for further details.

44

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

MOST VICTIMS OF FORCED MARRIAGEWERE WOMEN AND GIRLS
An estimated 13 million women and girls
were living in a forced marriage in 2016,
representing 84 per cent of all victims

of forced marriage. The share of females in forced marriage is substantiallyhigher than the share of females in all
forms of modern slavery (84 per centversus 71 per cent).

Figure 15
Forced marriage by sex
Percentage distribution of victims of forced marriage, by sex

Female

100%

Male
80%
71%

60%

84%

40%

20%
29%
16%
0%
Modernslavery

Forced marriage

Panel 6Forced marriage: additional considerations
The forced marriage ofadults is a highly complex
issue. There are societies
where arranged marriages
are common, and it may bedifficult to assess the presence of compulsion. The
coercion can be manifested in various forms, including exchange or trade-off
marriages, servile marriages, and levirate42 marriages.
In some societies, a forced
marriage may occur when aPart 1. The scale and manifestations of modern slavery

rapist is permitted to escapecriminal sanctions by marrying the victim, usually withthe consent of her family.
Forced marriages may occur
in the context of migration,for example to secure thedocumentation
extendedfamily members needed toreside in a particular destination country. Forced marriages are also being usedby armed groups duringconflict. The prevalence offorced marriage in conflictand post-conflict situations
needs to be examined carefully. Families who are facedwith physical and economic
insecurity may see early
forced marriage as a way ofalleviating poverty and protecting girls from difficult living conditions. Similarly, they
may fall prey to traffickers
who claim to offer their children a safer place and job
opportunities.4345

In its latest global report on
trafficking in persons, theUnited Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
has provided some data on
trafficking for marriages,
which was reported by many
countries in different parts of
the world during the 20122014 period.44 Altogether,trafficking for forced or shammarriages accounts for about
1.4 per cent of the total detected victims of trafficking.
Given the estimates of forced
marriage in this report, thissuggests forced marriage ismassively
under-detected.
As noted in the UNODC re-port, trafficking for marriage
takes on different permutations, from organized irregular migration and benefit
fraud schemes in Europe to
traditional practices in Central Asia and the Middle East
(involving marriage without
consent and possibly abduction), as well as the tradeof women for marriages inSouth-East Asia. Moreover,a new mode of trafficking
has surfaced in the form of alarge transnational organizedcrime group that recruited
Central European women forsham marriages in Western
Europe.

MORE THAN ONE-THIRD OF VICTIMSLIVING IN A FORCED MARRIAGEWERE CHILDREN AT THE TIME
OF THE MARRIAGE; ALMOSTALL CHILD VICTIMS WERE GIRLS
An estimated 37 per cent of victims living
in forced marriage were children at thetime the marriage took place. Amongchild victims, 44 per cent were forced
to marry before the age of 15 years. The
youngest victims of forced marriage
in the sample were nine years of age
at the time they were forced to marry.
Girls were more much likely to be forced
to marry than boys; 96 per cent of allchild victims were girls. Child marriage is
generally considered to be forced marriage, given that one and/or both parties by definition has not expressed full,
free, and informed consent.45 However,
it is important to be clear that for the46

As these are the first-everglobal estimates of forced
marriage, it is important thatmethods and data collection
continue to evolve and grow.
Some statistical information
on forced marriage is now
being provided at the country level. For example, a small
number of countries haveestablished Forced Marriage
Units, which provide important data on referrals andcases.

purposes of these estimates, the measurement of forced marriage is limited
to what was captured by the surveys.
That is, forced marriage in the estimates
includes all marriages of both adults andchildren that were reported by the survey respondent to have been forced andwithout consent, regardless of the ageof the respondent. Accordingly, the estimates do not include every instance ofchild marriage, as child marriage is not
currently measured adequately at thescale or specificity required for a global
estimate.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage© ILO

Part 2.
Endingmodern slavery:
road forward
to 2030
The Global Estimates clearly demonstratethat forced labour and forced marriage
have not yet been relegated to the past
where they belong. Rather, these formsof modern slavery remain tragically common in today’s world, affecting virtually
all countries. The estimates indicate that
more than 40 million people were caught
up in the grip of modern slavery in 2016,a quarter of whom were children below
the age of 18 years. Honouring our commitment to end modern slavery and human trafficking by the year 2030 will be
an immense challenge.
Appropriate policy choices will be critical. A number of international legal instruments provide guidance in this regard, including the United Nations 1956
Convention on slavery and slavery-likepractices, the United Nations Protocol toPrevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons (2000) supplementing the UN
Convention against Transnational Crime,
and the ILO Forced Labour Conventions Nos 29 and 105, the Worst Formsof Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No.
182), the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced
Labour Convention, 1930 and the Forced
Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203). These in-Part 2. Ending modern slavery road forward to 2030

struments send a clear message: forced
labour, slavery, and human trafficking
are serious crimes and need to be dealt
with as such. But they also make clearthat these abuses cannot be eliminatedthrough criminal law enforcement alone.
Rather, a broad-based approach is needed, with a strong emphasis on addressing root causes and prevention and on
the protection of victims.
We do not have to start from square one.
We have already accumulated a substantial set of programming experience related to forced labour and forced marriage,
as well as to the crimes of human trafficking and slavery, thereby providing afoundation and important lessons for future efforts.
But progress must be faster and morecomprehensive if we are to reach the2030 target on schedule. There remains
a huge gap between the total number ofvictims and those receiving protection or
assistance. And important categories ofvulnerable groups have received too little attention until now. For example, very
few countries have instituted any form of
response to forced marriage, and many
have yet to extend victim protection re-49

sponses to men and boys. Legal gaps insome countries allow forced labour to be
imposed by the State, and these must
be addressed. We also need to closely
evaluate existing approaches and interventions, to identify which ones need tobe adjusted or strengthened and which
ones have been the most successful andhave the greatest potential for replication.
The Global Estimates offer critical insight into the scale and manifestationsof modern slavery. In what follows, we
use the global estimates findings to
discuss some of the key elements of apolicy response to modern slavery in
the lead-up to 2030. We also look atwhat additional information is needed inform and guide this response,
and the role of international cooperation and partnership in supporting it.

