One in 200 people in the world 'living as a slave'

Almost 36million people across the world - 0.5 per cent of the total population - are living as slaves.

Walk Free's Global Slavery Index found India has the most slaves overall and Mauritania has the highest percentage at four per cent of its total population.

Although Walk Free reported a 20 per cent increase in the overall number of people living in slavery-like conditions, it believes the rise is down to improved accuracy of its measures, and the fact that the true extent of modern slavery is being uncovered.

India has more than14 million people living as slaves, followed by China, with more than three million, and then Pakistan and Uzbekistan, the report concluded.

Russia came next, which the report said is down to the country’s economy relying on enslaved migrant workers in the construction and agricultural sectors.

(The colour of the countries as shown on this map designate from lowest to highest prevalence of modern slavery. Those in grey were not included in the index.)

Slaves are defined as people subjected to forced labour, debt bondage, trafficking, sexual exploitation for money and forced or servile marriage.

It uses slavery in a modern sense of the term, rather than as a reference to the broadly outlawed traditional practice where people were held in bondage and treated as another person’s property.

Slavery chart via Statista, slavery map via Walk Free

More: Read the Global Slavery Index in full

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