For starters, we need strict punishment of those who benefit from exploitation. Migrant domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because they are highly dependent on their employers, and because private homes are often excluded from labor market regulations and labor inspection.īut with political will and innovative, comprehensive solutions, we can tackle modern-day slavery. There are several factors involved, from deception by unscrupulous labor recruiters to exploitation at the hands of employers in the destination region or country. I find it unacceptable that such slavery-like conditions can exist anywhere in the world today.
And there is an economic dimension too: we estimate that victims of forced labor are being denied at least $21 billion of income a year and this is money that could be lifting families and entire communities out of poverty. The emotional and physical impact on the individuals is terrible. They are trapped in work under unimaginable conditions, into which they were coerced or deceived and from which they cannot escape. It is a situation faced by millions of women and girls from southern Asia who migrate with hope, only to find themselves far from home, behind closed household or factory doors in often horrific conditions.Īcross the world, there are 21 million forced laborers, and more than half of them are women and girls. The sad thing is that Geeta’s case is not an exception. What followed was an all too familiar story of exploitation – no wages, physical and psychological abuse, loss of contact with family and restriction of movement. Geeta had used her meager savings to travel abroad and now had no money to fly home. When she arrived in Beirut, the man who collected her at the airport told her that she would actually be employed as a domestic worker in his house. Geeta, whose real name is being withheld to protect her safety, left her home believing she had secured a job through a local recruitment agency to work in a hospital in Lebanon. The 32 year-old mother of two from Nepal had been struggling to support her children and, like millions before her, made the difficult decision to leave her family behind in search of better work.
Every day, they and the millions more living just above the poverty line struggle to have enough to eat, and dream of a better life and of earning enough to provide for their families. This week it is launching The Work in Freedom program, an initiative funded by the UK Department for International Development which aims to help 100,000 women and girls from Bangladesh, India and Nepal who are in forced labor in countries including Lebanon, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and India.Īcross the planet, about one in every seven of us lives in extreme poverty, having to survive on less than $1.25 a day.
Editor’s Note: Guy Ryder is the Director-General of the International Labour Organization.
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