Every day products arrive in our hands from distant corners of the world. We hold them with our fingers, wear them on our bodies, feed our stomachs, store our digital work, and light our homes. Before they become the reality that makes life easier, they pass through other hands. Some are still young; most are worn down. Millions of products are created by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who lack basic rights, who are exploited and treated as disposable human beings. And the numbers keep rising. In 2021, nearly 50 million individuals lived in modern slavery globally, ten million more than in 2016.
“There are more people in modern slavery now than at any other point in human history,” notes María Collazos, a researcher and policy analyst with Walk Free. This human rights group compiled the Global Slavery Index, the most comprehensive dataset on modern slavery in the world. “There has been an uptick in the risk of modern slavery for vulnerable populations, explained by the intersection of multiple factors,” she tells El Periódico de Catalunya, the same editorial group that publishes this newspaper. “When these factors collide in crisis contexts, a multiplier effect can push vulnerable populations into modern slavery,” she adds.
Vulnerable Migrants
Countries such as North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey top the lists of shame. “States with the highest prevalence of modern slavery tend to be affected by conflict, have forced labor imposed by the state, and show weak governance,” the report confirms. Climate change, wars, pandemic control measures, and a consumer culture drive modern slavery today. These challenges are shared by the global population but hit residents of the Global South hardest, worsening migration pressures, risks, and vulnerabilities.
Migration today involves more people than at any time in the last five decades. Around the world, people flee conflicts, natural disasters aggravated by climate change, repression of rights, political persecution, or simply seek better opportunities. “These migrants are more likely to be workers in modern slavery, especially in countries where government responses are weak and social protections are scarce or non-existent,” Collazos notes. The kafala sponsorship system, prominent in Arab states, ties migrant workers to their employers through a restrictive work-permit regime.
“Domestic Slavery”
In Lebanon, a severe economic crisis—the worst since the 19th century according to the World Bank—has driven thousands of migrants from Africa and Asia to abandon promises of decent wages and employment. “This system has been described as modern slavery,” says Aina Puig-Ferriol, a legal and humanitarian expert on the kafala system in the cedar country. “These people, mostly women, depend entirely on their employers, placing them in vulnerable and dependent positions that often lead to abuse, exploitation, and violence,” she tells this publication. This reality repeats in hundreds of thousands of homes across the region. Arab states shelter more than 24 million migrant workers, representing about 40% of their labor force, the highest share of any region.
Walk Free identifies such situations as “domestic servitude.” This form of modern slavery disproportionately affects women and girls. “They are also overrepresented in child marriage and sexual violence, which is often institutionalized in conflict zones, increasing their vulnerability,” Collazos explains. Even though freely choosing whom, when, and whether to marry is a basic human right, child marriages affected 22 million people in 2021. UNICEF reports that 650 million women and girls were married before age 18. Most of this form of modern slavery is most prevalent in Arab countries.
Global attention to these grim realities has not yet prompted the necessary changes. Since 2018, government actions to end modern slavery, forced labor, and human trafficking have stalled rather than accelerated, despite the commitments made by world leaders to the Sustainable Development Goals nearly a decade ago. “Progress has been weak and disappointing on a global scale,” Collazos states. “Only eight countries today have imposed trade restrictions when aware that goods come from modern slavery situations,” she laments. The United Kingdom, often cited as leading the global response, may find its standing affected by recent migration policies. As March 25 marks the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade for the 17th year, governments around the world continue to neglect the suffering involved.
Note: This summary emphasizes the ongoing presence of exploitation behind everyday products and the urgent need for stronger protections, oversight, and ethical sourcing across all sectors.