A/HRC/24/43 they have little to no education or technical skills and 97 per cent do not own land. Approximately 150,000 people were estimated to be affected by the Haliya system in 2010.9 All Haliyas are male because females are not allowed to plough and cannot get loans to own land of their own. However, women still assist their husbands’ landlords by collecting food for the animals or carrying manure to the farms. Children of Haliyas are often involved in the work as cattle herders, and therefore miss out on educational opportunities. 18. Migrant workers are also disproportionately affected by contemporary forms of slavery. Many are especially vulnerable because they are employed far from their homes, lack language skills and familiarity with host country legal systems, may be undocumented, hired through recruitment agencies, are unprotected by laws in host jurisdictions, rarely receive adequate training, lack access to effective grievance mechanisms, are vulnerable to contract substitution, and/or are severely underpaid. Limitations on migrant workers’ freedom of movement greatly increase their chances of becoming victims of contemporary slavery. Employers may confiscate their passports or identity papers and migrant workers are often employed in remote locations where they are dependent on their employers even for basic necessities. 19. In informal artisanal mining, contemporary slavery is prevalent and freedom of movement is severely curtailed. Mines are often located far from population centres and many small, informal mines operate in areas outside the purview of the law. Therefore, it is very difficult for authorities to locate and identify victims of slavery in the sector. There are no labour inspections at many informal mines and violence, crime, and substance abuse are rampant. Working hours are often long, work is extremely dangerous, living conditions are poor and workers are often paid illegally low wages. 10 Debt bondage and child slavery are also common. 20. Another vulnerable group of workers are Pallaris, women who work outside the mines separating out minerals from piles of dirt. Interviews with in-country labour experts indicate that Pallaris generally lack formal work contracts, are paid at piece rates set by mineral brokers and must obtain authorization from the mine owners or administrators to work outside the mines. This authorization can be rescinded at any time, which makes Pallaris extremely vulnerable. Sometimes Pallaris are forced to provide sexual favours or do additional work to obtain or maintain their authorization. Children often work alongside their mothers or in the gold mines themselves. Children as young as 8 have been known to work underground with their fathers, small children are often sent down small mine shafts, and children are made to carry extremely heavy loads and exposed to toxic chemicals in gold extraction and processing.11 21. In addition to domestic work and mining, contemporary forms of slavery can be found in many other industries. According to the ILO 2012 estimate, 90 per cent of the 20.9 million victims of forced labour were employed in the private economy.12 Slavery can also be found in fishing, domestic work, quarrying, brick kilns and illegal activities. Forced labour is prominent in agriculture, logging, mining, apparel and electronics manufacturing, personal-care services, construction and food processing.13 9 10 11 12 13 6 Asian Human Rights Commission. “NEPAL: The Haliya bonded labour slavery system must be abolished without further delay”, 26 August 2010. Available from www.humanrights.asia/news/alrcnews/human-rights-council/hrc15/ALRC-CWS-15-07-2010/?searchterm=ALRC-CWS-15-07-2010. See the Special Rapporteur’s report to the eighteenth session of the Council, A/HRC/18/30. Bhavna Sharma, Contemporary forms of slavery in Bolivia (Anti-Slavery International, 2006). ILO, Global Estimate of Forced Labour, p. 1. See Verité, Help Wanted: Hiring, Human Trafficking, and Modern-Day Slavery (2011).