2.1

Building a policy
response: prevention and protection
Ending modern slavery will require a multi-faceted response that addresses thearray of forces – economic, social, cultural and legal – that contribute to vulnerability and enable abuses. There can be noone-size-fits-all solution; responses need
to be adapted to the very diverse environments in which modern slavery still
occurs. It is nonetheless possible to identify some overarching policy priorities in
the lead-up to 2030 from the Global Estimates and from experience to date.
Stronger social protection systems, including social protection floors,45 is necessary to offset the vulnerabilities thatcan push people into modern slavery.
Extending labour and social rights in theinformal economy – where modern slavery is most likely to occur – is needed toprotect workers from exploitation.
Given that a large share of modern slavery can be traced to migration, improved
migration governance is vitally important50

to preventing forced labour and protecting victims. Additionally, the risk andtypology of modern slavery is strongly influenced by gender, and this mustalso be taken into account in developing
policy responses. Addressing the root
causes of debt bondage, a widespreadmeans of coercion, is another necessary
element of forced labour prevention,
while improved victim identification is
critical to extending protection to themajority of modern slavery victims whoare currently unidentified or unattended.
Finally, we know that much of modern
slavery today occurs in contexts of statefragility, conflict, and crisis, pointing to
the need to address the risk of modern
slavery as part of humanitarian actions inthese situations. Policies and measuresin all of these priority areas should be evidence-based and informed by researchand statistics on the specific profile ofmodern slavery in the countries concerned.
Extending social protection systems, including floors. Vulnerabilities associatedwith poverty, sudden job loss, natural disasters, armed conflicts, economic crises,
and other shocks can play a central rolein pushing people into modern slavery.
Social protection is therefore critical tomitigating these vulnerabilities. Yet, theILO estimates that, despite some progress, more than 5 billion people do nothave access to adequate social protection. This points to the continued needto build social protection systems, including floors to help prevent vulnerable
people from being caught up in modern
slavery.46 Cash transfer schemes, public
employment programmes, health protection, maternity protection, disability
benefits, unemployment protection, andincome security in old age are all relevant within a well-designed social security system in helping offset vulnerabilities
that can lead to forced labour and forced
marriage.
These schemes can also play an important role in facilitating the recovery ofvictims and preventing their re-victimization. In particular, microcredit andmicroinsurance schemes can play an important complementary role in making
sure that vulnerable families are able to

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

avoid falling victim to debt bondage, as
they help provide families with accessto the financial market and enable themto hedge against some of the risks they
face.
Ensuring fundamental rights for all. The
Global Estimates indicate that much offorced labour today occurs in the private
economy, most notably in agriculture,
construction, manufacturing, domestic
service, and the commercial sex industry. People working in these sectors andindustries are often the most vulnerable
and least protected, either because they
are migrant workers, or because they
are working in the informal economy,
or because they work under contractualor geographical conditions which poseserious challenges for law enforcement,
including labour inspection. All men,
women, and children should be protected from violations of their fundamental
rights, whether they work in the formal
or informal economy. Criminal laws andtheir enforcement are a vital part of any
national response to modern slavery. The
expansion of rights to poorly protected
sectors and groups – including migrants– is also critical to reducing the risk offorced labour. Ensuring rights to freedomof association and collective bargaining,
to enable at-risk workers to join workers’organizations, is particularly important inthis context.
Ensuring rights for those vulnerable toforced marriage is also essential. Evidence suggests, for example, that alongside the development and enforcementof criminal laws, the promotion of theright to education helps to prevent
forced marriage. Working with communities to deliver human rights-based
education contributes to raising awareness of the rights of women and girls
and strengthens community resilience toforced marriage.
Ensuring fair and effective migration
governance. The Global Estimates indicate that almost a quarter of victims offorced labour are exploited outside theircountry of residence, thus confirming therelevance of good migration governanceto prevention and protection efforts. Although most migration is voluntary andPart 2. Ending modern slavery road forward to 2030

has a positive impact on individuals andsocieties, many migrants are vulnerable
to forced labour and abuse. When avenues for regular and safe migration areclosed, migrants resort to irregular anddangerous migration routes, often withthe help of smugglers. Once they reach
their destination, migrants – including
those who have arrived regularly – mayrely on informal labour recruiters and remain vulnerable to forced labour.
Shortcomings in the governance of migration help permit modern slavery tosurvive and even grow. Inadequate systems for the recruitment and placementof workers and poor regulation of international marriage brokers, for example,
create space for the growth in unregulated intermediaries, some of whom arein turn responsible for abuse of migrants,
such as the excessive rates of fee-charging that have helped drive vulnerable
migrant workers into debt bondage situations. Restrictive visa regimes for migrant workers also create increased vulnerability to forced labour. The uniquevulnerabilities faced by migrants should
be addressed through broader reforms
to migration governance that will maximise the benefits and minimise the risks
and social costs of migration.47 While
the Global Estimates indicate that somethree-quarters of forced labour victims
are abused in their home countries, asubstantial number of them are likely tohave migrated internally, underscoringthat the vulnerabilities faced by internalmigrants should also not be neglected.
Addressing gender-related vulnerabilities. The Global Estimates indicate profound differences between women andmen in terms of how they are affectedby modern slavery. In particular, womenand girls are disproportionately victims
of forced labour in the private economy(including in domestic work and in commercial sexual exploitation) and forced
marriage. Men are disproportionately
subject to state-imposed forms of forced
labour, reflecting the impact of abusive
conscription and imprisonment on men,as well as to forced labour in the construction, manufacturing, and agriculture
sectors. The Global Estimates also confirm that the means of coercion depend51

