Trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery are big business generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year, the UN labour agency said Tuesday.The report by the International Labour Organization finds global profits from involuntary workers — an estimated 21 million of them — have more than tripled over the past decade from its estimate of at least $44 billion in 2005. "We need to strengthen social protection floors to prevent households from sliding into the poverty that pushes people into forced labour," he said.

Heads of state of 15 Caribbean nations will gather in St Vincent on Monday to unveil a plan demanding reparations from Europe for the enduring suffering inflicted by the Atlantic slave trade. In an interview with the Guardian, Sir Hilary Beckles, who chairs the reparations task force charged with framing the 10 demands, said the plan would set out areas of dialogue with former slave-trading nations including the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark

A coalition of Caribbean nations is threatening to sue 11 European countries over the lingering effects of the Atlantic slave trade. But while they have a slim chance of seeing reparations granted in court, they could gain political leverage by elevating the issue at the United Nations. The controversial move could have widespread repercussions for countries that facilitated the slave trade — and benefits for those who suffered from it.

A top international law firm that was ordered by the Qatari government to conduct an "independent review" into allegations of modern-day slavery at World Cup construction sites is also a paid lobbyist for an arm of Qatar's Al Jazeera television network, The Telegraph can disclose. DLA Piper has received more than $300,000 (£186,000) in lobbying fees this year from Al Jazeera America according to official filings in the US, raising questions over whether it could conduct an unbiased assessment into allegations that have cast a pall over preparations for the 2022 World Cup.

FIFA's executive committee has met in Zurich, Switzerland to discuss whether to move the 2022 World Cup to the winter, so that footballers can avoid playing in Qatar's scorching summer heat. But the scheduling issue was overshadowed by concerns that the migrant workers building the infrastructure in the run-up to the event are being subjected to abusive labour conditions, verging on what one report called "modern-day slavery".

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup. This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks.