Concern over “modern slavery” in today’s global landscape

Forced labor, trafficking networks and child exploitation are some of the practices that make up modern slavery, a situation currently endured by 50 million people worldwide, according to official data from international bodies.

The forms of exploitation expressed as “modern slavery” remain a focus of debate and concern around the world. Violations of human integrity in work settings and activities adapt to new processes of conflict and social transformation. Social inequalities, economic crises, migratory movements, war, technological and productive change. The elements and contexts for analyzing the drivers of modern slavery and seeking new responses are varied.

According to the United Nations definition, modern slavery refers to tasks that a person is forced to perform under coercion such as threats, violence, deception or various power relations. According to Amnesty International (AI), modern slavery links the old practices of 19th-century colonial slavery, as occurred in the US, to the conflicts and inequalities of the 21st century. 

Officially, international organizations recognize types of modern slavery in practices such as forced labor, forced marriage and child labor. This also translates into phenomena such as sexual exploitation. According to figures from the International Labour Organization, some 40 million people were found to be in situations of modern slavery in 2016. Over the years, new political, social and technological transformations have opened up new scenarios. 

The recent emergence of Artificial Intelligence as an organizer of activities, for example, has raised new questions about its impact on combating or, conversely, deepening modern slavery. The organization Freedom United has reflected on this point. In an article, it argues that, as a tool, AI can help detect exploitation networks, but it can also be used to instigate these practices. Expert Antonio Casilli has even coined the category of a “new proletariat” of the digital world to refer to new generations of precarious workers employed for metadata training tasks, outsourced by large corporations and without institutional protections. 

There are well-known cases in which modern slavery is intertwined even with legal structures established by countries themselves. Recently, the abolition of the “kafala” system, known in Saudi Arabia as a legal sponsorship regime for migrants seeking work, has been a focus of debate. The kafala system has long been criticized as a form of institutionalized exploitation that subjects vulnerable people to precarious working conditions, low wages and fraud by employers, among other things. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries with the highest levels of modern slavery, according to data from international bodies such as the aforementioned ILO, the organization Walk Free and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Slavery of migrants: three times more vulnerable 

As of September 2022, the IOM estimated that approximately 50 million people worldwide were living in modern slavery. That number is far higher than the 2016 figures. According to the organization, migrants are a sector at greater risk of falling victim to these kinds of abuses. The agency maintains that migrant workers are three times more likely to be victims of modern slavery than non-migrant workers. 

According to the ILO, despite the many international policies and regulations in place to combat this, companies, trade unions and citizens all have a “fundamental role” to play in addressing it. Geopolitical conflicts, humanitarian crises, climate change and weak democracies are several of the factors that can facilitate exploitation networks targeting marginalized and displaced sectors within countries. 

Women and girls for exploitation

Another major form of slavery has to do with trafficking networks, with women and girls as the main people at risk. According to ILO statistics, of the total number of people in modern slavery, more than 6 million are in situations of forced sexual exploitation. Of these, 5 million are women and girls. 

The Asia-Pacific region and the Arab States are estimated to be the regions with the highest rates of people in forced labor. Meanwhile, in 2025 the Global Data Alliance against Forced Labor was launched, an initiative promoted by global leaders, business figures and activists (among others) to build new data networks and interconnections that help eradicate this kind of exploitation. 

In this case, it focuses on the form of modern slavery linked to forced servitude, which includes some 28 million people. In this way, the Alliance seeks to generate joint work across databases, logistics, corporate structures and various policy actions to contribute to the effort to detect and combat forced labor settings.

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia