RIGHTS: More Than 12 Million Feared in Forced Labour

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, May 11 2005 (IPS) - Many millions of people are forced into labour around the world, says a report launched Wednesday by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The report says the number is at least 12.3 million, but given widespread limitations in reliance on official data, the number in many countries could be higher than the report estimates.

“Trafficking and forced labour are simply slipping through the cracks,” Roger Plant, head of the special action programme to combat forced labour at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) told media representatives at the launch of the report in London Wednesday.

The ILO defines forced labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of a penalty and which the person has not entered into of his or her own free will.”

It can be the outcome of the growing problem of trafficking, but the majority of forced labour involves people in their places of origin. The mechanisms of force include debt bondage, slavery, misuse of customary practices and deceptive recruitment systems, the report says.

The ILO estimates that of at least 12.3 million people who are victims of forced labour worldwide, about 9.8 million are exploited by private individuals and enterprises, including more than 2.4 million in forced labour as a result of human trafficking. The remaining 2.5 million are forced to work by the state or by rebel military groups.

The highest number of forced labourers is found in the Asia and Pacific region (77 percent) followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (11 percent), the report says. Industrialised countries are believed to harbour three percent of all forced labour victims, three-quarters of whom have been trafficked.

Forced labour continues in the face of weak national laws, Plant said. “The risk is that a definition of trafficking that does not encompass all aspects of forced labour,” he said. “There is a need for national legislation on forced labour that clearly captures all aspects of it. But governments are not clamping down on forced labour.”

Forced labour can often be covered by general laws such as the law against blackmail, Plant said. “But it is necessary to come to grips with the particular problem and have legislation against forced labour based on our conventions.”

Brazil has a specific new law on forced labour. Asian countries, particularly India, Pakistan and Nepal have detailed legislation against bonded labour. Britain has a law against trafficking but not against forced labour. Others have a general prohibition.

The ILO estimates that only about three percent of forced labour is in the developed countries. But that number could be growing, he said.

“Forced labour is the underside of the working of our economies,” he said. “There is a growing demand for seasonal, flexible and cheap labour in sectors like agriculture and construction.”

The ILO is asking countries to implement strong laws and policies that outlaw different forms of forced labour, protect the victims and allow appropriate punishment of the perpetrators.

The ILO says that the primary tools for promoting respect for fundamental principles and rights are the supervision by the ILO of the implementation of the ratified conventions, coupled with technical cooperation to assist member states to fulfil their obligations.

The report ‘A global alliance against forced labour’ also provides the first global estimate of the profits generated by the exploitation of trafficked women, children and men – 32 billion dollars each year, or an average of 13,000 dollars from every single trafficked forced labourer, the report says.

“Forced labour represents the underside of globalisation and denies people their basic rights and dignity,” ILO director-general Juan Somavia said in a statement at the launch of the report. “To achieve a fair globalisation and decent work for all, it is imperative to eradicate forced labour.”

The report is the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken by an intergovernmental organisation of the facts and underlying causes of contemporary forced labour, ILO says. It was prepared under the ‘follow up to the declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work’ adopted by the ILO in 1998, and will be discussed at the organisation’s annual International Labour Conference in June.

The report finds that forced economic exploitation in such sectors as agriculture, construction, brick-making and informal sweatshop manufacturing is more or less evenly divided between the sexes, but that forced commercial sexual exploitation entraps almost entirely women and girls.

In addition, children aged less than 18 years bear a heavy burden, comprising 40 to 50 per cent of all forced labour victims, the report says.

The report says that the proportion of trafficked workers varies widely from region to region. In Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of trafficked persons is less than 20 percent of all forced labour, while in industrialised and transition countries and in the Middle East and North Africa, trafficking accounts for more than 75 percent of the total.

Most forced labour today is still exacted in developing countries “where older forms of forced labour are sometimes transmuting into newer ones, notably in a range of informal sector activities,” the report says.

Of the many forms of forced labour, “debt bondage frequently affects minorities – including indigenous peoples – that have long experienced discrimination on the labour market, and locks them in a vicious cycle of poverty from which they find it ever more difficult to escape,” the report says. “Many victims are working in remote geographical areas, where labour inspection presents a particular challenge.”

The report sheds new light on the emerging forms of forced labour affecting migrant workers, in particular irregular migrants in rich and poor destination countries alike. It also examines the labour market conditions under which forced labour is most likely to occur, such as where there are inadequate controls over recruitment agencies and subcontracting systems, or weak labour inspection.

“Although the numbers are large, they are not so large as to make abolishing forced labour impossible,” Somavia said. “Thus, the ILO calls for a global alliance against forced labour involving governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations, development agencies and international financial institutions concerned with poverty reduction, and civil society including research and academic institutions. With political will and global commitment over the next decade, we believe forced labour can be relegated to history.”

There is concern that the incidence of forced labour could be growing in developed countries on the back of migration. “We are looking at coercion in individual countries,” Plant said. The ILO is examining labour and sexual exploitation of migrants in Germany, and of Chinese migrants in France.

China remains of particular concern. ILO has two principal conventions against forced labour, neither of which has been ratified by China.

But ratification does not mean the end of exploitation, Plant said. “When a country ratifies a convention, it accepts it will bring it into domestic law,” he said. But vast differences remain in national laws, he said.