In 2022, Noor, a 33-year-old Syrian woman, repeatedly attempted to migrate to Iraq to support her family after her father lost his job following a prolonged COVID hospitalization. Desperate for work amid worsening conditions, she accepted a teaching job in Diyala, Iraq through a labor trafficking ring in Damascus disguised as a beauty salon. Upon arrival in Erbil, she was smuggled to Diyala and “sold” to a school director for $700. Over the next three months, Noor endured degrading and abusive conditions before managing to escape. She now works at a café in central Baghdad, earning only 40,000 dinars ($25) per 13 hours of work. She remains unable to send money home or leave the city due to exploitative labor conditions and lack of legal residency.

In 2024, Costa Rican workers and residents, like German Jimenez, reported being in contact with pesticides like mancozeb and chlorothalonil. These pesticides that are used in banana plantations to create aesthetically perfect bananas, have been proved to have adverse health effects. Despite these pesticides being banned in Europe, their use in Costa Rican soil is still a reality despite claims made by local workers and residents.

 Forced Labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is inextricably bound to the country's resource extraction-based economy, specifically in the mining sector. The DRC, blessed with natural resources such as cobalt, coltan, and copper, has made it a focal point for multinational companies seeking these precious minerals. Unfortunately, there have been exploitative conditions on the workers in informal mining enterprises. Amina, a 15-year-old girl from a small village near Kolwezi narrates how her family struggles to make ends meet. She recalls when she turned twelve, she was sent to work in the cobalt mines to help support her family. The mines are a labyrinth of narrow shafts and unstable tunnels. With no formal training or safety equipment, she descended into those depths daily, extracting cobalt ore used in batteries for smartphones and electric cars. The work is gruelling, and the conditions are hazardous. Many of her peers, some as young as eight, work alongside her, their small hands sifting through the dirt for precious cobalt. Mining workers, both children and adults, are subjected to hazardous working conditions, low pay, and serious health risks from exposure to harmful chemicals and extremely risky working conditions. The exploitation is made worse by the absence of decent labour laws, entrenched corruption, and lack of infrastructure, which all restrict the opportunities for workers to improve their conditions. As global demand for such minerals rises, it piles pressure on the locals who still bear the bitterest brunt of an unjust system in which profits are siphoned off while workers remain mired in poverty and degradation.