This chapter discusses the prohibition of slavery, servitude, forced labor, and human trafficking under international human rights law. It covers the definitions, scope, and international control mechanisms related to these prohibitions. The chapter examines the legal frameworks and standards for combating these practices, the obligations of states to prevent and address them, and the role of international cooperation in eradicating them. It also highlights the challenges in implementing these standards and the importance of adopting comprehensive strategies to protect victims and ensure accountability for perpetrators.

This chapter looks at the different ways in which a free person might come to forfeit their freedom in the late antique and early Islamic Middle East. Although frowned upon and theoretically illegal, free persons might opt, due to extreme poverty or privation, to sell themselves or their family, offering their labor in return for basic sustenance. Otherwise, loss of free status might occur due to a debt default, which, if the sale of a debtor’s assets realized insufficient credit, could see them being forced to work to pay off what they owed. This solution was common in the fouth–eighth centuries, but by the ninth century it was increasingly deemed unacceptable. This chapter considers what led to this shift in legal thinking, the degree to which Islamic law continued late antique practice and the nature of this continuity.

This chapter examines the impact of recruitment fees and debt in intra-Asian labour migration. It explores the connection between financial decisions taken during recruitment at origin and the legal protection of migrants at destination. The link between these temporal and spatial dimensions is often overlooked in literature, particularly from a legal perspective. The chapter analyses data on Asian countries to characterize existing recruitment models and the policy responses to address them. The purpose is to design a comprehensive response to the negative externalities of the prevalent recruitment model in Asia. The chapter presents legal perspectives and conceptualizations applied to recruitment fees in literature. It identifies the recruitment fees’ structure and presents the typology of fees charged to migrant workers. It analyses the consequences of migration financing methods in the creation of a cycle of debt. Finally, it reflects on how migration-related debt is shaped and which forces contribute to its lastingness. In its concluding remarks, the chapter advocates a holistic approach, encompassing the legal and economic features of the recruitment process.