Ebay founder Omidyar commits $50 million to combating global slavery

LONDON (Reuters) - Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife are to donate $50 million (32 million pounds) to tackling slavery worldwide, the chief executive of their US-based foundation Humanity United said on Wednesday.

Almost 36 million people are living as slaves across the globe, according to estimates published by Australian-based human rights group The Walk Free Foundation on Monday, with more than 14 million of those in India.

"One of the greatest challenges of this era is the abolition of slavery globally in all of its forms," Humanity United CEO Randy Newcomb told Trust Women, a London conference organised by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Humanity United, established by Omidyar and his wife Pam in 2005, was involved in founding The Freedom Fund, the world's first private donor fund designed to raise and deploy at least $100 million to combat modern-day slavery.

"Pam and Pierre ... they have agreed to commit another $50 million to this cause and to this effort," Newcomb said.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)