Forced labour, human trafficking and slavery
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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.
  • Those who exact forced labour generate vast illegal profits.
  • 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: Summary of the ILO 2012 Global Estimate of Forced Labour

Focus on

  1. Course

    Identifying and investigating cases of forced labour and trafficking'
    May 5-9 2014. Turin, Italy

    The course aims to train participants to better identify and investigate cases of forced labour, including trafficking for labour exploitation. Inscriptions now open.

Latest news

  1. News item

    ILO launches new knowledge sharing platform on forced labour

    22 April 2014

  2. Google Hangout

    Meet the descendants of Solomon Northup from "12 Years A Slave"

    25 March 2014

List all »

Key resources

Labour standards

  1. C29 Forced Labour Convention, 1930
  2. C105 Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957
Reports and documents

  1. Stopping forced labour and slavery-like practices: ILO strategy for 2012-2015
  2. 2012 Global estimate of forced labour
  3. ILO publications on forced labour

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.

    1. ILO videos on forced labour
    2. ILO photos on forced labour

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