Regional: The Americas (Part 3)

​Black and Brown like me: Racial roots of modern slavery 
Ashante Taylorcox is the Founder and Executive Director of You Are More Than Inc. — a US-based organisation that aims to transform the growth and potential of marginalised survivors of modern slavery. It does this through survivor-centred aftercare support that provides barrier-free access to mental health services, education, and financial stability. In this essay, she focuses on the unique experiences of survivors of colour and offers solutions for how the modern slavery movement can best respond and adapt to ensure true racial equity. 
 
Historically, slavery has been deeply rooted in racial inequity. To justify the trafficking and exploitation of Black women and girls during and prior to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, we were often sexualized at a very early age and seen as “jezebels,” “promiscuous,” and “sexual deviants.” Today, Black women are disproportionately represented in trafficking statistics and the sexualisation of Black women and girls continues. Racial tropes deeply rooted in slavery still impact survivors’ access to services throughout the anti-trafficking movement. 
 
When disclosing experiences of sexual violence to service providers, survivors of trafficking often face culturally specific barriers. This is due to systemic and individual biases and stereotypes throughout the anti-trafficking movement. These biases can look like the “Strong Black Women” trope, in which Black youth and women of colour are seen as less deserving of support because of stereotypes that sexual violence is normal for Black survivors. 
 
It follows that we cannot feel harm from these experiences because it is “normalised” within Black communities. Black men and boys often face gendered racism and are more than likely to be seen as perpetrators and/or criminals rather than as potential victims. As young as five years old, Black girls are adultified, seen as needing less nurturance, and more knowledgeable about adult experiences and topics, and because we develop more quickly than our white peers, we are often over-sexualised. Finally, many service providers struggle with understanding the deep-rooted correlation between exploitation and the racial trauma that many survivors face in their daily lives that can impact their sustainability out of the commercial sex industry. This, in turn, leads to minimising the impact that racial trauma has on survivors and they often face microaggressions and further racial discrimination when reaching out for support. 
 
When marginalised survivors exit their trafficking situations, they often enter a world not built for them to succeed. Survivors need access to services and provisions that can support them in finding long-term employment, sustainable housing, and higher education. Additionally, it is vital to hold space for understanding and dismantling systems of oppression, power, and privilege and to address society’s often discriminatory view of Black and Brown survivors when accessing services. Placing marginalised survivors at the forefront of the movement and supporting them in building their own tables rather than forcing them to sit at ones that weren’t made for them can cause a positive ripple effect within the modern slavery movement. 
 
In order to address structural and embedded racism in this space, it is vital that we work to dismantle the “ideal victim” trope throughout the modern slavery movement. Persons of colour accessing victim and survivor services must be humanised as individuals worthy of responses that recognise their unique experiences. In line with this, culturally specific services for marginalised populations must be prioritised and appropriately funded throughout the United States and beyond, with a particular focus on those that are led by and for survivors of colour. Agencies that are primarily led by white providers should work towards expanding knowledge in decolonising and deconstructing whiteness within the modern slavery movement through specific trainings that aim to increase understanding of diversity and inclusion. Additionally, it is vital for organisations to invest in economic opportunities for survivors of colour, particularly within leadership roles. 
 
Until we can address the racial roots of slavery globally, survivors of colour will continue to remain marginalised, underserved, and underrepresented within the modern slavery movement and beyond. 
 
Walk Free 2023. Global Slavery Index 2023. Minderoo Foundation Ltd. Australia.

Regional: The Americas (Part 2)

​What are governments in the region doing to address modern slavery? 
Walk Free has assessed government responses to modern slavery in 32 countries in the Americas. Governments across the region scored an average of 48 per cent, second only to Europe and Central Asia. National responses in the Americas are mixed. Despite some strong responses in the region, there is evidence of weak criminal justice systems and inadequate protection for survivors, which are compounded by government crises, corruption, and large migration flows. 
 
