...The picture of forced labour that [...] present[ed] in this report departs markedly from prevailing discussions of modern slavery... [W]e see the problem of forced labour as intrinsically linked to core dynamics of the global economy. Soaring levels of inequality, indecent work, concentrations of corporate power and ownership, shifting legal and governance regimes [...] render workers increasingly unprotected in the face of ever-harsher market forces...

This report is organised around [...] the classical economic metaphor of ‘supply and demand’... [It] looks at eight [...] dynamics: four relating to supply and four relating to demand...

[P]oor enforcement of national and sub-national labour laws also contributes to businesses’ demand for forced labour... [T]he home governments of many transnational corporations (TNCs) – including the United States, UK and France – have passed national legislation intended to strengthen global governance systems to combat forced labour... [However] research suggests that a key factor underlying the business of forced labour is the failure of states to either enforce existing labour standards or to create new, modern, and effective global governance solutions to the problem...

[The] concluding chapter [...] outline[s] the kinds of actions that can be and have been taken, as well as suggest[s] several avenues of research that could help strengthen the evidence base on exploitation in the global economy...