Slavery continues to evolve, shifting into new forms that remain hidden across global industries. Though a century has passed since the Slavery Convention, contemporary exploitation still traps people through forced labor, debt bondage, sexual exploitation, and forced marriage. Modern slavery is adapting to technology, conflict, and economic pressure faster than the systems designed to stop it.

Ecaterina Schilling, Chair of the UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, warns that new forms of slavery continue to emerge, including child exploitation online. The widespread nature of these abuses makes clear that the convention’s role remains critical as ever.

Who profits and who loses

Traffickers manipulate hope, fear, and vulnerability. They deceive people seeking a better life for themselves and their families, using tactics like impossible debts, threats, violence, and physical and psychological control. These abuses cut across almost every global industry. Schilling told the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) in an interview:

Just to mention a few: agriculture, from cacao and coffee to fruits and vegetables, and fishing and seafood. Its has affected the construction and manufacturing industries—especially where migrant workers have little protection—but also mining, including of cobalt, gold and other minerals essential to the global economy.

Technology now plays a significant role in recruitment, as traffickers leverage online platforms to lure, mislead, and manipulate victims. Children face unprecedented risks in cyberspace, where grooming, coercion, and exploitation are expanding at alarming rates. Even when victims appear free, many live under constant fear, manipulation, and dependence.

The impact runs deep and can last for years, leading to psychological trauma like shame, chronic anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. These effects extend beyond survivors themselves and often affect their families as well.

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