Catherwood LibraryILR School

According to a new International Labor Organization, a part of the United Nations, report, more than 21 million people worldwide are bound by forced labor and the profits of those illegal actions are more than $150 billion per year. About two-thirds of the profits were from sexual exploitation, prostitution and pornography. Boys and men were most commonly exploited for agricultural, mining, and construction; while sex-trades and domestic work was mostly performed by women and girls. Developed nations, including the U.S. and the nations of the European Union, accounted for nearly one-third of the profits, while the Asia Pacific region was responsible for just over one-third of the profits. The report also found that the most profitable slaves were in the sex industries or were those forced to work in the richer countries.