Abstract

According to a recent estimate there are about 36 million of modern slaves in the world. Independently from the reliability of this figure what is to be discussed and clarified is how to define modern slavery. The paper addresses this issue. It starts with an analysis of the debate that has been going in recent times and then - taking inspiration from Hirschman's categories -- suggests that a crucial criterion for a situation to be classified as modern slavery should be the lack of the formal possibility of exiting from it, independently from the reason that originated such lack.