In today's world, slavery has transformed into a profitable business, exploiting people through forced labour, human trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of coercion, to make significant gains.
According to the recent International Labour Organisation report, sex traffickers are making an average of £21,000 a year from each of their victims.
The ILO figures show the annual global profits from forced labour had risen to $236 billion. It also noted that the number of people forced into modern slavery has increased.
Among the various methods of forced labour, sexual exploitation is the most profitable. As per ILO, a UN, agency, though only 27 per cent of the people subjected to forced labour were sexually exploited, the profits made by the traffickers accounted for 73 per cent of the total illegal profits from all forms of forced labour.
Compared to the 2014 figures, the new estimates on forced labour showed a 37 per cent rise, according to ILO.
“These illegal profits are the wages that rightfully belong in the pockets of workers but instead remain in the hands of their exploiters, as a result of their coercive practices,” the ILO report said.
Since the number of people in forced labour increased the profits fetched also increased. There were now more than 27 million people around the world trapped in forms of modern slavery, it said.
Nearly $10,000 for every victim is made by criminals and traffickers, ILO said.
The highest profits from forced labour were in Europe and Central Asia, geography-wise, followed by Asia and Pacific, and then the Americas, the ILO said.
“Forced labour perpetuates cycles of poverty and exploitation and strikes at the heart of human dignity. We now know that the situation has only got worse," said Gilbert Houngbo, the director general of the ILO.
“The international community must urgently come together to take action to end this injustice, safeguard workers’ rights and uphold the principles of fairness and equality for all," he added.
