In 2016 About 45.8 Million People Are Slaves In 167 Countries

This estimate draws on data from random sample, nationally representative surveys conducted by Gallup.

What is the estimated prevalence of modern slavery country by country, and what is the absolute number by population?

The 2016 Global Slavery Index estimates that 45.8 million people are subject to some form of modern slavery in the world today. The Index presents a ranking of 167 countries based on the proportion of the population that is estimated to be in modern slavery.

The countries with the highest estimated prevalence of modern slavery by the proportion of their population are North Korea, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, India, and Qatar. In North Korea, there is pervasive evidence that government-sanctioned forced labour occurs in an extensive system of prison labour camps while North Korean women are subjected to forced marriage and commercial sexual exploitation in China and other neighbouring states. In Uzbekistan, the government continues to subject its citizens to forced labour in the annual cotton harvest.

Those countries with the highest absolute numbers of people in modern slavery are India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan. Several of these countries provide the low-cost labour that produces consumer goods for markets in Western Europe, Japan, North America and Australia.

The countries with the lowest estimated prevalence of modern slavery by the proportion of their population are Luxembourg, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Belgium, the United States and Canada, and Australia and New Zealand. These countries generally have more economic wealth, score higher on government response, have low levels of conflict, and are politically stable with a willingness to combat modern slavery.

VULNERABILITY

What factors explain or predict the prevalence of modern slavery?

Vulnerability to modern slavery is affected by a complex interaction of factors related to the presence or absence of protection and respect for rights, physical safety and security, access to the necessities of life such as food, water and health care, and patterns of migration, displacement and conflict. Statistical testing grouped 24 measures of vulnerability into four dimensions covering: 1) civil and political protections, 2) social health and economic rights, 3) personal security, and 4) refugee populations and conflict.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

How are governments tackling modern slavery?

In 2016, 161 countries are included in our assessment of government responses. Due to the ongoing conflict and extreme disruption to government function, we have not included ratings for Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria or Yemen.

Of the 161 countries:

• 124 have criminalised human trafficking in line with the UN Trafficking Protocol.
• 96 have National Action Plans (NAPs) to coordinate the government’s response.
• 150 governments provide some form of service for victims of modern slavery.

The governments that have the strongest response to modern slavery are The Netherlands, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, Portugal, Croatia, Spain, Belgium and Norway. These countries are characterised by strong political will, sufficient resources, and a strong civil society that holds governments to account.

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When correlated against GDP (PPP), countries which have a relatively strong response despite fewer resources are the Philippines, Brazil, Georgia, Jamaica, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Moldova, Albania and Serbia.

Those governments taking the least action to combat modern slavery are North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Hong Kong, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. Some of these countries are characterised by government complicity, low levels of political will, or high levels of conflict and political instability.

Some wealthier and more stable countries have also taken little action in combating modern slavery. When correlated against GDP (PPP), these countries include Qatar, Singapore, Kuwait, Brunei, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Japan and South Korea.

In 2016, the Walk Free Foundation has included a measure on state-sanctioned forced labour in the government response rating. State-sanctioned forced labour is where the government forces the population, or segments of it, to work under the threat of penalty, and for which the person or population has not offered himself voluntarily. The countries that have systematically forced their population to labour include Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, China, Eritrea, North Korea, Russia, Swaziland and Vietnam.

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