These improvements in data collection see Portugal rise from 157th on the list of 167 countries, to 122, making it the EU state with the ninth highest proportion of its people who are in a state of slavery.
While Portugal’s figures come as a surprise for being as high as they are, the Index revealed an estimated 45.8 million men, women and children around the world are today trapped in modern slavery – 28 percent more than previously estimated. They are enslaved through human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage or commercial sexual exploitation.
North Korea is the country with the greatest prevalence of modern slavery, with 4.37 percent of its population estimated to be enslaved.
In terms of absolute numbers, India remains the highest with an estimated 18.35 million enslaved people, followed by China (3.39m), Pakistan (2.13m), Bangladesh (1.53m) and Uzbekistan (1.23m). Combined, these five countries account for almost 58 percent of the world’s enslaved, or 26.6 million people.
The Global Slavery Index also tracks government actions and responses to modern slavery. Of the 161 assessed, 124 countries have criminalised human trafficking in line with the UN Trafficking Protocol and 96 have developed national action plans to coordinate government response.
According to the Index, Portugal is among the countries leading the charge against modern slavery, alongside The Netherlands, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, Croatia, Spain, Belgium and Norway.