Profits from forced labor reach $236 billion annually, according to a report from the International Labor Organization (ILO) published Tuesday.
Total illegal profits from forced labor have increased by $64 billion (37 percent) since 2014, a spectacular increase of 37% in ten years to reach 236 billion dollars annually. An increase fueled both by an increase in the number of people forced to work and by higher profits generated by the exploitation of victims.
The report entitled “Profits and poverty: the economic dimension of forced labor ” estimates that traffickers and criminals generate nearly $10,000 per victim, compared to $8,269 (adjusted for inflation) a decade ago.
These figures highlight the “serious economic impact“forced labor for Bernd Lange, European parliamentarian elected in Germany, present during the presentation of the UN agency’s report on Tuesday in Brussels. Manuela Tomei, director of the ILO’s working conditions and equality department , she described as “obscene” the amount of 236 billion dollars.
“People are trapped in a cycle of abuse, subjected to different forms of coercion that prevent them from escaping jobs they do against their will,” she added.
The ILO defines forced labor as work imposed against the will of the employee and under penalty of sanction, or threat of sanction. It can occur at any stage of employment: during recruitment, in the living conditions associated with work or by forcing people to stay in a job when they want to leave it.
An estimated 27.6 million people were subject to forced labor every day in 2021, an increase of 10% from the previous year, the ILO says. The Asia-Pacific region was home to more than half of these people, while Africa, the Americas, and Europe-Central Asia each had between 13 and 14 percent.
On Tuesday March 13, EU governments reached an agreement to ban the import of products made from forced labor. Objective: to prevent products linked to forced labor from entering the EU, and increase pressure on governments and businesses to end forced labor practices.
The report Profits and poverty: the economic dimension of forced labor of the ILO is available online.
Additional sources • ILO / ONUTV