The number of people forced to work or married against their will has risen to about 50 million in recent years, the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) said after publishing its report on modern slavery.

Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflict and climate change have led to unprecedented disruption of employment and education, exacerbating extreme poverty and forced migration. Compared to the last count for 2016, the number of people in modern slavery has increased by about 9.3 million.

Forced labor accounted for 27.6 million people in modern slavery in 2021, of which more than 3.3 million were children and 22 million were in forced marriage, according to the latest figures.

The ILO found that more than half of all forced labor cases occurred in upper-middle-income or high-income countries, with migrant workers more than three times as likely to be affected.

The report mentions Qatar, which has faced widespread accusations of labor abuses against migrant workers there in the run-up to the World Cup, which begins in November.

But since the ILO opened an office in the capital Doha in April 2018, there has been "significant progress" regarding the living and working conditions of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in the country, even as problems with implementing new labor regulations, the report said.

The ILO report also noted concerns about forced labor in parts of China.