According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, about 45.8 million people in 167 countries are trapped in modern versions of enslavement. The report also reveals that 480.000 people in Turkey live like modern slaves.
Australia-based human rights organization Walk Free Foundation released the 2016 Global Slavery Index report yesterday. According to the report, while there were 35.8 million people who were born into enslavement, kidnapped for commercial sexual exploitation, bonded by indebtedness or subjected forced labor in 2014, this number reached 45.8 million in 2016. In the report, it is also stated that 480.000 people in Turkey live like modern slaves.
According BBC Turkish’s report, Walk Free’s 2016 data is obtained through the studies of Gallup research company. Gallup conducted researches in 167 countries and interviewed with 42.000 people in 25 countries.
The report defines the modern slavery as the following: “Modern slavery is when one person possesses or controls another person in such a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, profit, transfer or disposal.”
What is modern slavery?
In modern slavery, people are stripped off their freedom through threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception. And those people cannot get free from the enslaving conditions.
Founder of Walk Free Andrew Forest spoke about the report and said that the number seems to be increased partly because of the improved data collection, but the immigrants and people who are displaced worldwide became more open to different versions of slavery.
Situation in the world
The highest estimated prevalence of modern slavery by the proportion of its population is found in North Korea, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, India and Qatar. There are labor camps in North Korea, where 1 in every 20 people live as modern slaves. The number of modern slaves in China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan combined constitutes 58% of the modern slaves in the world.
Only in India, 18.4 million people live as modern slaves.
Situation in Turkey
According to the report, there are 48.000 people who live like modern slaves in Turkey. The list is sorted from the worst to the best and Turkey is the 20th country in the list.
The countries where modern slavery is found least are Luxembourg, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Data from Europe
Walk Free states that in Europe modern slavery is rarely found, but forced labor and sexual abuse are common. The effects of refugee and immigrant influx in Europe is not known yet.
According to the report, the countries that show the least effort for fighting against modern slavery are North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea and Hong Kong. And the countries showing the most effort are Holland, the US, England, Sweden and Austria.
