Baku, Azerbaijan, May 31
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Almost half a million people are living as slaves in Iran, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, released by the Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation May 31.
Iran was the 13th with 495,300 people suffering from modern slavery among 167 countries included in the survey.
The index also increased its estimate of the number of people born into servitude, trafficked for sex work, or trapped in debt bondage or forced labor from 35.8 million in 2014 to 45.8 million in 2016.
India is a home to the largest number of the people suffering from modern slavery with an estimated 18.4 million slaves out of its 1.3 billion population, followed by China (3.39 million), Pakistan (2.13 million), Bangladesh (1.53 million) and Uzbekistan (1.24 million).
About 58 percent of the people living in slavery worldwide accounted for five countries - India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan, according to the report.
Meanwhile, North Korea ranked as the worst country in terms of concentration of the people suffering from slavery with one in every 20 people (4.4 percent of its 25 million population) being a slave and the government doing the least to end this with the reports of state-sanctioned forced labor.
Iran, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Hong Kong, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan are also among the countries taking the least action to improve the situation.
The countries taking the most steps to respond to the modern slavery are predominantly the ones with the high GDP (PPP), including the Netherlands, the US, the UK, Sweden, Australia, Portugal, Croatia, Spain, Belgium, and Norway.
The Philippines, Georgia, Brazil, Jamaica and Albania are also making strong efforts despite having relatively less resources than the wealthier countries.
According to the 2016 index, Asia, which provides the low-skilled labor force in supply chains producing clothing, food and technology, accounted for the two-thirds of the people in slavery worldwide.