Nearly 24 million people work involuntarily in all regions of the world, generating almost a quarter-trillion dollars a year in illegal profits for traffickers and criminals particularly in Europe and Central Asia.
The figures from an International Labor Organization report on Tuesday.indicate that as much as US$236 billion a year in illegal profits come from the work of 23.7 million people doing involuntary jobs. The dollar figure is equal to Myanmar's GDP in 2023, or Qatar's GDP in 2022.
The report is based on 2021 global estimates of forced labor by ILO, Walk Free Foundation and International Organization for Migration.
Separately, the International Criminal Court's prosecutor, Karim A.A. Khan KC, announced a call for public comment on a new policy on slavery crimes – the first such policy from an international judicial institution.
“Slavery crimes are committed against an untold number of persons and populations, including child soldiers, persons forced to migrate or be trafficked, and persons detained, disappeared, or forced into marriage or labor that devolves into slavery," he said, calling the policy a resource for others who "join us in seeking justice for survivors across the world."
Compared to ILO's 2014 report, the latest figures show traffickers and criminals are making 37% more in yearly profits, up from US$172 billion, and exploiting 27% more forced laborers, up from 18.7 million people.
"This is the obscene level of annual profit generated from forced labor in the world today. This figure reflects the wages or earnings effectively stolen from the pockets of workers by the perpetrators of forced labor through their coercive practices," the U.N. labor agency's report says.
"It represents money subtracted from the incomes of workers often already struggling to meet the needs of their families. For migrant workers, it is money taken from the remittances they send home to their families and relatives."
ILO's Forced Labor Convention, which took effect in 1932 and is one of the agency's eight fundamental treaties, defines forced or compulsory labor as “all work or service that is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which said person has not offered himself voluntarily."
The private sector vs. government
Involuntary work and coercion can occur at any stage of the job cycle, ILO says, including recruitment, employment or separation.
For statistical purposes, the agency differentiates between government-imposed forced labor and privately-imposed forced labor, which can range from bonded labor to trafficking to slavery.
ILO said its report did not cover government-imposed forced labor because of a dearth of data, though estimates show 3.9 million people are affected.
"The lack of data on the economics of the various forms of state-imposed forced labor, especially the abuse of compulsory prison labor and abuse of military conscription, made it impossible to estimate profits from these forms of forced labour in the current edition," the report says.
The largest profits from forced labor are found in Europe and Central Asia, followed by the Asia-Pacific, Americas, Africa and Middle East.
The 'profit per victim' factor
By far the largest share of profits, US$173 billion or 73%, is from forced commercial sexual exploitation, but it accounts for 27% of people in forced labor. That's due to "the huge difference in profit per victim" – US$27,252 from involuntary sex workers versus US$3,687 from other forced laborers.
Measured on a per-victim basis, Europe and Central Asia still have the most profits, but the Middle East and the Americas are the next most profitable, followed by Africa and and the Asia-Pacific region.
ILO categorizes the four broad work sectors that are rife with forced labor as services, industry, agriculture and domestic work.
"Forced labor perpetuates cycles of poverty and exploitation and strikes at the heart of human dignity," ILO chief Gilbert Houngbo said. "We now know that the situation has only got worse. The international community must urgently come together to take action to end this injustice."
Valdis Dombrovskis, a European Commission executive vice-president who works on economic and trade issues, called the findings in the ILO report "both shocking and appalling."
"Forced labor is the opposite of social justice and sustainable development. Let me be very clear: Business must never be done at the expense of workers' dignity and their labor rights," Dombrovskis said as the report was launched.
"The evidence and results presented in the report illustrate the urgent need for stronger measures," he said. "As a basic response to this exploitation, we notably need more action to prevent the use of forced labor and protect labor rights."
