Types of modern slavery

Coercing or deceiving a person into commercial sexual exploitation. Consent is legally irrelevant when a minor is involved.

The commercial sexual exploitation of a person under 18. Treated as trafficking under international law regardless of apparent consent.

Work that deprives children of their childhood, education, or healthy development — from hazardous labor to forced participation in armed conflict.

Work extracted from a person under threat, coercion, or deception, in industries from agriculture to construction to fishing.

Forced labor inside a private home — cooking, cleaning, childcare — where isolation hides the abuse from view.

Victims coerced into committing crimes — drug trafficking, theft, online scam operations — on behalf of traffickers, then often prosecuted for it.

Also called debt bondage: a person is forced to work to repay a debt whose terms are manipulated so it can never be cleared.

A marriage in which one or both people have not given free and full consent, often used as a cover for exploitation.

Forced labor exacted directly by governments: prison labor below international standards, or civilians mobilized under threat of penalty.

The conscription, recruitment, or use of children under 18 by armed forces or groups, typically through abduction or coercion in conflict zones.

Forced labor that exists because an ecosystem was destroyed first: workers trapped in illegal mining, logging, or fishing on already-degraded land.

The illegal removal, sale, or transplantation of human organs, targeting people coerced or deceived in desperate financial circumstances.

A legacy umbrella category. New cases are filed under Child Labor, Child Soldiers & Recruitment, or CSEC instead.