Employmentweb_low

employment relations and health inequalities: a conceptual and empirical overvieW
that determines whether a person is in a situation of forced labour,
and not the type of activity he or she is actually performing, however
hazardous the conditions of work might be. For example, practices
that constitute the use of slavery or forced labour include the use of
force to make someone work (through mental or physical threat),
taking ownership of or controlling another human through mental,
physical or threatened abuse (to the victim or members of his or her
family), dehumanising another human being, treating an individual
as a commodity or as property to be bought and sold, and using
physical constraint or placing restrictions to limit the individual's
freedom of movement (anti-Slavery International, 2006).
To be even more specific for the sake of investigation, the IlO has
identified eight different categories of forced labour, including
slavery and abductions, compulsory participation in public works,
forced labour in agriculture and remote rural areas, with coercive
recruitment practices, domestic workers, bonded labour, forced
labour exacted by the military, forced labour as a result of
trafficking, and prison-linked forced labour (IlO, 2005).
Until this 2005 IlO publication gave worldwide estimates (see Table
7), there had been no accurate estimation of the extent of forced labour
on a global scale. The reason is that it is a notoriously difficult
phenomenon to measure. The exaction of forced labour is usually illicit,
occurring in an underground economy and escaping national statistics
as well as traditional household or labour force surveys. Governments
are sometimes reluctant to probe into and recognise its existence
within their national borders (Pawar, 1998). Furthermore, it is hard to
collect evidence from victims, not only due to psychological trauma and
communication gaps (resulting from language barriers), but also
because they may feel reluctant to come forward and provide testimony
due to a fear of reprisals from their exploiters or of action against them
by immigration and other law enforcement authorities (IlO, 2005).
Thus, researchers are left with data that are difficult to work
with. nonetheless, there are a number of clear trends in the
emergence of forced labour and slavery. We explain here how
demographic changes in low- to middle-income countries, the
forces of globalisation, and a dangerous mix of tradition and political
unrest all contribute to the prevalence of forced labour and slavery.
First, rapid population growth in countries from asia and africa,
where slavery is still prevalent, has aggravated resource constraints,
inequality and poverty. In these countries, most of the population belong
to the adolescent age group and the rapid increase in unemployment
has led to the deterioration of the value of human life. Their
helplessness and desperation make them vulnerable to forced labour.
Ten-year old mohamed is a slave. Like the
rest of his family he works on the land of
his master idrissa. Tajae nomads in the
Tahoua region (niger).
source: © ilo/m. crozet (2003)
173