Modern Slavery
Many of us grew up thinking slavery ended or was a thing of the past. But it didn’t end, it just changed form.
Today, slavery doesn’t always involve chains. It can look like debt, or deception, or threats of violence against a person and their family. It can be a job offer that turns out to be something else entirely.
Modern slavery is harder to see than slavery of the past, which is partly why it is so persistent.
Hagar has been working with survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking for more than 30 years. This is what we know.
Modern slavery is an umbrella term for situations where people are exploited and cannot leave, because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuse of power over them.
The term overlaps significantly with human trafficking and you’ll often see them used interchangeably. Modern slavery is a broader term that encompasses human trafficking. Human trafficking refers to the act of recruiting, transporting, or receiving people for exploitation.
Both, however, describe the same fundamental violation: a person’s freedom and dignity is stripped away for someone else’s profit.
people are living in modern slavery worldwide, according to the Global Slavery Index.
of trafficking survivors are women and girls
generated annually by forced labor – one of the most profitable criminal industries on earth
survivors are rescued and receive meaningful care and support to rebuild their lives
It happens everywhere, no country or region of the world is immune. The Global Slavery Index has documented modern slavery in every country of the world.
The highest absolute numbers are in Asia and the Pacific, where Hagar works. Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand all rank among the regions with significant trafficking and forced labor. Many survivors Hagar walks alongside were deceived with promises of legitimate employment – in factories, restaurants, or domestic work, but found themselves unable to leave.
But modern slavery is also present in Western supply chains in ways most consumers don’t see including forced labor in garment factories that supply global brands, migrant workers in agriculture, and domestic workers in private homes.
The geography of exploitation is genuinely global.
In the United States, the National Human Trafficking Hotline receives tens of thousands of contacts each year. It is not a distant problem.
Modern slavery follows the lines of existing inequality and vulnerability.
The people most at risk are those with the fewest protections:
Traffickers are skilled at identifying and exploiting these vulnerabilities. They offer what people need most: good work, safety, a relationship, or an opportunity to improve their lives, and then use that leverage to trap them.
This is why Hagar’s work extends beyond direct survivor care into prevention, working with communities to reduce vulnerability before exploitation occurs.
There is no single solution. But there are things that work across organizations, governments and systems.
What does work:
Combating modern slavery in individual lives and at a systems level requires a long view. This is why Hagar’s model is built around seeing the exploitation and trafficking that is hidden, and staying for however it long it takes to rebuild lives and dignity.
You don’t have to be a policy maker or a lawyer to make a difference.
Learn and Share
Understand the realities of modern slavery and share what you learn. The organizations doing this work depend on people like you who raise awareness and support.
Give to Organizations Doing Long-Term Survivor Work
Look for organizations with a long-term, collaborative approach, transparent financials, and survivor-centred practice.
Make Ethical Consumer Choices
Use resources like Know the Chain or the Ethical Trading Initiative to understand which companies take supply chain transparency seriously. Your purchasing decisions matter.
Advocate
Support policies that protect vulnerable people, particularly migrant workers, domestic workers, children, and people in irregular legal situations.
Equip yourself with the knowledge and tools to prevent human trafficking and support survivors. Free to download.
Hagar was founded in Cambodia in 1994, in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge, a context of mass trauma, displacement, and exploitation.
Over 30 years, we’ve built a model that sees and stays. This means we see each survivor as a whole person – not a case number or a statistic – and we stay with them for as long as recovery takes.
In practice, that means trauma counseling, legal advocacy, safe housing, medical care, vocational training and job placement, and community reintegration.
We work across Asia Pacific, from Afghanistan, to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, to the Solomon Islands. Our programs are led by national teams whose relationships run deep.
Hagar currently works with survivors in seven countries across Asia Pacific. Learn more about where we work and what that looks like.
50 million people are traffped in modern slavery. Fewer than 1 in 10 will receive the care and support they need to heal and rebuild their lives. Hagar is on a mission to change that – one survivor at a time, for as long as it takes. Your gift makes the long road of recovery possible.
