According to the Global Slavery Index 2018, the Czech Republic ranks 108th out of 167 countries.

There are currently over 30,000 people living in “modern slavery” in the country. Offenders use them mainly for seasonal work or in construction.

The country sentenced 16 people for human trafficking last year, according to data released by the Ministry of the Interior.

The study, conducted by Australia’s Walk Free Foundation, scores nations based on “combining the proportion of the population that is enslaved, the numbers in child or early marriages and the level of trafficking into or out of the country.”

While this only consists of 0.36 % of the Czech population of 10.5 million, this is more than 7 times higher than the average of 0.05 % in other Western European nations.

The Czech Republic is a primary destination for migrant workers from surrounding European nations, mainly from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania or Vietnam. Migrant workers are often more vulnerable to trafficking or forced labor.

The 2018 edition builds on the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, which estimated that 40.3 million people were in some form of slavery on any given day in 2016.

The Index provides rankings across three dimensions:

• Size of the problem: estimated prevalence in terms of percentage of population and absolute numbers (by country):
• Government response: How governments are tackling the problem:
• Vulnerability: Factors that explain or predict prevalence