Around 50 million people worldwide are trapped in modern forms of slavery, “perpetuated by crime rings,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday.
Modern slavery often involves forced labour exploited by organized criminal networks that “prey on people facing extreme poverty, discrimination, environmental degradation, armed conflict, or migration in search of safety and opportunity,” Guterres said in a message, marking the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
The UN Human Rights Council has highlighted emerging forms of exploitation, including forced criminality in cyber-scamming operations. These crimes, “often operating across borders and enabled by irresponsible business practices, technology, and corruption,” show how rapidly exploitation is evolving, UN experts warned in a joint statement. They urged “coordinated responses based on firm commitments from States and businesses.”
The International Labour Organization said in its 2024 estimates that coerced labour produces roughly $236 billion in illegal profits annually, which “incentivize further exploitation, strengthen criminal networks, encourage corruption, and undermine the rule of law.”
Experts say modern slavery is sustained not only by criminal groups but also by government policies, business practices, and social systems, including labour frameworks such as kafala. The kafala system, used in several Middle Eastern countries, ties migrant workers’ legal status to their employers, often leading to abusive and exploitative conditions.
In November, Amnesty International reported severe exploitation of migrant workers under the kafala system while building Saudi Arabia’s decade-long Riyadh metro project, including meagre wages, and abusive and unsafe working conditions.
In May, Human Rights Watch documented how migrant labourers were killed by electrocution, decapitation, and falls while working in hazardous conditions on construction sites for the kingdom’s “giga-projects,” including infrastructure underway for the 2034 FIFA Men’s World Cup.
