50mn people under forced labour and marriage: UN report

Geneva: The United Nations reported on Monday that fifty million people across the globe are confined to forced labour or forced marriage. The organisation warned that the victims' numbers have ballooned in recent years, Agence France-Press (AFP) reported.

Though the organisation had set the goal of eradicating modern-day slavery by 2030, the numbers skyrocketed by 10 million between 2016 and 2021, the new report suggested.

The study, run by UN's agencies for labour and migration along with the Walk Free Foundation, suggested that 28 million people were in forced labour as of the end of 2021, and 22 million were living in forced marriages. This means around one person out of 150 is bound to modern forms of slavery.

Chief of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Guy Ryder, reacted that the situation of modern slavery is not improving is shocking. This abuse of fundamental human rights cannot be justified at all, he added.

The report found that the Covid-19 pandemic worsened conditions for many workers, raising their debt levels. In addition, climate change and armed conflicts contributed to the disruption of employment and education while increasing poverty along with forced and unsafe migration, the report stated.

The report estimated that forced labour could last years while forced marriage is "a lifetime sentence", AFP quoted.

Further, the report stated that women and children are the most vulnerable. One in five people in forced labour is a child, and more than half of these children face commercial sexual exploitation.

The report shows that migrant workers are more than three times more likely to be subjected to forced labour compared to non-migrant adult workers.

Though modern slavery is in every country, more than half of cases of forced labour and a quarter of forced marriages are in upper-middle-income or high-income countries.

The number of people, mostly women and girls, stuck in forced marriages had grown by 6.6 million since the last global estimates in 2016. People in forced labour surged by 2.7 million during the same period.

The report also adds that 14 per cent of those in forced labour were under jobs assigned by state authorities, particularly the compulsory prison labour in many countries.

The report raises concerns over forced labour in North Korea under harsh conditions. The possible forced labour in China's Xinjiang region was also included in the report. Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were allegedly forced into labour here in China.