This is the most comprehensive, insightful and practical guide that exists in its field. Through its pages, dedicated Parliamentarians are provided with the tools to transform political intolerance of slavery into an effective legislative response capable of addressing it.
This case study assesses how a sample of five footwear companies and five luxury clothing brands address forced labor risks across their leather supply chains. The study follows KnowTheChain’s first apparel and footwear benchmark which found a lack of transparency and action to address forced labor abuses beyond first-tier suppliers, particularly in leather.
Last year, KnowTheChain identified three sectors with the highest risk of forced labor in their supply chains and benchmarked 60 companies within those sectors. It was the first analysis of its kind, focusing specifically on forced labor risks and the corporate policies and practices developed by companies in response. In order to build on the momentum of this first set of reports, KnowTheChain worked to identify lessons and recommendations that can benefit companies across all sectors. This report is the product of those efforts.
Sixty years have passed since the adoption of ILO Convention No. 105 (Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, 1957), yet a number of States have persisted in using forced labor for economic development, the eradication of which was a driving force behind establishing the Convention. Nowhere in the world is this problem more entrenched and pervasive than Uzbekistan.
Corruption is an endemic feature of human trafficking. It is common to both sex and labour trafficking. Corruption enables traffickers’ often-successful efforts to evade justice. Examples abound: a police officer demands a bribe to ignore the presence of a child in a brothel; an immigration official receives payment to provide a forged passport; a judge dismisses a trafficking case in exchange for a share of the traffickers’ profits; a law enforcement official deports a trafficking victim to prevent her testimony against a criminal defendant; a government official accepts a bribe to fraudulently provide residency permits for foreign workers.
The food and beverage industry is an at-risk sector. Forced labor occurs both in the production of raw materials and during the food processing stages of food and beverage companies’ supply chains. Food commodities are produced by agricultural workers who often come from vulnerable groups such as women, international migrants, and internal migrants with little education. Weak labor laws and law enforcement in the sector, together with isolated workplaces where housing tends to be provided by the employer, aggravate the typically poor working conditions and can leave workers vulnerable and dependent on their employer.
Malaysia’s electronics sector workforce includes hundreds of thousands of foreign migrant workers who come to Malaysia on the promise of a good salary and steady work – an opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families. But many are subject to high recruitment fees, personal debt, complicated recruitment processes, lack of transparency about their eventual working conditions, and inadequate legal protections. Unscrupulous behavior on the part of employers or third-party employment agents1 can exacerbate vulnerability to exploitation, but the system in which foreign workers are recruited, placed and managed is complex enough to create vulnerability even in the absence of willful intent to exploit. The conditions faced by foreign electronics workers in Malaysia have the potential to result in forced labor. In 2012, Verité received funding from the US Department of Labor to conduct a study to determine whether such forced labor does, in fact, exist in the production of electronic goods in Malaysia.
The depth and breadth of this three-year, multi-country initiative offers a unique opportunity for reflection on approaches to researching forced and exploitative labor among hidden and highly vulnerable populations.
The aim of this research was to provide relevant qualitative findings concerning the internal trafficking of persons for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, and the removal of organs.
U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking. Who picked the cotton for the shirt on your back? Who cut the cane for the sugar in your co ee? Who red the kiln to make the bricks in your replace? The List contained in these pages originates from a simple conviction: none of the products we consume on a daily basis should be made by an adult who is forced to produce them or a child under conditions that violate international law.
U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking. READ THE REPORT
Identifies the use of slavery-like practices involved in the manufacture of garments in India for international markets: the use of forced labour of young women and girls in the factories of Southern India, particularly the spinning mills around Tirupur. Also identifies the routine use of child labour in garment finishing in Delhi. Details of international companies whose supply chains appear to be affected by some of these forms of forced labour are given in chapter four of this report.
Focuses on returned North Korean migrants who are subjected to forced labour in North Korean prison camps following their deportation from China. The findings of the report are based on interviews carried out with North Koreans who were subjected to forced labour while in detention. The report includes photographs and 30 cases. Most of those interviewed were subjected to forced labour before being prosecuted, which violates international standards as well as North Korea’s domestic law. The report also outlines what measures need to be taken to address this situation.
Report on a study in the UK, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Portugal. This report looks at the various sectors and industries in which trafficking into forced labour occurs including agriculture, construction, domestic work and hospitality. Includes policy recommendations at a European level.
Result of research carried out by Anti-Slavery International between 2005 and 2006 with the aim of finding out more about trafficking for forced labour in the United Kingdom. This was a qualitative rather than quantative project, which aimed to provide information about how migrants become trafficked and which industries in the UK are affected.
Investigates the experiences of migrant domestic workers in the region, the dynamics and workings of the migration process and how migration (if at all) contributes to trafficking; and looks at what are some of the key inter-connecting dynamics involved between slavery, trafficking, migration and forced labour.
It focuses particularly on several selected sending, receiving and transit countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen).
Highlights the main ways in which forced labour manifests itself internationally, including through slavery, bonded labour, trafficking and child labour. Case studies and pictures are provided throughout.
Guide for trade unions and other civil society organisations to jointly combat modern-day slavery and trafficking of workers. The report is the result of a two-year project in which trade unions and NGOs have looked into each other’s actions and approaches to combat slavery and labour trafficking. It examines different approaches and shows four major common grounds for action, each of them documented with a series of best practices.
Details the proceedings and recommendations of the conference held in Nairobi from 5-7 July 2005. The conference discussed contributing factors to trafficking and forced labour, including armed conflict, debt bondage, education and child labour, drugs and transnational crime, and national and international adoption. It also examined various regional and international responses.
Research by the Darfur Consortium has found that Government supported militia, like the Janjaweed and the Popular Defence Forces, together with the Sudanese Armed Forces, have systematically abducted civilians for the purposes of sexual slavery and forced labour as part of the Darfur conflict. The report investigates the pattern of abductions, the issues behind them, including ethnicity and lack of protection, and concludes with some recommendations to address the abductions.
Prepared for Anti-Slavery International by Lin Chew, in co-operation with the International Labour Organization’s Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour.
Using a new and improved statistical methodology, the ILO estimates that 20.9 million people are victims of forced labour globally, trapped in jobs into which they were coerced or deceived and which they cannot leave.
Presents an introduction to the ILO Indicators of Forced Labour. These indicators are intended to help “front-line” criminal law enforcement officials, labour inspectors, trade union officers, NGO workers and others to identify persons who are possibly trapped in a forced labour situation, and who may require urgent assistance. The indicators represent the most common signs or “clues” that point to the possible existence of a forced labour case.
Provides background information on the issues of the ILO’s primary concern, with a particular focus on trafficking for forced labour exploitation, and raises questions for further discussion. It begins by discussing the concept of forced labour and assessing the current state of knowledge. This is followed by a discussion of demand factors, supply chain management issues and recruitment systems. A final section discusses concrete measures that can now be taken to prevent and identify forced labour, particularly by employers and workers in cooperation with other national and international partners.