more than 50 million people around the world are in the conditions of “modern slavery”, and it is expected that due to climate change in the next 30 years, millions of people will face this threat.
Despite the fact that officially slavery was prohibited more than 200 years ago, the phenomenon of “modern slavery” continues to be a serious problem in the field of human rights, affecting millions of people around the world.
forced labor, debt dependence, sexual exploitation, forced marriages, human trafficking, child labor and abuse of children – all these are forms of modern slavery, which have become a chronic problem on a global scale.
Anadolu agency collected data dedicated to the International Struggle Day for the elimination of slavery, which is celebrated on December 2 at the initiative of the UN.
Slavery, which has existed since ancient times, is a deprivation of a person of basic rights and freedoms, his transformation into the property of another.
The phenomenon of modern slavery, although prohibited legally, continues to exist in various forms, including violence, threats, deception and coercion.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Migration Organization (IMO) and the Walk Free Foundation, by 2023 over 50 million people live in modern slavery. This is 0.6% of the world’s population.
Of these, 28 million people undergo forced labor, and more than 22 million – forced marriages, two -thirds of which are women, including girls under 15 years of age.
Children demonstrate special vulnerability. According to UNICEF, in the world there are more than 160 million children involved in hard work. Every fourth of them works in hazardous conditions for health, including agriculture, mining and textile industry.
In addition, about 30 million migrant children are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking and sexual slavery.
The highest level of modern slavery is observed in South Asia, Africa and China. In India alone, there are more than 11 million people who are in forced labor. About 9 million modern slaves live in Africa, while in the Middle East their number exceeds 5 million.
Climate change becomes one of the key factors in the growth of modern slavery. The UN predicts that by 2050 more than 216 million people in the regions of South Asia, Latin America and Africa will be forced to leave their homes due to natural disasters, which will increase their vulnerability before the threat of slavery.
Every year, due to climate change, 20-25 million people are faced with the risk of falling into the conditions of modern slavery, which makes the struggle with this problem a global priority.