Some 0.013 percent of Belgians living in slavery

The figure comes from the Walk Free Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that draws up the annual Global Slavery Index.

Today’s slaves are the victims of people-trafficking, forced labour, forced marriages and economic and sexual exploitation.

It’s estimated that worldwide some 35.8 million people live in slavery. Belgium performs relatively well on the index and gets the score “good” as a verdict on the situation here.

Last year “only” 30 million people were found to be living in slavery but calculation methods have been fine-tuned and as a result the slavery total has jumped by a full 23 percent.

The Walk Free Foundation examined 167 nations and found slavery existed everywhere. Asia and Africa are the black spots.

In Mauritania 4 percent of the population lives in slavery.

In Uzbekistan the figure is little better. Haiti (2.3 percent), Qatar (1.36 percet) and India (1.14 percent) are badly affected too.

Over half the world’s cases of slavery are believed to be concentrated in five countries: India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Russia.

In Europe the biggest problems exist in Eastern Europe. In Europe sexual and economic exploitation is the most common form of slavery.

Belgium counts 0.013 percent of the population in slavery.

Flandersnews.be / Expatica