According to the Global Slavery Index 2016, compiled by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation, India is the country with the greatest number of people – 18.3 million – living in some form of modern slavery.
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The annual survey found that India has the largest number of slaves in absolute terms – 18.3 million – while North Korea has the biggest number in relative terms, with nearly one in 20 of the entire population living in servitude.
China came second with an estimated 3.4 million slaves, followed by Pakistan with 2.1 million.
It calculated that more than 4% of North Korea’s population is enslaved, with Uzbekistan and Qatar the other countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery per capita. It was followed by Uzbekistan, Cambodia and India.
There are an estimated 45.8 million people around the world now trapped in modern slavery, including 6,500 people in Canada, a charity said Tuesday. But she said many entrapped in slavery in Britain are themselves British.
The Global Slavery Index, created by The Walk Free Foundation, measures the presence of slavery by country in 167 nations.
“It is estimated that there are 21,000 enslaved on the Lake Volta but the government’s responses in all areas of combating slavery such as prevention, protection, prosecution and policy implementation are very slow”, she added. Based on its definition, North Korea has by far and away that largest portion of its population who live in “modern slavery”.
“The Philippine government in particular has supported NGO [non-government organization] victim recovery and reintegration programmes providing victims with shelter, psychological, medical, legal and vocational support”, a press release accompanying the report read.
Along with North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, and Equatorial Guinea, Hong Kong has been named one of the worst places in the world at taking action against modern slavery, the Global Slavery Index says.
But Forrest said India deserved credit for starting to address this problem with the government this week unveiling a draft of its first comprehensive anti-human trafficking law to treat survivors as victims rather than criminals.
Survey research includes over 42,000 interviews in 53 languages across 25 countries, representing 44% of global population, including 15 state-level surveys in India.
The country’s National Crime Records Bureau estimates there were 5,466 human trafficking cases registered in 2014, though activists say this total is likely underestimated, The Indian Express reports.
“I believe in the critical role of leaders in government, business and civil society”, Forrest, a mining billionaire, said in a statement.
More than 150 years after Abraham Lincoln put an end to slavery in the United States, the number of people enslaved throughout the world is surging.
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“The Modern Slavery Act 2015 led the world and we are seeing this having a real impact in how companies and countries behave. A government committed against slavery would definitely figure high up on my investment list”, Andrew Forrest, Founder and Chairman of Walk Free Foundation, told The Economic Times.
