Watch: Africa Needs Practical, Effective Solutions to Combat Forced Labor

Africa needs practical and effective solutions to combat forced labor including human trafficking and modern slavery, ILO Regional Director for Africa, Aenes Chuma said.

“An estimated 3.7 million African men, women and children still trapped in forced labor, and working under coercion, largely in the informal economy,” said the Director at the two-day consultation on Forced Child Labor in Sub-Saharan Africa in Addis Ababa.

 

ILO estimates that globally there are 21 million men, women and children suffering as victims of forced labor and human trafficking for labor exploitation, in which its illicit profits worldwide amounts to 150 billion USD per year.

Figures indicated that Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest incidence of child labor with 59 million children aged 5-17 years in child labor.

“The target can be achieved if there exists a well informed understanding of what is, and will be required to sustain and accelerate progress to end labor in all its forms to eliminate forced labor, modern slavery and human trafficking.”

Furthermore, he stressed that the work requires an extraordinary level of mobilization of partnerships, which can harness energy, resources and strategic and political acumen to a maximum degree.

African countries through collaboration between governments and employers have already taken measures to eliminate forced and child labor, according to the regional director.

Ethiopian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Abdulfatah Abdullahi on his part said “it needs collective approach and programs of action to fight social scourge which constitutes a serious threat to our societies.”

Speaking on his government commitments, the Minister noted that attention has given to end child and forced labor by putting policy and legal frameworks.

He further stated that it also requires a widespread advocacy to better integrate with intervention programs.

source ena