Wealth disparity impacts government responses to modern slavery within the region. Wealthier countries typically demonstrated stronger responses to modern slavery, with the US (67 per cent) and Canada (60 per cent) — the region’s wealthiest countries — ranking first and second respectively. The US also performed well at the global level, ranking within the top five. At the same time, some countries with comparatively lower wealth also demonstrated strong responses to modern slavery. Argentina’s response (58 per cent) ranked third in the region, only just below Canada, despite having less than half the GDP per capita PPP (current international $) (US$20,769 compared to US$46,572). Some of the countries that demonstrated the least action to respond to modern slavery had the lowest GDP per capita among countries assessed and had experienced political and economic disruption; for example, Venezuela (27 per cent) and Cuba (31 per cent). 
 
The US, Canada, Argentina, and Uruguay demonstrated the strongest responses to modern slavery. Compared to others in the Americas, these countries are generally taking concrete actions to improve certain aspects of survivor support, strengthen criminal justice systems, and address risk factors. The Canadian government routinely releases annual reports describing actions to combat modern slavery and has an independent oversight mechanism in place for monitoring the functioning and effectiveness of its National Action Plan. In 2019, Canada also ratified the ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 with its ratification entering into force on 17 June 2020. Venezuela demonstrated the weakest responses to modern slavery. Venezuela continues to be affected by protracted economic and political instability, which hampered the government’s ability to respond.
 
Saint Lucia, Canada, and Uruguay have all taken further action to combat modern slavery since the previous assessment of government responses in 2018. In Saint Lucia, the government introduced a hotline that facilitates reporting to specialised human trafficking task forces, federal authorities, local law enforcement, and service providers. This was accompanied by a widespread awareness campaign to promote the hotline. Since the last report, Peru, Antigua and Barbuda, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, and Suriname have also ratified the ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, while the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) entered into force in Mexico, Peru, and Antigua and Barbuda.
 
The strength of legislative frameworks to combat modern slavery in the Americas is varied. Across the region, 21 countries criminalise human trafficking, 12 countries criminalise forced labour, and only seven countries criminalise forced marriage (Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Saint Lucia, Bahamas, Canada, and Belize). The US provided up to US$10 million in funding for programs to prevent child marriage around the world from 2017 to 2020, yet most of its states still allow children under the age of 18 to marry and eight have not set a minimum age. In most countries assessed, governments provided training for the judiciary and prosecution, however only 11 countries provided this training regularly. When considering protections for children, 15 countries have criminalised child commercial sexual exploitation; however, only Colombia, Nicaragua, and Panama have criminalised the use of children in armed conflict. Only Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are yet to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. 
 
While the majority of countries in the region had specialised law enforcement units to investigate modern slavery, 16 of them did not have the resources to operate effectively. In El Salvador, both the anti-trafficking police and prosecution units did not have enough resources to investigate and prosecute cases and were further impeded by the lack of an electronic case management system. Additionally, there is evidence that survivors of modern slavery have been treated as criminals for conduct that occurred while under the control of criminals in the US, Brazil, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras. In the US, survivors are criminalised and face challenges finding employment and housing because of charges laid against them while they were under the control of criminals.
 
All countries in the Americas are involved in a regional response to modern slavery. National coordination bodies exist in all but two countries (Cuba and Venezuela); however, only the US, Guyana, and Canada include survivors of modern slavery in this coordination. Almost all countries in the Americas have a National Action Plan to combat modern slavery; only Chile does not. Chile’s draft National Action Plan has not been formally approved or made public, while after years of awaiting approval, Paraguay finally implemented a National Action Plan covering the period from 2020 to 2024.
 
While nearly all countries in the Americas have criminalised corruption, allegations of official complicity in modern slavery cases were reportedly not investigated in 17 countries. In Mexico, where an anonymous hotline to report corruption of officials received no tips despite reports of government officials facilitating modern slavery, some officials have been investigated but there have been no convictions. Labour inspections specifically targeting modern slavery occur in 24 countries, although none have sufficient labour inspectors to cover the entire population or to allow labour inspectors to enter premises unannounced. Only in Honduras are labour inspectors able to enforce fines. In 12 countries, not all children are able to access birth registration systems, which creates significant vulnerability due to related barriers to accessing education and employment. 
 
