Africa-Press – Botswana. Modern slavery has increased around the world in recent years, mainly driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, with almost 50 million people forced to work or marry in the last year, reveals a report published yesterday by the international organizations of work ( ILO), Migration (IOM), both from the UN, and the Non-Governmental Organization Walk Free Foundation.
According to the document, the UN wants to eradicate this scourge by 2030, but last year there were 10 million more people in modern slavery than global estimates for 2016.
A total of 27.6 million people were subjected to forced labor and about 22 million were married against their will.
Women and girls account for more than two-thirds of people forced into marriage, and nearly four in five of them were in a situation of commercial sexual exploitation, according to the report. In total, they account for 54 percent of modern slavery cases.
The pandemic, which has caused working conditions to deteriorate and workers indebted to rise, has strengthened the sources of modern slavery in all its forms.
In recent years, according to the report, the multiplication of crises, the pandemic, but also armed conflicts and climate change, have caused unprecedented disruptions in terms of employment and education, a worsening of extreme poverty, an increase in forced and dangerous migrations. , the explosion of cases of gender violence.
Worldwide, nearly one in 150 people is considered a modern slave.
In a press release, the director-general of the ILO, Guy Ryder, considers it “shocking that the situation of modern slavery is not improving” and calls on governments, unions, employers’ organizations, civil society to fight “this violation of rights.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
