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

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

    25 March 2014

  2. International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Slave Trade

    ILO live chat with descendants of the hero from “12 Years A Slave”

    21 March 2014

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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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