There is evidence of awareness campaigns targeting known modern slavery risks in all but two countries in the region. In 2021, Canada launched a five-year awareness campaign based on a survey of public attitudes and awareness on human trafficking. There is also evidence that governments have facilitated research on modern slavery in 19 countries, including, for example, a 2021 study on the state of human trafficking in Honduras and a 2020 study to reduce vulnerability to human trafficking and crime in Saint Lucia. That being said, state-imposed forced labour, such as abuse of compulsory prison labour, undermines any government efforts to tackle modern slavery in Brazil and the US.
 
Although the Americas has the second strongest response in terms of addressing forced labour in global supply chains in comparison to other regions, the level of action remains low. Recently, Mexico and Canada joined the US in enacting legislation that prohibits companies from importing goods produced through forced labour. The US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement came into effect in July 2020 and prohibited the importation of goods produced with forced labour into each country’s territory. In the same month, Canada amended its Customs Tariff to incorporate the restriction on goods produced with forced labour, and, more recently, passed its own “Modern Slavery Act” which imposes a mandatory reporting obligation on certain government institutions and private sector entities.The US also passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021, which entered into effect in June 2022, to prevent goods made with forced labour of Uyghurs from entering the US market.

Promising Practices in the Americas 
In the Promising Practices Database, 53 of 262 evaluations cover 20 countries in the Americas. Most evaluated programs target human trafficking, child labour, and the worst forms of child labour. Only one evaluation focused on forced, servile, or early marriage, despite it being a significant issue within the region. While the majority of evaluated programs in the region met some or all their objectives, fewer than half of the evaluated programs had reliable methodologies that featured a control or comparison group. However, of these reliable evaluations, the majority had some success in providing insights into what works to address modern slavery in the Americas. 
 
Spotlight on what works 
The Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH) cash transfer program has provided unconditional cash transfers to families in Ecuador since 1998 and offers valuable lessons for reducing child labour through economic empowerment. The program randomly assigned money to low-income families, while others in the target area who did not receive a transfer were used as a control group. The transfers involved monthly payments of US$15 to female heads of household, which accounted for 7 per cent of monthly expenditure. The evaluation included a sample of 1,488 randomly selected households and conducted baseline and follow-up surveys. The program led to a 78 per cent decline in child labour outside the home among all participants. Inside the home, child labour decreased by 32 per cent. Reducing child labour can lead to a reduction in children who are at risk of the worst forms of child labour, a form of modern slavery. The program demonstrates the importance of unconditional cash transfers in empowering and protecting vulnerable individuals. 
 
Recommendations for Governments
Introduce legislation requiring governments and businesses to take steps to identify and address modern slavery in their supply chains, including mandatory human rights due diligence. 
 
Enact or strengthen existing legislation to ensure that all forms of exploitation are criminalised and penalties for crimes associated with forced labour, forced marriage, and human trafficking are appropriate for the severity of the crime. 
 
Improve support and identification efforts for all victims throughout the Americas by providing services to all survivors of modern slavery, including men, children, and migrants. 
 
Establish bilateral agreements protecting labour migrants between countries of origin and destination. 
 
Adopt and distribute national guidelines for identifying and screening victims and provide systematic and regular training for police and other first responders, as well as border guards, immigration officials, labour inspectors, teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, and tourism sector workers, with a particular emphasis on countries receiving large influxes of migrants fleeing crisis in the region. 
 
Walk Free 2023. Global Slavery Index 2023. Minderoo Foundation Ltd. Australia.

Regional: The Americas (Part 1)

​The Americas region is home to 13 per cent of the world’s population, with varying levels of wealth, mobility, and security across and within countries in the region. Modern slavery in the region is driven by inequality, increasing poverty, discrimination against migrants and minority groups, political instability, and conflict. The situation has been exacerbated by economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to it, as well as the impacts of climate-related displacement. 
 
An estimated 3.5 per thousand people in the region are in forced labour and 1.5 per thousand in forced marriage. Mass migration fuels forced labour, particularly in the world’s largest migration corridor from Mexico to the United States (US). Migrants flee countries such as Venezuela and others and congregate on the border between the US and Mexico. Forced marriage is linked to increased poverty and lower educational attainment, and is driven by longstanding patriarchal norms and fundamentalist religious beliefs within the region; for example, in North America forced marriage is reported in conservative religious sects.
 
