The 2021 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, released last month, make for bleak reading. Fifty million people are now thought to be enslaved, 10 million more than the previous estimate in 2016. The estimated number of people in forced labour has increased by 2.7 million to 27.6 million, while the estimated number of people in forced marriage has risen by 6.6 million to 22 million.
The report, jointly released by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and WalkFREE, offers some explanations for this rise. Migrants are vulnerable to forced labour and exploitation, for example, so crises like the military coup in Myanmar increase the risks by making more refugees. The lack of respect for collective bargaining in many places can also expose workers to exploitative labour practices, and the resultant lack of decent work for adults makes it more likely that children will start working to enable their families to survive.
On top of all that, the global economic downturn has increased indebtedness amongst poor people. This has inevitably led to the growth in debt bondage, a pernicious enabler of modern slavery that affects approximately one-fifth of those currently enslaved (10 million people).