to an important extent on whether thevictim is male or female. Female victims
of forced labour suffer much higher rates
of sexual violence, while male victims are
subjected to higher rates of other formsof physical violence, threats of violence,and use of threats against family. An effective policy response must clearly reflect these patterns of abuse and the roleof gender more broadly as a determinantof modern slavery. While prevention andprotection efforts need to reflect andprioritize the generally higher risk profile
faced by females, they also need to makeallowance for male victims, who have todate been overlooked in efforts against
modern slavery in some countries.
Addressing debt bondage. The Global
Estimates reveal a very high prevalenceof debt bondage as a means of coercion;
more than half the victims of forced labour were in some form of debt bondage.
This finding makes clear that prevention
and protection policies must also tackle
the roots of debt bondage and bonded
labour systems. Bonded labour practices can be deeply embedded in age-old
patterns of discrimination and social
attitudes, as well as in unequal accessto financial services. In these contexts,
measures such as microcredit and microfinance initiatives, land tenure reforms,
and broader social protection measures
are of particular relevance. However,other forms of debt bondage, often related to shortcomings in migration governance, are also gaining in importance.
These include cases of debt bondage
arising from excessive fees charged byunregulated manpower, recruitment,
and brokering agencies. These more recent forms of debt bondage need to beaddressed as part of broader reforms
aimed at ensuring fair and effective migration governance, as discussed above.
The estimates also provide other insights
relating to coercion that are of relevanceto prevention and protection policies.
For example, while they show that withholding of wages is the most common
means of coercing people into staying
in forced labour, this conduct is not considered serious enough under most legal
systems to attract the attention of thecriminal justice authorities. Legal reforms

52

aimed at addressing this oversight would
be an important step toward reducing
this form of coercion.
Focusing on victim identification andprotection. Ending modern slavery will
require the effective identification of
victims and measures for ensuring theirsafe removal from abusive situations andfor promoting their recovery. There isan enormous gap between the estimated number of victims of modern slavery– more than 40 million – and the muchsmaller number of victims that have been
identified and assisted in recent years.
This points to the continuing need to prioritize and improve victim identification
by understanding both the nature andmanifestations of modern slavery. The
Global Estimates indicate that domestic work, the sex industry, construction,
manufacturing, and agriculture/fishingare sectors where the risk of modern slavery is especially high. This information
provides an important initial indicationof where victim identification and broader protection efforts should be focused.
One of the most alarming findings of themodern slavery estimates is the extent towhich it affects children. Children are victims of all forms of modern slavery andshould be priority in all efforts to identify,
safely remove, and rehabilitate victims.
Addressing the risk of modern slavery in situations of state fragility, conflict, and crisis. Globally, more than 1.5
billion people live in countries that are
affected by conflict, violence, and fragility. These contexts – characterised byincome shocks, a breakdown in formal
and family social support networks, migration, and disruptions in basic services provision – create the conditions forfurther violations of fundamental rights,
including an elevated risk of modern
slavery. Modern slavery is often used asa tactic of modern warfare, where armed
groups use sexual violence and forced
marriage as a means to subjugate a population. We have also seen an increase in
the number of unaccompanied children
seeking to escape crisis situations andobtain asylum, a significant number ofwhom have fallen victim to abuse. This
discussion underscores the urgent needto enhance responses to modern slavery

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriageamong crisis-affected populations. Prevention and protection measures should
be systematically included during allphases of humanitarian action. This includes in countries of destination, where
the identification and protection of thosedeemed most at risk of modern slavery
should considered part of the response
to influxes of asylum seekers.
Strengthening policies, legislation, andenforcement. The establishment of a legal architecture consistent with international legal standards relating to modern slavery is another critical elementof broader prevention and protection
efforts. This includes legislation dealing
with forced labour imposed by the State,
which the Global Estimates show still affects millions of individuals around theworld. It is also essential that relevant
legislation, including labour laws, apply
to all workers and sectors of the economy so that certain vulnerable groups are
not left unprotected. The criminalisationof forced marriage and the extraterritorial application of these laws is criticalto targeting forced marriage, which canaffect citizens beyond national borders.
But laws alone are insufficient if not accompanied by adequate enforcement.
Despite the enactment of criminal laws
on forced labour, slavery, and humantrafficking in many countries, international statistics indicate the number of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions
is very small relative to the scale of theoverall problem. This means that crimi-

Part 2. Ending modern slavery road forward to 2030

nal law enforcement needs to be intensified, particularly in response to cases ofsevere abuse. It is equally important tostrengthen the administration of labour
justice to apply both sanctions for theoffenders and remedies for the victims
of modern slavery. Systems of labour
administration and inspection also need
to be strengthened to enable effective
victim identification in the sectors of theeconomy where modern slavery occurs.
Further research and analysis at the national level, building on the results of the
Global Estimates, is needed to help identify the at-risk sectors where inspections
should be focused. Oversight positions
such as an independent anti-slavery
commissioner or a national rapporteur
can play an important complementaryrole. They provide a single point of contact at the national level whose responsibility is to track modern slavery issues
as they evolve, and to ensure that legal,
policy, and operational gaps are quickly
identified. Only a few countries, however,
have such oversight mechanisms alreadyin place.
.

