1. Contact the ILO Special Action Programme against forced labour

Forced labour, human trafficking and slavery

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Forced labour takes different forms, including debt bondage, trafficking and other forms of modern slavery. The victims are the most vulnerable – women and girls forced into prostitution, migrants trapped in debt bondage, and sweatshop or farm workers kept there by clearly illegal tactics and paid little or nothing.

Facts and figures

  • Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labour – 11.4 million women and girls and 9.5 million men and boys.
  • Almost 19 million victims are exploited by private individuals or enterprises and over 2 million by the state or rebel groups.
  • Of those exploited by individuals or enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.
  • Forced labour in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year.
  • Domestic work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment are among the sectors most concerned.
  • Migrant workers and indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to forced labour.
Source ILO

Focus on

  1. Initiative for fair recruitment

Key resources

Labour standards
  1. C29 - Forced Labour Convention, 1930
  2. P029 - Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930
  3. C105 - Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957
  4. R203 - Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014
Reports and documents
  1. Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Standard Setting on Forced Labour
  2. Presentation concerning standard setting on forced labour
  3. Stopping forced labour and slavery-like practices: ILO strategy for 2012-2015

Latest

  1. Press release

    Alliance 8.7: For a world without forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour

    19 September 2016

  2. Event

    Sub-regional consultation workshop on achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 8.7

List all

Lured by a job, trapped in forced labour

  1. In search of a job to support his family, a man accepts an offer from a recruiter and signs a contract for what looks like a good job with decent wages. Once at destination, the reality is very different.