The US has taken the most action to tackle modern slavery in the Americas, followed by Canada, Argentina, and Uruguay. Cuba, Suriname, and Venezuela have taken the least action. Of the five G20 countries in the region (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the US), Brazil, Canada and the US have taken action to tackle modern slavery in supply chains. Much more needs to be done to strengthen legislation to hold businesses to account and to tackle gender inequality that drives modern slavery of women and girls. 
 
What is the extent and nature of modern slavery in the region? 
An estimated 5.1 million men, women, and children were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021. The Americas had the lowest prevalence of modern slavery among the five regions, with 5 in every thousand people living in modern slavery. The Americas had the third highest prevalence of forced labour (3.5 per thousand) and the lowest prevalence of forced marriage (1.5 per thousand) compared to other regions.
 
Within the region, Venezuela, Haiti, and El Salvador had the highest prevalence of modern slavery. In Haiti and Venezuela modern slavery is intertwined with migration, political instability, and drug trafficking routes from South America to Central and North America, while in El Salvador it is associated with gang violence and gender-based violence.
 
The largest estimated numbers of people in modern slavery include some of the region’s most populous countries — Brazil, the US, and Mexico. Three of every five people in modern slavery in the Americas are exploited in one of these countries. The countries with the lowest prevalence in the region are Canada, Uruguay, and Chile. 
 
Children in the Americas are at particularly high risk of all forms of modern slavery. They have been recruited as soldiers in protracted civil conflicts in Colombia and Venezuela, resulting in long-lasting trauma. Child recruitment by armed groups, gangs, and organised crime has increased in the region, impacting children in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and El Salvador. Moreover, children are reportedly involved in hazardous labour in industries such as mining in gold and tin, drug trafficking, and agriculture, most notably in cotton, cattle, fishing, and tobacco.Commercial sexual exploitation of children occurs in the region. In the Caribbean, sex tourism, particularly involving children remains an issue, with sex tourists, primarily from the US, seeking to exploit children in countries such as Belize. UN estimates reveal that child marriage is prevalent in the region with 22 per cent of women between ages 20 and 24 having been married before the age of 18 years.In the US, recent research estimated that 300,000 children were married between 2000 and 2018.
 
Seasonal, temporary, and undocumented workers in the agricultural sector are vulnerable to forced labour, including workers in higher- income countries such as the US and Canada. This is particularly true in informal or rural labour contexts where there are limited regulations and few labour inspections. Forced labour in US supply chains remains an issue in the Americas, with agricultural workers in countries that supply products to the US market vulnerable to exploitation. Moreover, there are reports of compulsory prison labour in public and private prisons in Brazil and the US.
 
Although these estimates are the most reliable to date, they are conservative given the gaps and limitations of data collection in the Americas. These figures do not capture all forms of modern slavery, such as recruitment of child soldiers, trafficking for the purposes of organ removal, and all child marriages. 
 
What drives vulnerability to modern slavery in the region? 
Vulnerability to modern slavery in the Americas region is driven largely by inequality, political instability, and discrimination against migrants and minority groups. Conflict disproportionately impacted two countries in the region, Mexico and Colombia, while vulnerability was further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-related disasters across the region. At the country level, vulnerability to modern slavery is highest in Haiti and lowest in Canada. 
 
Inequality represents the greatest driver of vulnerability in the Americas. Certain populations, including women, children, migrants, and Indigenous people, face heightened vulnerability as a result of systemic discrimination. In Haiti, children known as restavecs (stay withs), who are given away by their parents to a host household, are vulnerable to exploitation in domestic servitude, with girls particularly at risk. Restavec children are trafficked and are at increased vulnerability to sexual abuse. Across the region, Indigenous populations are particularly vulnerable to modern slavery. For example, although Indigenous women make up only 4 per cent of the population of Canada, they comprise at least 50 per cent of identified survivors of human trafficking. Migrant workers are also at greater risk, with the absence of protections in several countries, such as the right to form a union or laws prohibiting recruitment fees.
 