53

2.2 Building theevidence base
Substantial progress has been made interms of measuring modern slavery andbuilding the evidence base on the issue.
The Global Estimates capture a largepart of the spectrum of abuses related
to modern slavery and provide the best
available data and information about thescale and distribution of forced labourand forced marriage today. But there remains a need for more and better data,
improved capacity of national data collection, and refinement and improvementin the measurement of modern slavery.
Not all situations listed in Target 8.7 arecovered by the Global Estimates. The
forced recruitment and use of children
by armed groups and armed forces was
excluded due to lack of reliable data. In
addition, while many cases of trafficking
in persons for forced labour were likely
to have been captured, the estimates did
not explicitly seek to measure all formsof human trafficking. This should be apriority for collaborative efforts by UN
agencies and Member States.48
Other key measurement priorities identified through the process of developing the Global Estimates include theimproved measurement of specificsub-populations. There is a need to more
effectively capture all forms of modern
slavery affecting children, adult victims
of forced sexual exploitation, and victims
in conflict contexts. The ability to trackchanges in modern slavery over time willbe critical for monitoring progress in thelead-up to 2030.
The most important priority is tostrengthen and extend national researchand data collection efforts on modern
slavery. While global measurement andmonitoring of modern slavery is vital,
information on the national and local dimensions of modern slavery is needed to
guide national policy responses. A number of States are now preparing and publishing annual reports on modern slavery,
but only a small number of governments
have started to use statistical methods

54

to estimate the scale and prevalence ofmodern slavery.
The need for standard survey tools formeasuring forced labour was recognizedby the 19th International Conference ofLabour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2013. A resolution was adopted at this conference
recommending “that the International
Labour Office set up a working groupwith the aim of sharing best practices on
forced labour surveys in order to encourage further such data gathering exercises in more countries.” The result of thisinternational working group will be presented and discussed at the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticiansin October 2018. In parallel, discussions
are ongoing to strengthen SDG indicators related to modern slavery.
Knowledge and data sharing arrangements are also vital. Hundreds of relevant
and rich datasets, including administrative data, have not thus far been madepublicly available, thus limiting their use.
This includes IOM’s human trafficking
case database that has been used to
produce the global estimates in this report. Part of the reason for this is thatdatasets relating to modern slavery areoften highly sensitive, raising a range ofprivacy and civil liberty concerns where
the risk of identifying data subjects canbe high and the consequences severe.
Databases are diverse, dispersed, mostly
disconnected from each other, and are
not standardized or comparable. IOM,
Polaris, and other partners are working
to overcome these challenges and arelaunching a global open data platform
for researchers, lawmakers, advocates,
funders, and other stakeholders. The
Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative(CTDC) publishes harmonized humantrafficking datasets from various organizations without identifying victims andusing a new international standard. Thisis the first open data portal of its kind,with primary data contributed by anti-trafficking organizations around theworld.
Given the near non-existent public availability of human trafficking data to date,
CTDC will have a wide impact that will

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

support the work of Alliance 8.7, a multi-stakeholder partnership committed
to achieving Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals.49 Alliance 8.7
also offers an important framework forstrengthening knowledge management
and sharing. Lessons learned from national projects and programmes arecontained in large numbers of separate
evaluations and studies, which, in the experience of many activists and practitioners, are scattered across the globe. Thereis considerable value in drawing theselearnings together.50 Alliance 8.7 partners, including UN agencies and Special
Rapporteurs, workers’ and employers’organizations, civil society organizations,and other stakeholders, have agreed
upon the need for data and knowledge
sharing platform and have begun work
towards creating it. The platform will provide users with a centralized access point
to information, statistics, and knowledge
products. Knowledge areas that will beprioritized include: prevalence of forced
labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour; vulnerable groups,
vulnerability, and risk factors; legislative,
regulatory, and normative frameworks;
national action plans; monitoring andevaluation of the impacts of public andprivate sector interventions; and funding
patterns.

2.3 International
cooperation andpartnership
The complex, global, and multi-dimensional phenomenon of modern slavery
cannot be resolved by national governments or other stakeholders acting on
their own. It requires an integrated, coordinated strategy to address root causes,
consequences, and impacts, with a focus
on cross-border strategies and bilateral,
regional, and international cooperation.

Target 8.7 through the alignment of
global, regional and national efforts, focusing on accelerating actions, sharing
knowledge, driving innovation, and leveraging resources.
The Global Estimates indicate that thevast majority of forced labour occurs in
the private economy, underscoring theimportance of partnership with the business community – alongside employers’
and workers’ organisations – in eradicating forced labour in business operations
and supply chains. National and international civil society organizations cancontribute strong local experience withpreventive approaches and the protection of vulnerable groups.
Cooperation should also be strengthened between and among governments
and with relevant international and regional organizations in areas such labour
law enforcement, law enforcement, migration governance, and fair recruitment,
to prevent trafficking, protect victims,
and deal with forced labour across borders. Stronger national coordination efforts are needed to provide coherence
between different authorities dealing
with education policy, social protection,
migration, labour markets, and crime
prevention, among others.
In many countries, the cost of required
action far exceeds available resources,
meaning that governments will not beable to adequately address modern slavery on their own. This underscores theimportance of international technical cooperation and support in mobilizing resources for national action programmes.
UN agencies, other multilateral andbilateral
organizations,international
non-governmental organizations, civilsociety, private foundations, and a variety of other groups involved can play animportant role in this regard. This should
include bilateral, regional, and international agreements on the exchange onknowledge and experience.

