Each victim of forced labor generates $10,000 for the traffickers

Forced labor in the private economy is expanding worldwide, and traffickers in recent years have increased the illegal profits they make from this crime, which rises to $10,000 per victim, although that figure skyrockets to more than $27,000 for each case of commercial sexual exploitation. . .

These figures were determined by an investigation conducted by experts of the International Labor Organization (ILO), whose results were published this Tuesday in Geneva.

On a global level and in all sectors private economyforced labor generates $236 billion in annual profits, $64 billion or 37% more than ten years ago.

The growth of these illegal earnings is explained by the increase in the number of people forced to work and accept conditions that, often without knowing, lead them to fall into the networks of human traffickers and criminals who withhold the wages that are legally due to them.

In the case of migrant workers, traffickers take money directly from remittances they send to their families in their countries of origin.

The increased benefits are also due to the fact that they have increased per victim, from $8,269 in 2014 (adjusted for inflation) to $10,000 today.

Sexual exploitation represents two-thirds (73%) of all these benefits, despite the fact that victims are 27% of the total number.

The reason is the huge difference in the advantages thatOrganized crime profits from victims of sexual exploitation commercial, which exceeds $27,000, compared to the nearly $3,700 they receive from other forms of private labor exploitation.

Among the latter, forced labor in the industrial sector (mines, quarries, factories and construction activities), in service activities (restaurants, human care, transport and storage, among others) appears to be more “profitable” for the mafias. , agriculture and domestic work.

By region, almost a third of illegal earnings from forced labor were made in Europe and Central Asia (84 billion), followed by Asia and the Pacific (62 billion), America (52 billion), Africa (20 billion) and Arab countries (18 billion). .

Forced labor, according to the ILO study, is not as marginal a problem as one might think, since according to the latest available global figures, 27.6 million people are victims of this situation, which is equivalent to 3.5 people per thousand, of which 23 .6 million or 85% correspond to cases in the private sector.

The rest (3.9 million forced laborers) refers to labor imposed by the state.