← Know Your Rights
Protection
Forced labor
Recognizing when work stops being voluntary.
What it means
- Forced labor is work performed under threat, coercion, or deception, where a person cannot freely leave.
- It can involve debt bondage, document confiscation, threats to family, or physical confinement, among other tactics.
Warning signs
- You cannot leave your job or living situation freely.
- You are told you owe a debt that keeps growing and can never be paid off.
- You are threatened, directly or indirectly, if you try to leave or complain.
- Your movement, communication, or contact with the outside world is restricted or monitored.
What to do
- If you can safely do so, preserve any evidence: messages, photos, documents, names, locations.
- Identify a trusted contact you can reach, even briefly, to let them know your situation.
- Reach out to a local anti-trafficking organization, embassy, or emergency service as soon as it is safe to do so.
Where to seek help
- See the Get Help Now page for how to distinguish an emergency from an urgent concern.
- Local anti-trafficking hotlines and organizations, where available in your destination country.
- Your embassy or consulate.
This is general information, not country-specific legal advice. Local hotlines, embassy contacts, and vetted referral partners will appear here as SafePath expands into each region.