Alliance 8.7 has an important role to playin this regard, in cooperation with other
SDG initiatives, in that it seeks to achieve

Part 2. Ending modern slavery road forward to 2030

55

© Lisa KristineAnnex:
Note onmethodology
The Global Estimates of Modern Slavery
cover two principal issues, forced labourand forced marriage. The estimate offorced labour comprises forced labourin the private economy (forms of forced
labour imposed by private individuals,
groups, or companies, in all sectors except the commercial sex industry), forced
sexual exploitation of adults and allforms of commercial sexual exploitation
involving children, and state-imposed
forced labour. These estimates have been
derived from various sources, as noone source is considered sufficiently
suitable or reliable. This section summarizes the methods used to calculate theestimate. A more comprehensive technical description of the methodology isalso available.51
STOCK AND FLOW
All forms of modern slavery may bemeasured as both a stock and a flow.
A stock measurement refers to theaverage number of persons in modern
slavery at a given point in time during
the 2012-2016 reference period. A flow
measurement refers to the total numberof persons who were victims of modern
slavery during a specified period of time
between 2012 and 2016. The estimatescalculate both the average stock and total flow of the different components ofmodern slavery.
The duration of forced labour (meaning
the amount of time in which people weretrapped in forced labour) is the key factor in determining the average stock by

Annex: Note on methodology

reference to the total flow. The stock estimate is calculated by multiplying the total flow by the average duration of a spellof modern slavery. The average durationof modern slavery was determined fromthe database of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), containing
records of assisted victims of trafficking
who were registered during or after 2012.
FORCED LABOUR IN THE PRIVATEECONOMY AND FORCED MARRIAGE
The estimates of forced labour in theprivate economy and forced marriage
are derived from 54 nationally representative household surveys in 48 countries
during the 2014-2016 period, using acommon set of questions on forced labour and forced marriage (see Table 1).
Only cases of modern slavery that occurred between 2012 and 2016 are included in these estimates.
The target sample for the national
surveys was the entire civilian, non-institutional population, aged 15 years andolder. With the exception of areas thatwere scarcely populated or presented
a threat to the safety of interviewers,
samples were probability-based and nationally representative. Typically, 1,000
face-to-face interviews were conducted in each survey country, except for
Russia (n=2,000), Haiti (n=504), andcountries where multiple surveys were
implemented (n=2000 in each of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Thailand; andn=17,000 in India).

57

A total of 71,758 respondents were interviewed across the 48 survey countries.
The survey respondents were asked
questions about their own experiencesof forced labour and forced marriage,
and those of their immediate family
network. The family network included the respondent’s living immediatefamily (spouse or partner and biologi-

cal parents, children, and siblings). The
combined size of the family network of
the 71,758 sample respondents included
575,310 persons altogether, corresponding to an average family network size of
8.02. The family network included children below 15 years of age as well as
adults 15 years old and over.

Table 5Outline of questionnaire on forced labour in the ILO-Walk Free Surveys conducted aspart of Gallup World Poll surveys 2016

Questions

Description

P1-P4

Identification of immediate family network

P5-P7

Inquiry on forced labour experience by anyone among immediate family (e.g. forced to work by an employer or recruiter; forced to work to repay a debt; offered one kind of work, but forced to do something else)

P8-P10

Who in the immediate family, sex and age

P11

When last happened

P11I

Total duration during last 5 years

P12

Country in which last spell happened

P13

Type of work forced to do (e.g. agriculture, fishing, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, commercial sexual
exploitation, domestic labour)

P14

Coercion (e.g. physical violence, threats of violence, withheld wages, withheld passport, locked in living
quarters, had to repay a debt)

P15

Inquiry on forced marriage experience by anyone among immediate family

P17-20

Who in the immediate family, sex and age at time of forced marriage

WP1220Current age

P21

Whether consented to the marriage

As the estimate of forced labour
exploitation of adults is based on household surveys, respondents were interviewed in their country of residence. Nevertheless, all situations of modern slavery
were counted in the country where theexploitation took place, regardless of
the worker’s nationality or country ofresidence. For example, if a woman interviewed in Indonesia reported that she
was forced into domestic work in Oman
during the reference period, that casewould be attributed to Oman.
The global estimates of forced marriage are based on those who reported
having been forced to marry in the last
five years, without their consent, andthose who were forced to marry before
that time period but remain in the mar-58

riage. The data on forced marriage does
not include child marriage because it
was insufficiently precise to determine
which child marriages constituted forced
marriages. However, as persons aged 15
and over were surveyed, the estimate
includes information on children (15-17
years) who indicated they were forced
to marry without their consent in thelast five years. The estimate of forced
marriage is presented as both a total flow figure, representing all people
forced to marry between 2012 and 2016,
and a stock, representing all people living in a forced marriage in the reference
period. Given the socio-cultural context
of forced marriage, it was assumed thatsuch marriages are likely to last for atleast the five years of the reference period.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

AGGREGATING NATIONAL SURVEY
ESTIMATES TO GLOBAL ESTIMATES
The survey results are then expanded to
global totals with statistical adjustments(weights) to ensure that the sample correctly represents the global population.
The sampling weights take into consideration both the probability of a country
in a particular region being selected as asurvey country (country weights)52 andthe probability that a person residing in asurvey country will be interviewed (survey

weights). In calculating the survey weights,
population statistics are used to weightthe data by gender, age, and, wherereliable data is available, education or socioeconomic status. The survey weights
also account for the average size of afamily (“network”) and the response errorthat occurs due to the tendency for people reporting on their own experiences tobe more accurate than when talking about
experiences of family members, by giving
more importance to self-responses relative
to proxy responses for family members.

