There are nearly 46 million people trapped in slavery around the world, according to the third annual Global Slavery Index. And that number is only going up, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports.
Slavery, although obviously not as apparent in the U.S. as it once was, is still a pressing global issue. While “slavery” might make you think of people on a cotton field owned by “masters,” modern-day slavery is much less visible and more complex than that. It can be found in a number of fields such as domestic work, forced and early marriages, construction, farming, manual labor and the sex industry.
The Global Slavery Index, a widespread study of human trafficking and slavery, estimated that people born into slavery, trafficked, or trapped in debt bondage or forced labor increased from 35.8 million in 2014 to 45.8 million this year. That’s almost a 30 percent increase in slavery around the world.
This extreme increase in slaves may be due to improvements on measurements, according to Andrew Forrest. Forrest is the founder of the Australian-based Walk Free Foundation, which oversees the index. Even so, he warned that the situation with slaves is worsening – and we need to do something about it.
The study researched slavery in 167 countries around the world. There were slaves in every single one, CNBC reports.
Researchers found the largest total number of slaves in India, where approximately 18.4 million people out of a 1.3 billion population are slaves. Meaning one in every 100 people is a slave there. However, anti-trafficking advocates were sure to praise the Indian government earlier this week for their introduction of a comprehensive anti-human trafficking law. According to Reuters, it will treat trafficking and slavery survivors as victims, rather than criminals.
North Korea, on the other hand, holds the highest concentration of slaves. It is estimated that one out of every 20 people there are in slavery. The index found that the North Korean government is also doing the least to combat slavery, which even sanctions slavery within its prison labor camps. Meanwhile, many North Korean women are forced into a commercial sex trade to nearby countries.
Uzbekistan, Cambodia, India and Qatar trail North Korea as the countries with the largest concentration of slavery. Together, these five countries hold almost 60 percent of the world’s slaves—but make up less than 20 percent of the world’s total population.
Actor Russell Crowe launched the index in London on Tuesday. “As an actor, my role is often to portray raw human emotion, but nothing compares with the people’s lives reflected in the report published today,” he said, according to Reuters. “The shock of reading the Global Slavery Index was one that I wouldn’t step away from.”
“We need to make it clear we’re not going to tolerate slavery and when there is slavery in a regime we should not trade with them,” Forrest, an Australian mining billionaire, told Reuters. Forrest also urged all business owners to take a closer look at their employees and supply chains, explaining, “I’ve had some of some biggest entrepreneurs in the world look me in the eye and say “I will not look for slavery in case I find it.'”
“This is not AIDS or malaria,” said Forrest. “We have caused slavery and because it’s a human condition we can fix it.”