News on forced labour

October 2020

  1. © KB Mpofu / ILO 2022

    Fundamental rights at work can help build back better from COVID-19

    28 October 2020

    Core work-related rights and principles can play a vital role in recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and help build back a better, more equitable, world of work, according to a new ILO paper.

June 2020

  1. © S. Pal Chaudhury-NurPhot/AFP 2022

    COVID-19 may push millions more children into child labour – ILO and UNICEF

    12 June 2020

    Child labour down by 94 million since 2000, a gain now under threat.

  2. © Issouf Sanogo / AFP 2022

    COVID-19 may push millions more children into child labour – ILO and UNICEF

    12 June 2020

    Child labour down by 94 million since 2000, a gain now under threat.

June 2018

  1. Poverty leads children from Madagascar to work in dangerous conditions

    12 June 2018

    World Day Against Child Labour focuses this year on hazardous child labour and safe work for youth of legal working age. Almost half of the 152 million victims of child labour – 73 million – toil in hazardous work. In Madagascar, children in child labour in brickmaking and in domestic work, are among those who need to be protected.

May 2016

  1. Deceptive recruitment and coercion

    12 May 2016

    Forced labour can take many different forms. Victims are often tricked into jobs where they are paid little or nothing and then cannot leave because they have been manipulated into debt or had their identity documents confiscated. Poverty, illiteracy, discrimination and migration are some of the factors that make workers more vulnerable to forced labour.

May 2014

  1. ILO to publish new report on the profits of forced labour

    13 May 2014

June 2012

  1. Working a childhood away in Afghanistan’s kilns

    07 June 2012

    Children as young as five work as brick makers in Afghanistan’s kilns, as poverty and debt keep their families in low-wage bonded labour. Tackling the issue is far more complex than just banning child labour in the kilns, the ILO says.

November 2007

  1. Slavery, Poverty and Social Exclusion - CO/DFID/ILO/ASI high-level Conference

    Ministers from the FCO and DFID, in conjunction with the International Labour Organisation and Anti-Slavery International, hold a high-level conference with especially invited representatives of civil society, business, trade unions and international organizations, to examine the relationship between slavery, poverty and social exclusion, including how the fight against poverty and human rights violations can support the elimination of forced labour and slavery, facilitating better linkages between the various sectors which have a role to play in eradicating contemporary forms of slavery and identifying specific actions that can be taken to help reduce slavery.

October 2007

  1. Forced Labour, Slavery and Poverty Reduction: Challenges For Development Agencies by Roger Plant, DFID, London, 30 October 2007

    30 October 2007

    Presentation to UK High-Level Conference to Examine the Links between Poverty, Slavery and Social Exclusion; Foreign and Commonwealth Office and DFID, London, 30 October 2007