Why we fight

According to the report, nearly 50 million people are victims of modern slavery, with approximately 28 million forced to work against their will and 22 million in forced marriages. This is ten million more people in modern slavery than the 2017 global estimates.

The report helps dispel various myths about modern slavery. For example, Europe and Central Asia rank second in terms of the number of people trapped in forced labour - Asia and the Pacific have around 15.1 million people in forced labour, followed by Europe and Central Asia with 4.1 million. Africa has 3.8 million people – this hierarchy may surprise people.

The regional ranking changes considerably when forced labour is expressed as a proportion of the population. By this measure, forced labour is highest in the Arab States (5.3 per thousand people), followed by Europe and Central Asia (4.4 per thousand), the Americas and Asia and the Pacific (both at 3.5 per thousand), and Africa (2.9 per thousand). Again, these findings may be unexpected.

With numbers like this, it is clear that a paradigm shift in our corporate mindsets is required if we are to bring an end to this level of suffering and inhumanity. The global community must unite to fight the criminal gangs and systemic issues that enable slavery to exist.

While we do need governments worldwide to take action, change can also be brought about at a grass roots level. For example, saving one child from getting drawn into a county lines drug gang, noticing and reporting a malnourished fruit picker or logging an illegal car wash with the Safe Car Wash App can all make a real difference to an individual’s life, even if it seems small compared to the global figures.

This is the rationale behind our Make It Slavery Free yearlong campaign. It is time to fight back and make a dent in these appalling statistics - sign our pledge today!