As people in many countries across the world celebrate May Day, commemorating the demand of workers for shorter work days, higher wages and the right to organize themselves, millions of women, children and men are languishing under the weight of forced labor. Often, we hear of modern day slavery or trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation. Forced labor is another type of trafficking, and its victims are found in every country. People trapped in forced labor are denied their human rights every day and deprived of their freedom, they live and work in inhuman conditions.
According to the International Labor Organizations’ Forced Labor Convention of 1930, forced or compulsory labor is – “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily.” Use of violence, intimidation, manipulation of debt, retention of identity papers, threats of denunciation to immigration authorities, etc. are the common practices employed to keep people enslaved.
In addition to being a serious violation of fundamental human rights and labor rights, forced labor is a criminal offence.
Modern slavery has many faces. It still exists in every country, and it affects us all. Some of the victims of trafficking are forced to work as beggars, enter into sham marriages, abused domestic workers, pornography production, organ removal, child soldiers, cotton and coco pickers, etc.
Forced labor is not only a violation of human rights, it is a leading cause of poverty and economic development in developing countries. Violence, conflicts and wars, floods and droughts are making people very vulnerable to be trafficked into slavery.
The ILO and the United Nations have implemented a series of Conventions and Protocols to prevent, protect and eliminate all forms of forced labor. Although forced labor is condemned universally, according to the ILO, “20.9 million people around the world are subject to it. 90 percent (18.7 million) are exploited in the private economy, by individuals and enterprises and the remaining 2.2 million are in state-imposed forms of forced labor.” Of the 18.7 million, 22 percent – 4.5 million – are victims of forced sexual exploitation and 14.2 million (68 percent) of forced labor exploitation.
According to the Walk Free Foundation, an Australia based human rights group, “36 million are living as slaves around the globe.” (They have increased their estimate of the number of slaves, due to better data collection.) They list Mauritania, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Qatar and India as the centers of modern day slavery. India had the greatest number of slaves – 14.3 million from a population of 1.25 billion. Other countries are – China 3.2 million, Pakistan 2.1 million, Uzbekistan 1.2 million Russia 1.05 million, Nigeria 834,200, Democratic Republic of Congo 762,900, Indonesia 714,100, Bangladesh 680,900 and Thailand 475,300.
- Hereditary slavery still exists in Mauritania, a West African country. Four percent of its 3.9 million people are enslaved.
- Uzbekistan forces its citizens, including school going children to pick cotton every year to meet the state imposed quotas.
- Haiti has a practice of sending poor children to stay with rich relatives or acquaintances for education, which leads to abuse and forced labor.
- Qatar relies on migrants who work and live under inhuman conditions to build its mega projects for the 2022 World Cup.
- Thailand, world’s third largest seafood exporter ($7 billion industry). The fishing industry employs trafficked migrant laborers from neighboring countries.
- It is estimated that around 300,000 child soldiers serve in government forces or armed rebel groups. Children under the age of 18 are recruited by state and non-state armed groups and used as fighters, cooks, guards, suicide bombers, human shields, spies, messengers, etc.
- Thousands of children are employed in dangerous and unsafe mining sectors in Africa, Asia and South America, both above and underground. These children risk their lives to supply the minerals – also known as conflict minerals – needed for our mobile phones
Forced labor generates $150 billion illegal profits in the private economy every year; $99 billion comes from commercial sexual exploitation, and the remaining $51 billion is from forced economic exploitation, including domestic work, agriculture and other economic activities.
No continent or country is free of some form of forced labor. Elimination of forced labor is a challenge to governments around the world. All countries have criminalized modern slavery, except North Korea. Responses of governments to prevent, protect and punish perpetrators of trafficking are varied, they could do much more to assist victims and remove slavery from supply chains.
It is a social sin/crime and we all have contributed directly or indirectly to sustain this criminal exploitation. What role can we play to end forced labor? At the UN, as part of the NGO Committee on Stop Trafficking in Persons the Vincentian Family NGOs are continually advocating to stop forced labor. Our membership at the grassroots are engaged in preventing modern day slavery and offering assistance to victims in a variety of ways. Along with these what else can we do? Do we ever pause to see from where our everyday use items – clothes, phones, electronics, meat, fish, vegetables, chocolate and whole list of things come from? Ask questions to check who produces them and under what conditions; are they paid a fair living wage? Do they employ slave/child labor? How can we change consumer behavior to reduce the demand for forced labor? Join the ILO “Alliance 8.7” to eradicate forced labor, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labor in all its forms.
Conventions and Protocols:
- ILO Forced Labor Convention, 1930
- ILO Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, 1957
- ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labor Convention, 1930 and forced labor (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014
- UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2000
Two short videos on Forced labor – part one and two:
Slavery is Alive (Part 1) from Free the Slaves on Vimeo.
Slavery is Alive (Part 2) from Free the Slaves on Vimeo.
Teresa Kotturan, SCN, NGO Representative for Sisters of Charity Federation
Teresa, thanks for your informative summary and raising those important questions we need to ask ourselves as consumers. I know I want to use my consumer power in more just and sustainable ways. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda’s book, Resisting Structural Evil: Love as a Ecological-Economic Vocation is a great resource and certainly challenges me. I imagine us as Vincentian Family living the Charism of Charity within this Ecological-Economic Vocation. I know I need help in doing this.