ILO to Launch Comprehensive New Report on Global Forced Labour

GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Office (ILO) is to launch a comprehensive report on forced labour on 11 May 2005, providing for the first time global and regional data on the scope of forced labour, an estimate of the profits derived from trafficking in people and propose a new global initiative to abolish such practices.

"A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour" has been prepared under the Follow up to the ILO's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and is the most extensive and detailed analysis of contemporary forced labour to be issued to date.
The 87-page study provides the:

• first estimates by an international organization of forced labour in the world today, both globally and regionally;
  
• number of people affected by forced labour;
  
• number who are victims of trafficking; and,
  
• first estimate of the profits made by those exploiting trafficked workers.

The report also analyses the major categories of forced labour and provides an overview of main policy points that show the abolition of forced labour presents significant challenges for virtually every country in the world - industrialized, transition and developing countries alike. In addition, it will assess the experience at the national level in taking up this challenge, with particular emphasis on the importance of sound laws and policies and their rigorous enforcement, as well as effective prevention strategies.

Finally, the report reviews the actions in a number of countries against forced labour over the past four years by the ILO and its tripartite partners - governments, employers and workers - and calls for a global alliance against forced labour.