In pictures: Forced labour and trafficking

Introduction

People in forced labour can be found in every continent and in most countries. About one-sixth of them are victims of human trafficking, a highly-organised business that generates huge profits for those who run it.

A group of students and former students of the Missouri School of Journalism looked at the issues surrounding trafficking and forced labour in their home countries.

Co-ordinator: Irina Guseva, University of Missouri

Picture: Vladimir Afanasiev

Russia

These are orphans. Natasha is the last one in the row, hiding from everybody. She was taken to the foster home by police who found her at a train station. Natasha didn't know her surname or her age. Her mother is said to have sold her to people who ran a "beggar business". "If I didn't bring any money, they would beat me and send me back to work next morning," she told people at the home. Natasha later disappeared from the orphanage and has not been seen since. Her mother has been located - she denies selling her daughter, saying she "rented her so she could earn some money for textbooks".

Text: Tatyana Seyranyan

Picture: Bektour Sydykov

Kyrgyzstan

"Unemployment drives many people to seek a job abroad. They believe life is much better out there," explains Bubusara Ryskulova (right), head of a crisis centre. She tells the story of Aysalkyan, the woman on the TV screen. Aysalkyn went to Kazakhstan with her two children when her husband was jailed for robbery. She worked from dawn to dusk on a tobacco farm with many other Kyrgyz women. They lived in huts on the fields and had their passports taken away so they couldn't leave. Aysalkyn managed to escape, but she had lost her 12-year-old daughter who died of pneumonia because she wasn't allowed to visit a doctor."

Text: Bektour Sydykov and Jyldyz Kuvatova

Picture: Ivan Popov

Bulgaria

Anelia, 22, says she is not a typical victim of trafficking. She was struggling to balance her college studies and a full-time job when she met "the Italian". They went to Milan where he introduced her to two men who told her to strip for a camera test - "the Italian" had already vanished along with her passport. She was made to pose for pornographic videos and work as a prostitute - if she refused she was beaten up. Anelia managed to flee her "chaperon" on a visit to the market. She got on a bus and ended up in southern Italy. There, she met some Bulgarians who agreed to help her return home, where she now works as a prostitute. "I'd heard the horror stories, and thought 'my luck can't be that bad'. But it was. The truth is, it's a gamble," Anelia says.

Text: Katerina Pesheva

Picture: Nicolae Projoga

Moldova

Galina Nascu is 20-years-old. She was rescued from a so-called "beggar home" owned by Moldovan gypsies in St Petersburg, Russia. Galina's nightmare began when a woman promised her a good job. Galina was passed on to the "boss" who forced her to beg on the streets and in underground stations. She had to collect more than $100 a day in a city where the average monthly wage is around $250. If she failed, her "boss" would beat her up. Galina managed to escape and return to her village, south of Moldova's capital, Chisinau. A non-governmental organisation found her a job at a pig farm. "The pigs I work with remind me of people who used to oppress me," says Galina.

Text and picture: Nicolae Pojoga

Picture: Julia Gnilomedova

Belarus

I was on my way to the station when I heard a "job offer" coming from inside a black car. I said I had to catch a train and walked on. My lack of interest apparently made no sense to the inquirer, who asked: "Don't you want to take the money?" I didn't need it at the time... Others aren't so lucky. Around the capital, Minsk, posters saying "Surprise! A job for you abroad. Stop female slave trade" are designed to serve as a warning. But many girls fail to heed it. They go abroad seeking better opportunities and end up working as prostitutes to "compensate the owner for his costs".

Text and picture: Julia Gnilomedova

Child Labour

About 211 million children aged from five to 14 are at work around the world, according to Unicef, despite being too young to do so under international standards. Most of them are not considered to be victims of forced labour. The ILO estimates that between five and six million children are forced labourers (40-50% of the total). Some of them are born into bondage, others are sold by their parents or abducted - they work in agriculture, industry, domestic work and the sex trade.

Scale

Because of the illegal nature of forced labour, there are no reliable national estimates of the scale of the problem. Some researchers have suggested that there are 27 million forced labourers worldwide, but the ILO estimates that the figure is closer to 12.3 million. This means that there are at least two victims of forced labour per 1,000 people. Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa have the highest incidence of forced labour in relation to their population.

Types

Forced Labour can be imposed by the state or by private agents. About 20% of cases are state-imposed - this includes people who are made to work by governments, penal systems, the military or rebel groups. However, most forced labour is exacted by private agents for economic exploitation - this includes bonded labour and forced domestic and agricultural work. About 11% of forced labour imposed by private agents takes the form of commercial sexual exploitation.

Trafficking

About a fifth of people in forced labour have been trafficked. UN estimates suggest that, at any point in time, some 2.5 million men, women and children are victims of trafficking. It is estimated they produce more than $31bn a year in illicit profits - half of it in industrialised countries. At a global level, this represents about $13,000 per per year for each trafficked forced labourer.