Figure 16
Sample scheme for the global estimate of forced labour and forced marriageWorld
199 countries and territories covering 99.7 per cent of world population in 2016

Region11 ILO Broad regions (Strata)

Sample country
48 countries/54 surveys

Area sample within country
6,000 clusters (primary sampling units - PSUs)

Household sample
71,758 sample households

Sample of individuals 15+ yrs old
71,758 respondents among household members 15+ yrs old

Family network
575,310 family members

Annex: Note on methodology

59

AGGREGATING NATIONAL SURVEY
ESTIMATES TO REGIONAL ESTIMATES
In order to estimate forced labour at aregional level, all countries in the world
are grouped according to the ILO defined region. The weighted national prevalence estimates of forced labour in the
country of exploitation for all countries in
the region are then added up for each region and applied to the total population
for that region.
FORCED SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
Estimation of forced sexual exploitation(and commercial sexual exploitationof children) required a different methodological approach, as too few cases
were reported across the 48 countries
surveyed. The estimates, covering bothchildren and adults, were calculatedusing two datasets. The first is the national survey data on forced labour of adults.
The second is the case data collected by
IOM in the process of the Organization
providing direct assistance to victims ofhuman trafficking since 2000. The IOM
dataset comprises cases of trafficking
for both sexual and labour exploitationand includes information on the profileof the victims of human trafficking (e.g.
age, gender, income) and on the trafficking situation (e.g. country of exploitation, industry of exploitation). The estimates were calculated in two steps. First,
statistical models were used to estimate
the ratio of the odds of “sex” to “labour”
cases according to age and gender fromthe IOM database. As an estimate oflabour exploitation cases was alreadyknown from the survey data, the proportion was then used to derive the estimateof cases of forced sexual exploitation.
Three alternative logistic regression
models53 were then tested, examining
the odds of being a victim of forced
sexual exploitation relative to being a
victim of forced labour exploitation. The
best fitting model was used to derive theestimates. Separate regression analyses
were run for adult and child victims offorced sexual exploitation. These odds
ratios were then applied to the corresponding global estimates of forced
labour exploitation of adults derived

60

from the national surveys. For example,
the estimate of the number of female
adult victims of forced sexual exploitation in Latin America and the Caribbean(407,724) was obtained by multiplying
the odds ratio (0.435586) with the estimate of the number of female adult victims of forced labour exploitation in Latin
America and the Caribbean (936,035).
FORCED LABOUR EXPLOITATION
OF CHILDREN
For forced labour exploitation ofchildren, the global estimate was determined in much the same way as forvictims of forced sexual exploitation, given that only 5.6 per cent of cases in thesurvey data involved respondents under
18 years of age. A number of logistic regression models, based on the IOM dataset, were tested to determine the odds
ratio that a victim of forced labour exploitation was a child rather than an adult.
As with the estimate of forced sexual
exploitation, to obtain an estimate ofchild victims of forced labour exploitation, the odds ratios were then multipliedby the global estimate of adult forced
labour exploitation derived from the national survey estimates.
FORCED LABOUR IMPOSEDBY THE STATE
For the purpose of this estimate, forced
labour imposed by state authorities has
been classified in six main categories:
1. Abuse of conscription, when conscripts
are forced to work for tasks which are
not of purely military character.
2. Obligation to perform work beyond
normal civic obligations.
3. Abuse of the obligation to participate
in minor communal services, whenthese services are not in the directinterest of the community and havenot benefited from prior consultationof the members of the said community.
4. Prison labour▪▪ Compulsory prison labour of prisoners
in remand or in administrative detention.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

▪▪ Compulsory prison labour exacted
for the benefit of private individuals,
companies, or associations outside
the exceptions allowed by the ILO
supervisory bodies.
▪▪ Compulsory prison labour exacted
from persons under certain circumstances, such as punishment for expressing political views, labour discipline, or peaceful participation in
strikes.
5. Compulsory labour for the purpose of
economic development.
6. Forced recruitment of children by
governments.
The forced recruitment of children byarmed groups and armed forces was excluded from the estimate due to a lackof reliable data. For the remaining formsof state-imposed forced labour, data wasidentified through a systematic review of
secondary sources, following a thoroughassessment of each identified case byreference to the relevant indicators. For
each country where there was an indication of the violation of the ILO forced
labour conventions by state authorities,
an estimate of the extent of the violation
was built on the basis of available reliable sources. The total number of people
who have experienced some forced labour imposed by the authorities during
the last five years (total flow) and theaverage number of victims in this situation at any moment of time between
2012 and 2016 (average stock) are presented.

Annex: Note on methodology

61© Lisa KristineEnd notes
1.

A total of 63,251 victims were detected in 106 coun- 8.
tries and territories between 2012 and 2014. Basedon the 17,752 victims detected in 85 countries in2014 for which sex and age were reported, a clear
majority were females – adult women and girls –comprising some 70 per cent of the total number ofdetected victims. UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, Vienna, 2016, 23.

2.

Estimates of children in forced labour exploitation,and of all victims of forced sexual exploitation, madeuse of administrative data held by the IOM on all reported cases of human trafficking since 2012.

3.

Methodology of the global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage. International
Labour Organization (ILO) and Walk Free Foundation, Geneva, 2017

4.

International Labour Organization, Forced Labour
Convention, 1930 (No. 29).

5.

6.

7.

End notes

This is the position taken by the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women and
the Committee on the Rights of the Child, with some
exceptions allowed in exceptional circumstances forchildren aged at least 16 years. See: Joint generalrecommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rightsof the Child on harmful practices, 14 November 2014
(CEDAW/C/GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18).

9. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, Adopted by a Conference ofPlenipotentiaries convened by Economic and Social
Council resolution 608(XXI) of 30 April 1956 anddone at Geneva on 7 September 1956.

