Protest against child slavery in India. |
Fifty million people around the world are trapped in forced labor or forced marriage, the UN said Monday, warning that their ranks had swelled dramatically in recent years.
The study by the UN's agencies for labor and migration along with the Walk Free Foundation found that at the end of last year, 28 million people were in forced labor and 22 million living in a marriage they had been forced into. That means nearly one out of every 150 people in the world are caught up in modern forms of slavery, the report said. The Covid pandemic, which worsened conditions and swelled debt levels for many workers, has heightened the risk, the survey found.