Sign-up for updates

What is forced labour?

What is the problem?

Forced labour is any work or services which people are forced to do against their will under the threat of some form punishment. Almost all slavery practices, including trafficking in people and bonded labour, contain some element of forced labour.

Forced labour affects millions of men, women and children around the world and is most frequently found in labour intensive and/or under-regulated industries, such as:

Agriculture and fishing
Domestic work
Construction, mining, quarrying and brick kilns
Manufacturing, processing and packaging
Prostitution and sexual exploitation
Market trading and illegal activities

How big is the problem?

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are at least 12.3 million people in forced labour worldwide. Children are thought to make up between 40 and 50 per cent of all forced labourers.

Of this total some 2.4 million people are in forced labour as a result of human trafficking. Women and girls account for almost all those trafficked into sexual exploitation and the majority of people trafficked into labour exploitation. This means that some 80 per cent of all people trafficked for both economic and sexual exploitation are women and girls.

Why is there a problem?

In around 20 per cent of cases the State or the military is directly responsible for the use of forced labour. Notable examples where this takes place are Burma, North Korea and China. However, in the vast majority of cases forced labour is used by private individuals who are seeking to make profits from the exploitation of other people.

Victims of forced labour are frequently from minority or marginalised groups who face institutionalised discrimination and live on the margins of society where they are vulnerable to slavery practices. Forced labour is usually obtained as a result of trapping the individual in debt bondage or by restricting their freedom of movement. In other cases violence, threats and intimidation are used and/or there is an absence of effective State protection.

Where is the problem?

Forced labour is a global problem, although some regions have larger numbers of people affected than others. The regional distribution of forced labour is:

Asia and Pacific: 9,490,000 (77%)
Latin America: 1,320,000 (11%)
Sub-Saharan Africa: 660,000 (5%)
Industrialised countries: 360,000 (3%)
Middle East and North Africa: 260,000 (2%)
Transition countries: 210,000 (2%)

Case studies

"We were sent to the mountains to carry stones on our backs or heads. Because of the friction, the skin on my back peeled and bled. We had to load the stones onto a truck, which was then taken to a building site. It was such hard work that people fainted. Guards were always yelling and hitting the prisoners. When we worked on this project, we didn’t come home until 11pm. It took us over an hour to walk back to the prison camp."

A 42-year-old former teacher from Hoeryong described the nature of forced labour at the Onsong labour training camp in North Korea.

"One time while I was sowing, I was so tired that I stopped for a rest. A young guard caught me and grabbed me by my neck. I pleaded with the guard and begged for his forgiveness, but he just cursed at me and kicked me on my back and head. He said how I could dare to be tired when I had been eating so well in China. Because of that beating, I suffer from chronic back pains and headaches still today."

A 57 year old woman from Kyongsong explains her experience of forced labour at the Hoeryong labour training camp in North Korea

"We must work for the Bantu masters. We cannot refuse to do so because we are likely to be beaten or be victims of insults and threats. Even though we agree to work all day in the fields, we are still asked to work even more, for example, to fetch firewood or go hunting. Most of the time, they pay us in kind, a worn loincloth for 10 workdays. We cannot refuse because we do not have a choice.”

Interview with an indigenous man in the Congo.

Laws

The ILO defines forced labour as: “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of a penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”.

This definition is set out in the ILO’s Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29). This Convention has been ratified by over 170 states and obliges governments to “suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period”.

The United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also prohibits the use of forced labour (Article 8) and has been ratified by more than 160 states.

China is the only country in the world which has not ratified either of these international standards. However, many countries have not passed specific laws defining and prohibiting forced labour with adequate punishments for those responsible. Where these laws exist they are often not enforced properly.