Armenia ranks 119th in Global Slavery Index 2016

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia ranks the 119th in the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index 2016, with some 14,100 people – about 0,47% of the population – trapped in modern slavery in 2015, the study showed Tuesday, May 31. The country ranked the 57th in the Global Slavery Index 2013, with the number of people trapped in slavery standing at around 10,500.

Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception. They may be held in debt bondage on fishing boats, against their will as domestic servants or trapped in brothels.

The report compiled information from 167 countries with 42,000 interviews in 53 languages to determine the prevalence of the issue and government responses.

It suggests that over 45 million men, women and children are trapped in slavery worldwide –28% more slaves than estimated two years ago.

In the report, Azerbaijan ranks the 80th with 45,000 people (0,47% of the population) trapped in slavery, Georgia with a 20,900 figure (0,47% of the population) follows in the 105th spot, while Iran and Turkey come in 13th and 14th with 495,300 (0,63%) and 480,300 (0.63%) trapped in slavery, respectively.

With 1,048,500 people, Russia takes the 7th spot in the report.

According to the study, India had the highest number of people trapped in slavery at 18.35 million.

In terms of absolute numbers, Asian countries occupy the top five for people trapped in slavery. Behind India was China (3.39 million), Pakistan (2.13 million), Bangladesh (1.53 million) and Uzbekistan (1.23 million).