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Statistics on forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking

July 18, 2020
Statistics on forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking

2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery

  1. Forced Labour and Forced MarriageThe 2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery focus on two main issues: forced labour and forced marriage. The estimate of forced labour comprises forced labour in the private economy, forced sexual exploitation of adults and commercial sexual exploitation of children, and state-imposed forced labour. It is the result of a collaborative effort between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). They benefited from inputs provided by other UN agencies, in particular the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Profit estimates of forced labour

Annual profits per victim are highest in the developed economies (US$34,800 per capita), followed by countries in the Middle East (US$15,000 per capita), and lowest in the Asia-Pacific region (US$5,000 per capita) and in Africa (US$3,900 per capita).Per capita profits are highest in forced sexual exploitation, which can be explained by the demand for such services and the prices clients are willing to pay, by low capital investments and by the low operating costs associated with this activity.

ICLS and forced labour

  1. The 19th ICLS (International Conference of Labour Statisticians) in 2013, adopted the Resolution II concerning further work on statistics of forced labour  recommending that the Office set up a working group with the aim of sharing best practices on forced labour surveys in order to encourage further such surveys in more countries. The working group should engage ILO constituents and other experts in discussing and developing international guidelines to harmonize concepts, elaborate statistical definitions, standard lists of criteria and survey tools on forced labour, and to inform the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians on the progress made.

    Based on this decision, the ILO has initiated the “ILO Data Initiative on Modern Slavery “, a global research programme to take stock of national and international initiatives measuring forced labour, human trafficking and slavery, to discuss strengths and limitations of existing methodologies and build a consensus on concepts, statistical definitions and standard list of criteria, survey tools and estimation methodologies which could be used to develop surveys in the future.
    Expert workshop “Measuring Modern Slavery”