ILO: Annual earnings from forced labour amount to $236 billion

Forced private economy yields $236 billion in illegal profits annually, according to a report by the International Labour Organization ( ). The total amount of illegal earnings from forced labour has increased by $64 billion (37%) since 2014, as evidenced by ILO figures, a dramatic increase fuelled both by the increase in the number of people forced to work, and by the highest profits generated by the exploitation of victims. The ILO report estimates that traffickers and criminals earn nearly $10,000 per victim, from $8,269 (adapted to inflation) a decade ago. Total annual illegal earnings from forced labour are higher in Europe and Central Asia ($84 billion), followed by Asia and the Pacific ($62 billion), America ($52 billion), Africa (20 billion) and Arab countries (18 billion). The annual illegal profits expressed per victim are higher in Europe and Central Asia followed by the Arab States, America, Africa and Asia and the Pacific. Forced sexual exploitation in trade represents more than two thirds (73%) of total illegal profits, despite only representing 27% of the total number of victims in private forced labour. These figures are explained by the huge difference in earnings per victim between forced commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of non-state labour exploitation – $27,252 earnings per victim for the first versus $3,687 earnings per victim for the second. After forced commercial sexual exploitation, the sector with the highest annual illegal earnings from forced labor is industry, with $35 billion, followed by services ($20.8 billion), agriculture ($5.0 billion) and domestic labor ($2.6 billion). These illegal profits are wages that rightfully belong to the pockets of workers, but instead remain in the hands of their exploiters, as a result of their practices of coercion. The report emphasises the urgent need for investments in enforcement measures to halt illegal profits flows and to attribute responsibility to the perpetrators.