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Slavery still exists. It is estimated that there are anything between 10 million and 27 million slaves in the world today.³ (ILO and freetheslaves.net)

The reason for this broad range is that those people being counted are largely a ‘hidden’ population.⁴ (CNN Freedom Project)

It is estimated that human trafficking alone generates annual profits of around $32 billion. ⁵ (ILO)

The majority of trafficking victims are between 18 and 24 years of age. ⁶ (UN.GIFT)

In 1850, the cost of a slave (in today’s dollars) was $40,000, the avg. price of a slave today is $90. ⁷ (Free the Slaves)

The victims most vulnerable are women and children. Children in particular are sold, bonded, trafficked, subjected to commercial sexual exploitation, recruited into armed conflicts and forced to work as domestic workers. ⁸ (antislavery.org)

Several factors contribute to the persistence of slavery practices despite it being illegal in most countries, most significantly, poverty, the lack of enforcement of anti-slavery laws, and crime and corruption, including at the state level. ⁹ (Free the Slaves)

Slavery has various forms today including human trafficking, forced labour, descent-based slavery, bonded labour and child labour. ¹⁰ (antislavery.org)

Other less known forms of slavery include domestic servitude, forced marriage and those traded for the purpose of organ removal. ¹¹ (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

BONDED LABOR FACTS

Bonded labourer is one of the most widely used methods of enslaving people. A person becomes a bonded labourer when their labour is demanded as a means of payment for a loan. ¹² (antislavery.org)

Extreme cases of bonded labourers have been recorded in Pakistan where labourers where found chained together and under armed guard. ¹³ (antislavery.org)

Bonded labourers can include whole families such as is the case in India and Nepal, migrant agricultural workers in Brazil or women ‘exported’ to Europe as domestic workers or into sexual slavery. ¹⁴ (antislavery.org)

FORCED LABOR FACTS

Forced labor is any work or services which people are forced to do, against their will under the threat of some form punishment. ¹⁵ (antislavery.org)

Force slave labor is most frequently found in labor intensive, under regulated industries such as agriculture, fishing, domestic work, construction, mining, quarrying, manufacturing, prostitution and sexual exploitation. ¹⁶ (antislavery.org)

Children below the age of 18 years represent between 40% to 50% of all forced labour victims. ¹⁷ (antislavery.org)

80% of all people trafficked into forced labor both for economic and sexual exploitation are women and girls. ¹⁸ (US Department of State)

In the majority of case forced labour is used by private individuals or and facilitated by private agents. However in some instances, the State or the military are directly responsible for forced labour as is the case in countries like Burma, North Korea, China and Uganda. ¹⁹ (antislavery.org)

There is a high incidence of forced labour used in about 29 countries to produce 50 products consumed or used on a daily basis including garments, shoes, toys as wells as bricks, cotton, cocoa and carpets. ²⁰ (US Department of Labor)

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Trafficking involves transporting people away from the communities in which they live and forcing them to work against their will using violence, deception or coercion. ²¹ (antislavery.org)

Human trafficking is tied with illegal arms industry as the second largest international criminal industry in the world and it is the fastest growing. ²² (US Department of Health and Human Services)

Between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked internationally every year. ²³ (NUR Freedom Center)

As many as 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually. ²⁴ (NUR Freedom Center)

Atlanta is a major hub of human trafficking and ranked amongst the top 14 cities in the United States for the highest incidence of children used in prostitution. ²⁵ (Governor’s Office for Children and Families)

The majority of trafficking victims are between 18 and 24 years of age. ²⁶ (UN.GIFT)

Sexual exploitation is the most commonly identified factor driving human trafficking (79%), followed by forced labor, (18%). ²⁷ (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

It is estimated that human trafficking alone generates annual profits of around $32 billion. ²⁸ (ILO)

43% of trafficking victims are used for forced commercial sexual exploitation, of whom 98 per cent are women and girls. ²⁹ (UN.GIFT)

An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. ³⁰ (UNICEF)

Every minute, two children are sold into slavery ³¹ (Innocence Atlanta)

¹ League of Nations, Slavery Convention of 1926.

² International Justice Mission, Forced Labor Factsheet,www.ijm.org/sites/default/files/resources/Factsheet-Forced-Labor-Slavery.pdf

³ International Labour Organisation ILO Global Report, The Cost of Coercion – (2009) pp 1 & 65; Free the Slaves, About Slavery:Modern Slavery, www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=301, 2012

⁴ Manav Tanneru, The challenges of counting a ‘hidden population’. CNN Freedom Project, http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/category/the-facts/the-number/

⁵ International Labour Organisation, www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/wcms_090356.pdf, (2008)

⁶ UN Global Initiative to Fighting Human Trafficking, www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/labour/Forced_labour/HUMAN_TRAFFICKING_-_THE_FACTS_-_final.pdf

⁷ Free the Slaves, About Slavery: Modern Slavery, www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=301, 2007-2012

⁸ www.antislavery.org/includes/documents/cm_docs/2009/s/slavery_past_and_present.pdf

⁹ www.freetheslaves.net, About Slavery: Modern Slavery, www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx?pid=301

¹⁰ Anti-Slavery International, www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/what_is_modern_slavery.aspx

¹¹ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Report on Trafficking I Persons, www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf, 2009

¹² Anti-Slavery International, www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/bonded_labour.aspx

¹³ Anti-Slavery International, www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/bonded_labour.aspx

¹⁴ Anti-Slavery International, www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/bonded_labour.aspx

¹⁵ www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/forced_labour.aspx

¹⁶ www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/forced_labour.aspx

¹⁷ www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/forced_labour.aspx

¹⁸ U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007

¹⁹ www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/forced_labour.aspx

²⁰ US Department of Labor, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking. www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/PDF/2011TVPRA.pdf, 2011

²⁷ www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/trafficking.aspx

²² US Department of Health and Human Services, Factsheet: Human Trafficking, www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_human.html, 2011

²³ The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, www.freedomcenter.org/slavery-today/, 2004-2012

²⁴ www.freedomcenter.org/slavery-today/

²⁵ Governor’s Office for Children and Families, Commercial Sex Exploitation of Children: A Problem in Georgia’s Back Yard 2010 www.georgia.gov/vgn/images/portal/cit_1210/3/16/160184536CSEC%20A%20Problem%20in%20Georgia’s%20Back%20Yard%202010%20Report.pdf

²⁶ UN Global Initiative to Fighting Human Trafficking, www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/labour/Forced_labour/HUMAN_TRAFFICKING_-_THE_FACTS_-_final.pdf

²⁷ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Report on Trafficking I Persons, www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf, 2009

²⁸ International Labour Organisation, www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/wcms_090356.pdf, (2008)

²⁹ UN Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking, www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/labour/Forced_labour/HUMAN_TRAFFICKING_-_THE_FACTS_-_final.pdf

³⁰ www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58005.html

³¹ Innocence ATLANTA, www.innocenceatlanta.org/about/our-story/

³³ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Report on Trafficking I Persons, www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf, 2009

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DIG DEEPER AND LEARN MORE ABOUT MODERN DAY SLAVERY BY CONNECTING WITH THESE ORGANIZATIONS, BOOKS, WEB RESOURCES, AND FACTS.

BONDED LABOR FACTS

FORCED LABOR FACTS

HUMAN TRAFFICKING