2022.09.20 遭受现代奴役的人数正在增加

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The number of people in modern slavery is increasing
A new report shows that Arab states are fuelling the growth
Sep 20th 2022

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Slavery officially ended in 1981, when Mauritania became the last country to ban forced labour. But in practice it remains surprisingly common. On any given day, at least 49m people are in modern slavery, according to a new report by the un and Walk Free, a charity. The report defines modern slavery as people either forced to work or forced to marry. Such issues are often seen as a problem confined to the world’s poorest countries. But the authors of the report reckon that more than half of the global incidents of forced labour last year happened in what the World Bank defines as upper-middle and high-income countries (though poorer countries had a higher rate per 1,000 people).


To estimate the prevalence of forced labour, the authors interviewed around 78,000 people from 68 countries. In some places, such as North Korea, it is impossible to conduct such surveys, so estimates are less reliable than in more developed countries. According to the report, countries in Asia and the Pacific are host to more than half of all incidents of forced labour. Though as a proportion of the population Arab states were the worst offenders, with the equivalent of 1% of their populations enslaved.


The already grim situation is getting worse. Between 2016 and 2021 an additional 2.7m people worked in forced labour, taking the total to nearly 28m—more than 3m were children, though the data show that number is falling. Forced marriages increased by 6.6m over the same period, to a total of 22m. That may be an undercount: respondents were asked if they consented to their marriage, meaning that people who were forced into a relationship but later accepted it would not be counted in the data. Women and girls made up the biggest share of forced marriages, though one-third of those coerced into wedlock were male.


The most common type of coercion faced by workers is non-payment of wages. The fact that covid-19 lockdowns decimated many people’s incomes made it easier to exploit that vulnerability. In wealthier countries, sectors including agriculture, construction, domestic work and fishing were found to have the highest rates of forced work, with the private sector responsible for the majority of cases.

Some countries, including Qatar, are introducing labour reforms to clamp down on the problem. But their success will depend on whether they are actually enforced. Workers in the shadow economy, or those compelled into the sex trade, do not benefit from legislative changes. Governments will have to do more to ensure that the plague of modern slavery does not continue to spread.


每日图表
遭受现代奴役的人数正在增加
一份新报告显示，阿拉伯国家正在助长这一增长。
2022年9月20日



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奴隶制于1981年正式结束，当时毛里塔尼亚成为最后一个禁止强迫劳动的国家。但在实践中，它仍然令人惊讶地普遍存在。根据联合国和慈善机构Walk Free的一份新报告，在任何一天，至少有4900万人处于现代奴役状态。该报告将现代奴隶制定义为被迫工作或被迫结婚的人。此类问题通常被视为仅限于世界上最贫穷国家的问题。但是报告的作者估计，去年全球一半以上的强迫劳动事件发生在世界银行定义的中上收入和高收入国家（尽管较贫穷的国家每1,000人的强迫劳动率更高）。


为了估计强迫劳动的普遍性，作者采访了68个国家的大约78000人。在一些地方，如朝鲜，不可能进行这样的调查，所以估计结果不如较发达国家的可靠。根据该报告，在所有强迫劳动事件中，一半以上发生在亚洲和太平洋地区的国家。尽管从人口比例来看，阿拉伯国家是最严重的犯罪者，相当于其人口的1%被奴役。


本已严峻的形势正在变得更糟。在2016年和2021年之间，又有270万人从事强迫劳动，使总数达到近2800万--超过300万是儿童，尽管数据显示这个数字正在下降。同期，强迫婚姻增加了660万人，总数达到2200万人。这可能是一个低估的数字：受访者被问及他们是否同意他们的婚姻，这意味着那些被迫进入关系但后来接受的人不会被计入数据中。妇女和女孩占强迫婚姻的最大份额，尽管三分之一被强迫结婚的人是男性。


工人面临的最常见的胁迫类型是不支付工资。事实上，covid-19封锁使许多人的收入减少，这使得人们更容易利用这种脆弱性。在较富裕的国家，包括农业、建筑业、家政工作和渔业在内的部门被发现有最高的强迫工作率，其中私营部门应对大多数案件负责。

包括卡塔尔在内的一些国家正在进行劳动改革，以打击这一问题。但是他们的成功将取决于他们是否真的被执行。影子经济中的工人，或那些被迫从事性交易的工人，并不能从立法改革中受益。各国政府将不得不做更多的工作，以确保现代奴隶制的瘟疫不会继续蔓延。