GENEVA (Reuters) - Perpetrators of forced labour, which affects 21 million people globally, will be punished in most countries under a U.N. treaty clinched on Wednesday, despite being snubbed by Thailand and nearly all Gulf countries.
More than half of the estimated 21 million caught up in forced or compulsory labour are women and girls and the practice reaps an estimated $150 billion (89.2 billion pounds) in illegal profits across agriculture, fishing, mining, construction, domestic services and the sex industry, among others, the International Labour Organisation, a United Nations agency, said.
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