Governance issues, such as political instability, lack of political rights, and poor regulatory quality, also drive vulnerability to modern slavery by causing displacement and hampering the national response. Violent protests in Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, the assassination of the President of Haiti in 2021 and increasing control of the country by street gangs and growing political polarisation in Brazil and the US drive vulnerability across the region. High rates of violent crime in several countries including Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Jamaica, and weak confidence in judicial systems in Mexico, Haiti, and Venezuela, diminish accessibility to legal rights, representation, and prosecution. In Venezuela, political instability and corruption among the prosecution and judiciary undermines law enforcement efforts, while armed groups continue to commit acts of violence against civilians, thereby driving mass migration.
 
Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by governance issues across the region, as patriarchal attitudes that suppress women’s agency persist at both the household and institutional levels. Such attitudes contribute to the absence of laws protecting women and girls — for example, laws that set the minimum age of marriage at 18 without exception — and a lack of enforcement of existing legal frameworks covering violence against women.
 
Violence, poverty, political dysfunction, and environmental degradation across the region have led to a substantial increase in refugees, asylum- seekers, and other vulnerable and displaced populations. The continual movement of migrants and refugees is a pressing issue in the Americas, which hosted 26 per cent of the world’s international migrants in 2020. Venezuela’s political instability and socio-economic breakdown has pushed more than 6 million citizens to flee the country as of November 2021. The Mexico-US border is the world’s most popular migration corridor; over the five years from 2016 to 2021, some 4 million migrants were apprehended along the Mexico-US border, nearly half of whom came from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The remaining came predominately from Mexico and other nations.

In Mexico, migrants are held in crowded detention centres, while those who had sought assistance in shelters reported experiencing robbery, extortion, bodily harm, kidnapping, and abuse of authority while migrating, all factors which make these individuals vulnerable to modern slavery. As many countries in the Americas have restrictive immigration policies, which force migrants to take increasingly precarious routes, thereby further exacerbating their vulnerability to trafficking and other forms of modern slavery.
 
Walk Free 2023. Global Slavery Index 2023. Minderoo Foundation Ltd. Australia.

​Regional Overviews
 
The Americas (Part 2)
Floods, drought and wildfires 
Floods in Rio Grande do Sul accounted for the vast majority of the disaster displacements recorded in Brazil. Northern states experienced drought that triggered 35,000 movements in Amazonas. Drought also fuelled wildfires in neighbouring Pará state, which accounted for 9,400 of the country’s more than 11,000 wildfire displacements. Greater avail- ability of data on wildfires contributed to the 2024 figure being higher than in all previous years combined. 
 
The United States recorded the highest number of wildfire displacements globally, as it has done for most of the past decade. The majority of the 266,000 movements took place in California. The largest event was the Park fire in Butte and Tehama counties in late July, which triggered more than 66,000. Butte had already been the scene of California’s deadliest wildfire in 2018, highlighting its exposure. The devastation caused by wildfires can prolong displacement, as was the case in Hawaii, where almost 3,000 people were still displaced at the end of 2024 after the Maui fires of August 2023. They faced a number of challenges including higher rental costs, leading many to apply for government housing aid.
 
Wildfires also triggered 45,000 displacements in Canada, significantly fewer than the record 185,000 in 2023. Most were recorded in Alberta, particularly in July near the Jasper National Park and included the displacement of First Nations communities. All public infrastructure was saved, but the destruction of housing left almost 2,000 people living in displacement at the end of the year.
 
The number of disaster displacements in Colombia was lower than in the previous two years, but the 91,000 movements recorded still represented the third-highest figure in more than a decade. The northern departments of Bolívar, Córdoba and Sucre were particularly affected by floods between May and July. The same departments also suffered drought, which triggered 7,900 movements, the first drought displacement data reported for the country. The Pacific department of Chocó was also significantly affected by floods in August and November which triggered 29,000 displacements. Floods there and elsewhere in the country prompted the government to declare a national disaster situation on 13 November.
 
Colombia’s Constitutional Court issued a declaration in April calling on the government to adopt structural measures to respond to disaster displacement. The landmark ruling recognises the right of people fleeing disasters to protection, setting a precedent in Colombia and the region more broadly.
 
Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council. Geneva, Switzerland.