"Compulsory labor means of racial, religious discrimination in Pakistan", 12 September 2022

Pakistan is among the countries where compulsory labour has been imposed as a means of racial or religious discrimination as some 50 million people globally remain trapped in ‘modern slavery’ of forced labour or forced marriage, said the UN in a new report.

The study, by the UN’s agencies for labour and migration along with the Walk Free Foundation, found that at the end of last year, 28 million people were in forced labour, while 22 million were living in a marriage they had been forced into. That means nearly one out of every 150 people in the world are caught up in modern forms of slavery, the report said.

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The Covid-19 pandemic, which worsened conditions and swelled debt levels for many workers, has heightened the risk... coupled with the effects of climate change and armed conflicts, it has contributed to “unprecedented disruption to employment and education, increases in extreme poverty and forced and unsafe migration".