10. For a detailed discussion of this point, see Methodology of the global estimates of modern slavery:
forced labour and forced marriage, International Labour Organization (ILO) and Walk Free Foundation,
ILO: Hard to see, harder to count: survey guidelines
Geneva, 2017.
to estimate forced labour of adults and children, Geneva, 2012.
11. For example, only two national surveys were undertaken in the Arab States, and none in the Gulf CoThe Office of the High Commissioner for Human
operation Council (GCC) countries, despite the inciRights has noted, “Women and girls in situations
dence of forced labour reported by different sourcesof child and forced marriage may experience conin such sectors as domestic work and construction
ditions inside a marriage which meet ‘internationalin the GCC countries. The regional estimate for Arablegal definitions of slavery and slavery-like practices’States is therefore built mainly from respondents
including servile marriage, sexual slavery, child serwho were interviewed in their country of residence
vitude, child trafficking and forced labour ….” United
and reported about their forced labour situation
Nations General Assembly, Preventing and Eliminatwhile working in that region. It is likely that this led
ing Child, Early and Forced Marriage, Report of theto underestimating the extent of modern slavery in
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner forthis region. Moreover, the estimates of forced sexHuman Rights, A/HRC/26/22, 2 April 2014, http://
ual exploitation and forced labour of children werewww.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSesbased on the IOM database of registered victims
sions/Session26/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?and the regional distribution of registered victims
sourcedoc=/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/reflects where IOM has programming to provide diSession26/Documents/A-HRC-26-22_en.doc&acrect assistance to victims of trafficking. This has histion=default&DefaultItemOpen=1.
torically led to an overrepresentation of Europe, inparticular Eastern Europe, and underrepresentation
According to the Committee on the Elimination ofof Latin America where IOM has fewer direct assisDiscrimination against Women and the Committee
tance activities for victims of trafficking. The figureson the Rights of the Child, “A child marriage is conon prevalence are inevitably more robust in regions
sidered to be a form of forced marriage, given that
where more survey work has been conducted, andone and/or both parties have not expressed full, freedatabases are more developed, at the national level.
and informed consent. As a matter of respecting thechild’s evolving capacities and autonomy in making 12. See Emma Psaila, Vanessa Leigh, Marilena Verbari,decisions that affect her or his life, a marriage of aSara Fiorentini et al., Forced Marriage from a gendermature, capable child below 18 years of age may beperspective, (European Parliament, 2016), pp. 60–
allowed in exceptional circumstances, provided that68, [accessed 13 Apr. 2016], http://www.europarl.
the child is at least 16 years of age and that such
europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/556926/
decisions are made by a judge based on legitimate
IPOL_STU(2016)556926_EN.pdf.
exceptional grounds defined by law and on the evidence of maturity, without deference to culture and 13. This comprised all forced labour imposed by private
tradition.” Source: Joint general recommendation
agents other than for commercial sexual exploitaNo. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Distion. It included, among other things, bonded labour,crimination against Women/general comment No.
forced domestic work, and forced labour in agricul18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child onture and remote rural areas.
harmful practices, 14 November 2014 (CEDAW/C/
GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18).
14. This included women and men who have involuntarily entered a form of commercial sexual exploitation,63

or who have entered this form of forced labour voluntarily but cannot leave. It also included all forms ofcommercial sexual exploitation involving children.

gained from quantitative surveys of forced labourat the country level. The indicators are broadlygrouped under the three dimensions of unfree recruitment, work and life under duress, and impossibility of leaving the employer.

15. This included forced labour exacted by the military,compulsory participation in public works, and forced
prison labour, which included not only forced labour 29. Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary
camps but also work imposed in modern semi-primanifestations of slavery, its causes and consevatized or fully privatized prisons.
quences, United Nations Human Rights Council, thirty-third session, Agenda item 3, July 2016 (UN Doc.
16. Defined as “all work or service which is exacted from
A/HRC/33/46).
any person under the menace of any penalty andfor which the said person has not offered himself 30. South Asian laws generally define bonded labour
voluntarily”. See International Labour Organization,systems as those where workers provide work or
Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), http://
services to a landlord or employer in exchange forwww.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUa monetary advance and incur restrictions on their
B:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C029.
freedom of movement or occupation until this debt
has been worked off. The concept therefore overlaps
17. Only international migration was measured throughwith, but is not the same as, debt bondage, which is
the household surveys. The location of forced mardefined in the United Nations Supplementary Conriage was also not captured.
vention on Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions
and Practices Similar to Slavery (1956) as “the status
18. In particular, the estimate relating to forced sexualor condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his
exploitation is drawn from the IOM database, while
personal services or those of a debtor under his conthe estimate relating to forced labour exploitation istrol as security for a debt, if the value of those serbased on national datasets and the estimate relating
vices as reasonably assessed is not applied towards
to state-imposed forced labour is based on the analthe liquidation of the debt or the length and natureysis of secondary sources collected by the ILO.
of those services are not respectively limited anddefined”. The Supplementary Convention also refers
19. IOM: IOM Global Compact Thematic Paper: Combatto debt bondage as a “servile status” and requires
ing Trafficking in Persons and Contemporary Forms
member States to carry out national measures toof Slavery (2017), https://www.iom.int/sites/deabolish its practice.
fault/files/our_work/ODG/GCM/IOM-Thematic-Paper-Trafficking-in-persons.pdf.
31. These estimates, however, should be interpretedwith caution, particularly as the regional distribution
20. ILO: Addressing governance challenges in a changof victims in the IOM database used in the methodoling labour migration landscape, Report IV, Internaogy reflects where IOM has programming to provide
thtional Labour Conference, 106 Session (2017).
direct assistance to victims of trafficking.
21. UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 33. As explained in the methodology annex, this figure
2016.
is derived from examination of specific cases acrosscountries, representing different types of forced la22. IOM: Flow Monitoring Surveys: The Human Traffickbour imposed by the State.
ing and Other Exploitative Practices Prevalence Indication Survey, June 2017, http://migration.iom.int/ 34. With regard to abuse of conscription, the estimate
europe/.
does not cover recruitment of children for armed
services.
23. UNICEF and IOM: Harrowing Journeys: Children on
the Move Across the Mediterranean Sea, at Risk of 35. More information is available through reports from
Trafficking and Exploitation (2017), https://www.
the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Deiom.int/sites/default/files/press_release/file/Hartention.
rowing_Journeys_Children_and_youth_on_the_move_across_the_Mediterranean.pdf
36. In 2006, the United Nations Secretary-General stated, “A forced marriage is one lacking the free and23. Information on the industry was available for 65 per
valid consent of at least one of the parties”. In-depth
cent of total cases of forced labour exploitation.
study on all forms of violence against women. Reportof the Secretary-General, UN document A/61/122/
24. ILO: Global Estimates on Migrant Workers: Results
Add.1.
and Methodology: Special focus on migrant domestic workers, ILO, Geneva, 2015.
37. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human
25. Marie José Tayah, Decent Work for Migrant Domestic Workers: Moving the Agenda Forward. ILO, Geneva, 2016.
26. D. Shields, World Disposable Gloves Market - Opportunities and Forecasts, 2013-2020, Portland, USA.
Allied Market Research, 2014, quoted in In good
hands, Tacking labour rights concerns in the manufacture of medical gloves, British Medical Association, BMA Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group,
European Working Group on Ethical Public Procurement, 2016.
27. ILO: Hard to see, harder to count: Survey guidelines
to estimate the forced labour of adults and children”,
ILO, 2012. The guidelines share the ILO experience64

