Forced labour turns $150 bn in illegal profits each year: ILO

From sex workers to farm hands and maids, millions of forced labourers around the world generate $150 billion in illegal profits for their bosses every year, the UN’s labour agency said Tuesday. Nearly 21 million men, women and children are locked in forced labour — many coerced into working as prostitutes, trafficked, or held in debt bondage and working in slave-like conditions, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). “Forced labour is bad for business and development and especially for its victims,” ILO chief Guy Ryder said, stressing the need to “eradicate this fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice as soon as possible”. Some 18.7 million people forced to toil in the private sector rake in $150.2 billion (110 billion euros) each year for the people exploiting them, the ILO said in a report.