Forced Labour and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits
- Document number
- 1080
- Date
- 2005
- Title
- Forced Labour and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits
- Author/publisher
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Research/Study/Analysis,
- Keywords
- Sexual exploitation, Labour exploitation, Domestic labour, Exploitation, Debt bondage, Trafficking forms, Migrant rights
- Summary
- This Working Paper's objective is to estimate the magnitude of global profits that are being realized through the exploitation of forced labourers. The paper is thus part of SAP-FL research on the quantitative and economic dimensions of forced labour and human trafficking. This analysis complements other research published by SAP-FL, in particular on the economic perspective on human trafficking in Europe (Working Paper No.31) and on the definition, indicators and measurement of forced labour (Working Paper No. 18). The calculations in the present analysis also use the result of another important piece of research, namely the calculation of a minimum estimate of forced labour in the world. Both the global minimum estimate and some of the figures calculated in this Working Paper are included in the ILO Director General’s 2005 Global Report on forced labour. The paper’s main estimate is that global profits made from forced labourers exploited by private enterprises or agents reach US$ 44.3 billion every year, of which US$ 31.6 billion from trafficked victims. The largest profits - more than US$ 15 billion - are made from people trafficked and forced to work in industrialized countries. These figures show that profits are possibly much larger than has so far been recognized in the estimates of other national or international organizations. They also support the view that trafficking thrives because it is lucrative and that policy measures to combat this scourge must include the confiscation of the financial assets of those involved in trafficking across or within borders.
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