CNN interviews University of Nottingham expert on modern-day slavery

An estimated 50 million people around the world are living in modern slavery, with women and children remaining disproportionately vulnerable. This includes situations such as forced labour, sex trafficking and forced marriage.

To look at how pervasive modern-day slavery has become, Kevin Bales, Professor of Contemporary Slavery in the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab, joins CNN.

He said: "Slavery connects with other very serious global issues [...] slave labour is also being used to destroy the environment and to fill the air with CO2. Since the end of the cold war, slave labour has been part of almost every conflict."

According to the United Nations, more than half of all forced labour and a quarter of all forced marriages occur in upper-middle-income or high-income countries. In the US alone, over 82,000 cases of human trafficking and 164,000 victims have been identified through the human trafficking hotline since its establishment in 2007.

"It's a growing and booming industry with insufficient levels of enforcement. We've got a pretty good law in the United States, but we don't necessarily have the capability within both the judicial system and the law enforcement system to address it," Professor Bales added.

Watch here