PERTH, AUSTRALIA — Nearly 46 million people worldwide currently live as slaves, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
The third Global Slavery Index, published by Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, defined slaves as people exploited through the use of violence, abuse of power or coercion. This includes people stuck in servitude, sex trafficking victims and those trapped in forced labor.
Data from the new report shows that the number of slaves in the world has increased to an estimated 45.8 million today, from 35.8 million in 2014. The rise has been attributed to better data collection and increasing global displacement, which makes some groups more vulnerable to enslavement, reported Reuters.
The Asia Pacific region provides much of the low-skilled labor in global supply chains and is home to 60 percent of these slaves. The majority of these slaves live in just five countries: India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan.
India has the highest absolute number of slaves. Within India’s population of 1.3 billion, an estimated 18.4 million live as slaves. However, Andrew Forrest, the founder of Walk Free, told Reuters that India deserves credit for recently drafting the country’s first comprehensive anti-human trafficking law.
According to the report, North Korea has the highest proportion of slaves for its population size — one in every 20 people. Many of them are reportedly involved in state-sanctioned forced labor.
Walk Free says progress has been made since its last report. All countries in Asia, except for North Korea, have enacted laws criminalizing some form of modern slavery.
