GENEVA: Trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery are big business generating profits of around $150 billion a year, the UN labour agency said on Tuesday.

The report by the ILO finds global profits from involuntary workers. around 21 million of them, have more than tripled over the past decade from at least $44bn in 2005. ILO Director Guy Ryder said the report calls attention to the need “to eradicate this fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice as soon as possible”.

Two-thirds of the profits come from sexual exploitation, it says, and one third is the result of “forced economic exploitation”.

With poorer and less-educated people more vulnerable to exploitation, Ryder said his agency “for the first time provides solid evidence for a correlation between forced labour and poverty” by taking a look at both the supply and demand for workers.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2014