Attachments
Authored by: Heaven Crawley, Anita Ghimire, Louis Herns Marcelin, Linda Oucho and Angharad Smith
- New research now reveals the links between lacking official documentation and modern slavery. Without legal identity, people struggle to access basic services and are often forced into informal, dangerous and exploitative work.
- An estimated 850 million people around the world do not have legal identity. Women, children, rural dwellers, migrants, refugees and stateless individuals are most affected.
- Bureaucratic inefficiencies, high costs and legal gaps prevent people from securing documentation while social isolation, discrimination and stigma further worsen the situation for marginalised groups.
- People without identity documents are often confined to informal, low-wage work where exploitation and abuse frequently go unreported due to fear of approaching authorities.
- Government actions are urgently needed to address this global issue, including legislative reforms, community engagement and international cooperation.
A new investigative report by the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), in collaboration with the Freedom Fund ahead of International Identity Day on 16th September, reveals extensive evidence of the connections between a lack of documentation and a heightened risk of trafficking and modern slavery.
Despite Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 articulating a global commitment to achieving legal identity for all by 2030, one in nine people around the world (approximately 850 million) still lack official documentation. Populations most affected include women, children, rural families and people with low literacy.
People who lack legal recognition by governments, such as migrants, stateless minorities and those affected by discriminatory nationality laws, constitute a large group without access to essential documentation. Even where access is theoretically possible, respondents suggested that local-level practical challenges existed, such as bureaucratic inefficiencies, corruption, financial costs and discriminatory practices.
People lacking documentation are routinely denied essential services, such as healthcare, education and financial systems – perpetuating cycles of marginalisation, poverty and exploitation. Survivors of modern slavery are often trapped in abusive situations, due to mistrust or fears in authorities who are responsible for providing protection and support.
The research draws on direct insights from vulnerable communities in Brazil, Kenya and Nepal, with their testimonies underscoring the profound challenges faced by individuals lacking official documentation. For example, in Brazil, migrants from Haiti and Venezuela often face severe exploitation in low-wage sectors; in Nepal, those without citizenship cards can end up in bonded labour; and in Kenya, both nationals and displaced people lacking access to documentation can be pushed into the informal sector, often facing situations of modern slavery.
Professor Heaven Crawley, Senior Fellow at UNU-CPR said: “Legal identity is more than a bureaucratic formality, it safeguards people against exploitation. Millions around the world are trapped in cycles of poverty and exploitation simply because they lack official documentation.
“Without legal identity, people remain invisible and excluded from basic rights and services. This lack of documentation not only denies them access to healthcare, education and formal employment but also strips away the legal protections needed to escape abuse.”
Esther, 22, a Kenyan survivor of modern slavery, who is available for interview added: "When you don’t exist on paper, the system leaves us trapped. We are easy targets for those who want to exploit us because we have no voice, no identity, no way out.
“Governments, civil society and the international community must work together to remove these barriers. We need support that puts our dignity and humanity first. Only then can we hope to break free from this cycle of exploitation and reclaim our lives.”
ENDS
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For more information, email Melanie Hargreaves, Media and PR Manager at the Freedom Fund.
The Freedom Fund is a global fund with the sole aim of helping end modern slavery. We are a catalyst in the global effort to end modern slavery, working in the countries and sectors where it is most prevalent. We invest in and partner with organisations and communities on the frontlines of ending exploitation.
By partnering with those at risk of modern slavery as well as visionary investors, governments and anti-slavery organisations, we bring together the knowledge, the capital and the will needed to dismantle the systems that allow slavery to exist and thrive.
Through our investments and support, we aim to shift power, so that frontline organisations and communities can shape and drive the change required to bring modern slavery to an end.
United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) is a think tank within the United Nations that carries out policy-focused research and capacity-building on issues of strategic interest and importance to the UN and its Member States. The Centre prioritises urgent policy needs requiring innovative, practical solutions oriented toward immediate implementation and sustainability over the long term.
The Centre offers deep knowledge of the multilateral system and an extensive network of partners in and outside of the United Nations. The United Nations University Charter, formally adopted by the General Assembly in 1973, endows the Centre with academic independence, which ensures that its research is impartial and grounded in an objective assessment of policy and practice.