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Rabat- The second annual edition of the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index has revealed that nearly 36 million people worldwide are enslaved.
The Index produced by the Walk Free Foundation, a global human rights organization founded by Australian philanthropists Andrew and Nicola Forrest, estimates the number of people living in some form of modern slavery in 167 countries around the world.
Among the countries surveyed, India has the most slaves overall with an estimated 14.29 million people while Mauritania has the highest prevalence with 4% of its population in bondage.
Morocco was ranked 29th as one of the countries with the highest number of modern day slaves with an estimated 158,400 enslaved people.
The report defines modern slavery 'as one person possessing or controlling a person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty.' That includes human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, commercial or sexual exploitation and the sale and exploitation of children.
The Index says that Morocco's poor score is due to its "weak victim assistance services and the absence of any domestic legislation, social or legal support for victims of human trafficking, a currently unacknowledged population who are grouped with irregular immigrants policy."
Qatar has the highest percentage of population in modern slavery in North Africa and the Middle East. Morocco was ranked 10th in the MENA region.
The report calls for international action and to raise awareness against modern slavery while 'acknowledging that in the 2013 edition of the index the figures were an imperfect estimate as modern slavery is a hidden crime and notoriously difficult to measure."
According to the report, the ten countries with the largest estimated numbers in modern slavery are: India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand.
While the countries that are taking the most action to end modern slavery are: the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, Australia, Switzerland Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Georgia and Austria.
Iceland and Luxembourg have the lowest number of people living in modern slavery both in prevalence and in absolute numbers.
The report explains the rise in overall figures in this year's edition to better data and methodology, and not asserting that there has been an increase in modern slavery around the world over the last year.
