Knowledge plays an important role in helping migrants stay safe when they look for jobs abroad forced by poverty and unemployment in their own countries, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Friday.

Many of them easily fall prey to unscrupulous employers, recruiters or even family members and end up in forced labor, which has become a worldwide scourge, ILO said in a statement.

ILO estimated that nearly 21 million people were victims of forced labor across the world and trapped in jobs which they were coerced or deceived into. More than half of them were from the Asia-Pacific region.

In order to prevent these migrants falling into the pitfall of trafficking and forced labor, it is essential to reach out to such vulnerable groups through educational and awareness programs, it said.

In 2012, ILO organized a series of orientation workshops, as part of a UK-sponsored pilot project aimed at reducing the vulnerability of women and girls migrating as domestic workers.

The project sought to raise awareness of the challenges of migrant domestic work, including the growing threat of forced labor. Participants also learned about preventive measures for safe migration and the laws that protect the rights of domestic workers. Endi