Rights has noted, “Women and girls in situations ofchild and forced marriage may experience conditions inside a marriage which meet “international legal definitions of slavery and slavery-like practices”
including servile marriage, sexual slavery, child servitude, child trafficking and forced labour ….” United
Nations General Assembly, Preventing and Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage, Report of the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights, A/HRC/26/22, 2 April 2014:http://
www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session26/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/
Session26/Documents/A-HRC-26-22_en.doc&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1.

Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage

39. Forced marriage is estimated based on national 49. SDG Target 8.7 calls for “immediate and effective
household surveys conducted in 48 countries, inmeasures to eradicate forced labour, end modern
volved interviews with over 71,000 respondents
slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohiaged 15 years or older. See methodological annex
bition and elimination of the worst forms of child lafor further details.
bour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers,and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.”
40. See Emma Psaila, Vanessa Leigh, Marilena Verbari,Sara Fiorentini et al., Forced Marriage from a gen- 50. See for example “The Promising Practices Datader perspective, (European Parliament, 2016), pp.
base”, a systematic review of these evaluations
60–68, accessed 13/04/2016, http://www.europarl.
helps to identify some of these lessons about what
europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/556926/
works, and just as importantly, what doesn’t work to
IPOL_STU(2016)556926_EN.pdf.
eradicate modern slavery. See www.walkfreefoundation.org/resources for more information.
41. These consist of coercing a widow to marry a relative of her deceased husband.
51. Methodology of the global estimates of modern slavery: Forced labour and forced marriage. Internation42. UNODC, Op. Cit., as above
al Labour Organisation and Walk Free Foundation,
Geneva, 201743. UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
2016.
52. Note that while the methodology assumes the set ofsurveys constitutes a random sample of countries, in
44. According to the Committee on the Elimination ofreality the survey countries were selected for speDiscrimination against Women and the Committeecific reasons. So the assumption is made but is noton the Rights of the Child, “A child marriage is conrealized.
sidered to be a form of forced marriage, given that
one and/or both parties have not expressed full, free 53. Regression models are used to assess the nature ofand informed consent. As a matter of respecting thea relationship between an outcome variable and one
child’s evolving capacities and autonomy in making
or more independent variables.
decisions that affect her or his life, a marriage of amature, capable child below 18 years of age may beallowed in exceptional circumstances, provided thatthe child is at least 16 years of age and that suchdecisions are made by a judge based on legitimate
exceptional grounds defined by law and on the evidence of maturity, without deference to culture andtradition.” Source: Joint general recommendation
No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No.
18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on
harmful practices, 14 November 2014 (CEDAW/C/
GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18).
45. Social protection, or social security, is a human rightand is defined as the set of policies and programmes
designed to reduce and prevent poverty and vulnerability throughout the life cycle. Social protection
includes nine policy areas: child and family benefits,maternity protection, unemployment support, employment injury benefits, sickness benefits, healthprotection, old-age benefits, disability benefits, andsurvivors’ benefits. Social protection systems address all these policy areas by a mix of contributory
schemes (social insurance) and non-contributorytax-financed benefits, including social assistance.
Social protection floors are nationally defined sets ofbasic social security guarantees that should ensure,as a minimum, that over the life cycle, all in needhave access to essential health care and to basic income security, which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at
the national level. See http://www.ilo.org/secsoc/
areas-of-work/policy-development-and-applied-research/social-protection-floor/lang--ja/index.htm.
46. The ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation,2012 (No. 202) provides a key framework for ensuring social protection for all.
47. The Global Compact for Migration aims to provide
for an overarching framework. See also: New York
Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, 2016.
48. Trafficking for the purpose of forced labour is covered by the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress andPunish Trafficking in Persons (2000) and the ILO
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention,
1930.

End notes

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Cover photos © Lisa Kristine © ILO