Forced labour around the world generates $150 billion in illegal profits for unscrupulous bosses every year, the UN’s labour agency revealed on Tuesday.

In the report, "Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour,” the International Labour Organisation (ILO), says about 21 million people across the world are subjected to forced labour.

The report, which is based on data from 2012, says about 18.7 million people are forced to toil in the private sector, raking in $150.2 billion each year for those exploiting them.

Some $99 billion is made from sexual exploitation and the rest from forced economic exploitation, such as domestic work and agriculture.

No forced labour in Rwanda

The ILO says an individual is considered to be working in forced labour if they: were not freely recruited and faced some form of interview at the time of recruitment; or have to work and live under duress; or can not leave their employer because of fear of being penalised.

Gaspard Mupiganyi, a programme officer at the Rwanda Trade Unions Confederation (Cestrar), told The New Times that there is no forced labour in Rwanda but "isolated incidents” that are similar to it.

Mupiganyi said: "There are certainly situations where someone is poor and is forced to work for money but there is no duress or external force compelling them apart from their own need.”

"Such scenarios involve mostly children. They are used in stone quarries, brick making and in countryside farms to offer cheap labour. It is poverty and despair that compels them to do so. The remedy is sensitisation against such practices as well as putting in place programmes aimed at poverty alleviation,” Mupiganyi said.

Leon Rusanganwa, an official at the Private Sector Federation (PSF), said the 2009 labour law, (especially articles 8 and 72) explicitly prohibits all forms of forced labour in the country, though there could be cases that go unreported.

Rusanganwa said: "The law is clear on matters of child labour, including child trafficking and bondage. But there are cases of children employed as house helps in homes whose bosses do not bother checking their IDs before employing them.”

What can be termed as forced labour in Rwanda, he said, is a phenomenon linked to poverty as poor people often do not have alternatives but to accept low paying and physically drainig jobs.

Minimum wage

Meanwhile, the Chairperson of Transparency International (TI) Rwanda, Marie Immaculee Ingabire, says one critical drawback in Rwanda is the lack of a minimum wage that reflects the cost of living.

A new minimum wage, she said, would help sort out the exploitation of poor people.  

The Minister for Public Service and Labour, Anastase Murekezi, this month said the government is considering fixing a new minimum wage hinged on productivity of particular sectors.  It is expected before the year ends, he said.

The 1974 Labour Law set the minimum wage at Rwf100 per day, which makes some workers to earn as little as Rwf300 a day, much to the chagrin of trade unionists. The minister said plans for a minimum wage had previously been put on hold due to the global financial and economic uncertainty which forced many economies to disregard minimum wages.

Gender based corruption 

Meanwhile there are also concerns that gender-based violence is also on the rise in Rwanda.  Both TI-Rwanda and MPs have expressed concern over rising cases of sexual corruption. 

Testimonies obtained by anti-corruption crusaders from some employed young women indicate that the latter are no better than sex slaves because they are forced to give sexual favours to their bosses in exchange for job security and other favours.

These cases are reportedly more common in the private sector, according to a study carried out between December 2010 and June 2011.

Both ILO and activists have urged strengthening of the legal framework to deal with forced labour and other related challenges in the workplace.