Sri Lanka ranked 130th in Global Slavery Index 2018

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Global slavery index was officially launched at the United Nations Headquarters in New York yesterday. The Index is published annually by the Walk Free Foundation. There are approximately 40.3 million men, women and children living in the world who are victims of modern day slavery. Now in its 4th edition, the 2018 global slavery index is the world's most vigorous study of this crisis. It measures the prevalence of modern slavery, country by country. The risk factors that make people vulnerable and each nation's response to this crime. As well as examining where modern-day slavery is perpetrated, the 2018 edition exposes where the products of crime are sold and consumed. The wealthy G20 countries import 354 billion dollars worth of at-risk products each year. The US is responsible for 145 billion of these imports. Businesses and Government must examine supply chains to eliminate modern slavery. Of the 40.3 million people in modern slavery, women and girls make up 71% of the victims. The Governments taking the most action to respond to modern slavery are the Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom. North Korea, Libya and Eritrea are taking the least action. Sri Lanka is ranked 130th of out 167 countries with an estimated 44,000 people living in modern slavery. Andrew Forrest, the Australian philanthropist and businessman who founded the GSI notes that “the responsibility that developed countries have for modern slavery, revealed by this new data, is a huge wakeup call.” He goes on to say that “The pressure to respond to this appalling human crime must shift from poorer countries to richer nations that have the resources and institutions to do much better... We cannot sit back while millions of women, girls, men and boys around the world are having their lives destroyed and their potential extinguished by criminals seeking a quick profit.”