Up to 800,000 of the nearly 30 million people across the world living in conditions of modern-day slavery are East Africans, according to the first Global Slavery Index.

Uganda and Tanzania at positions 25 and 29 respectively are the two countries in the region with the highest prevalence rates of populations in modern-day slavery. They are followed by Burundi and Rwanda at position 41 and 43 respectively out of the 162 countries surveyed. Kenya is ranked at position 102.

Tanzania and Uganda have modern-day slave populations of 329,503 and 254,541 respectively followed by Rwanda and Burundi with 80,284 and 71,146 while Kenya has the lowest modern-day slave population at 37,349.

According to Kevin Bales, co-founder of Walk Free, an Australian-based rights organisation that conducted the study, East African governments need to make national plans for the eradication of slavery by drawing together the right laws and participants like police and social services.

“Most countries recognise the problem, but don’t spend the money needed to stop it; this is a problem that can be stopped if the right resources are applied,” said Mr Bales.

Basis of the report

The Global Slavery Index 2013 report was based on three factors: Prevalence of modern-day slavery by population; prevalence of child marriages; and rates of human trafficking in and out of the country.

It is estimated that 16 per cent of the estimated 30 million people in modern-day slavery are in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is the largest of the regions measured for the Global Slavery Index, and also holds the greatest diversity in terms of the risk of enslavement,” said the report.

Mauritius leads the region in stability and the protection of human and worker rights, but is eclipsed by South Africa and Gabon in terms of the extent of policies on modern-day slavery.

The high prevalence measured for countries like DR Congo and Mauritania reflect century-old patterns of enslavement, often based on colonial conflicts and injustice exacerbated by contemporary armed conflict.

“Ongoing conflicts, extremes of poverty, high levels of corruption, and the impact of resource exploitation to feed global markets all increase the risk of enslavement in many African countries. Child and forced marriages are still tolerated in the context of informal or ‘traditional’ legal systems in many countries,” said the report.

Primarily originating from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, victims of modern-day slavery are forced into sex work, domestic servitude, agriculture, construction, food processing, benefit fraud, coerced criminality, and work in nail salons and food services.

The most common countries of origin of identified victims are Uganda, Nigeria, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Slovakia and China. Forced labour has been identified within low, unskilled occupations in factories, agriculture, food processing, restaurants, nail salons, construction, door-to-door leaflet delivery and also in the tarmacking and block paving industries.

Children have been found in forced labour in agriculture, construction, hospitality, nail bars as well as in domestic work, forced criminality and benefit fraud.

Recent research has identified the vulnerability of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK to forced labour is a result of their incredibly precarious living situation, arguably created by the UK asylum system.