According to a new report from a UN agency, criminal organisations and individuals generate about $236 billion yearly from forced labour worldwide.
The Director General of the International Labour Organisation, Gilbert Houngbo, has called for cooperation and support from stakeholders worldwide.
Citing the report on his official X (twitter) handle, he said “deeply concerned by the extent of illegal profits from forced labour revealed in new ILO report. Our data puts the annual profits at US$ 236bn, a 37% increase since 2014. The international community must unite in action to end this human rights abuse.”
According to the ILO report titled Profits and Poverty: The economics of forced labour, traffickers and criminals are making an estimated US$10,000 per victim, which is more than the US$8,269 (adjusted for inflation) they made ten years earlier.
This is a result of both more individuals being taken advantage of and more money being made from each victim.
The report further mentioned that “after forced commercial sexual exploitation, the sector with the highest annual illegal profits from forced labour is industry, at US$35 billion, followed by services (US$20.8 billion), agriculture (US$5.0 billion), and domestic work (US$2.6 billion). These illegal profits are the wages that rightfully belong in the pockets of workers but instead remain in the hands of their exploiters, as a result of their coercive practices.”
Three years ago, on any given day, almost 6.3 million people were victims of forced commercial sexual exploitation; nearly four out of every five of these victims were women or girls.