By Igwe Patrick
Despite the fact that slavery is illegal in most parts of the world, modern slavery is still a major trend in some countries due to various reasons like weak laws, corruption and even unwillingness of the security agencies to execute their jobs right.
These inhumane acts of modern slavery happen in various ways, such as forced labor, human trafficking, forced marriage, debt bondage and child slavery.
There has been a move to eradicate modern slavery by 2030 all over the world by the International Labour Organization.
These are 10 countries that slavery or modern slavery practices are still reported to be a significant issue according to ‘Global Slavery Index’:
India
India is a country with diverse cultures unique to the indigenous people of India some of these cultures support forced marriages and often leads to the law turning a blind eye. India is the nation with the highest number of modern slaves in the world. These acts of slavery occur through forced marriages, bonded labour due to the high rate of poverty and also child trafficking.
China
China is known as an industrious country and the use of exploitative job opportunities for migrants is not scarce. China also has the issue of forced labour, woman and children trafficking for sexual exploitation.
North Korea
North Korea has the highest percentage of enslaved people relative to it population with 2,696,000 slaves and approximately 26 million people as at 2024. North Korea practices compulsory military service, and state-imposed slave labour ranking third on the list.
Pakistan
Pakistan’s major issue is the outbreak of bonded labour. People are forced to pay off small loans through hard labour for a prolonged period of time. Poor families in Pakistan are often unable to pay back debts and this leads to women being forced into prostitution while children are used as domestic workers or beggars.
Russia
The use of Asian migrants for forced labour is a major issue in Russia and this has resulted in the skyrocketing of forced labour in Russia. Migrants could sometimes lose their passports to Russian officials to prevent them from escaping.
Indonesia
Indonesia battles with a high rate of child labour. Farming and fishing are the two major areas that are of high demand for child and forced labour.
Nigeria
Forced marriages is not uncommon in Nigeria, same applies to human trafficking and child labour. Women and children are trafficked out of the country to become sex workers.
Turkey
Turkey has the issue of child labour, sexual exploitation and even migrant worker exploitation. The nation is a hotspot for refugee migrants who could fall into the hands of predators looking to exploit them
Bangladesh
The garment industry in Bangladesh is a major source of revenue and the rigorous nature of production entails workers and sometimes children toiling for hours in sweatshops
United States
The United States has a major issue with human trafficking, Migrant workers exploitation and even sex trafficking, migrants especially those without legal status, are often exploited in the agricultural and construction sectors.
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