Modern Slavery and the Private Sector: Understanding and Addressing the Problem
September 11, 2019 at Ryerson CSR Institute
On September 11th I learned more about “modern slavery” than I could have ever imagined from Matt Friedman of the Mekong Club in Hong Kong.
What do we mean by the term “modern slavery”? It includes people in the following situations:
1. Forced prostitution. Matt gave an example of human traffickers (often young men in their 20’s) in Nepal who pretend to be “looking for a wife” in a village. They show they have money and they are married off to girls (aged 12 to 13). The trafficker then takes their “new brides” away, often to Mumbai, India where they are sold into prostitution. These girls are repeatedly raped by many men each day.
2. Forced fishing. Here Matt told of young boys in Thailand who travel from places like Cambodia seeking to support their families. They are talked into going on a fishing boat for a few months for a good salary. They end up being away for years, working 16+ hours days and fed only rice, fish and drugs. They are powerless to even report to the police who are “owned” by the fishers.
3. Sweat shops. Matt indicated young boys in Burma are enticed to work (and live) in sweat shops for a promise of a salary of $50/month US but they are then charged $54/month for room and board meaning they can never get ahead and they can never leave. He told stories of beatings and threats to their families if they try to “quit”.
4. Children. Finally, Matt told a story of babies (~2 years of age) used to race camels. They are used because they are light and they move around often which gets the camels to move faster. If they fall, they are discarded. Their “career” is over at 5 when they get too heavy.
The language of “trafficking comes from the fact that people changed countries but the focus is less on that movement and more on what is now called “modern slavery”.
Of the 40M people in modern slavery globally, 65% are in Asia. We estimate about 17,000 are in Canada and ~700,000 are in the US — mostly in some form of “forced labour”. Many people are focused on the tragedy of forced prostitution but that appears to be only ~24% of those who fall under the broader category of “modern slavery”.
How do people fall into these situations? As demonstrated by the examples above, through deception; debt; and kidnapping.
Who are the responders? They include: government; the UN and NGO’s where most of the work takes place. However, despite their best efforts, these responders have only been able to make a small dent in the problem with only .2% of those in trouble getting helped and only .8% of offenders ending up in some form of incarceration.
Why? Modern slavery is profitable and brings in about $150 bn annually versus the $350M that is used to fight it. The helpers are also limited by legislation and doing things by the books whereas the criminals are quick and have no limitations. Finally, the awareness level of the extent of the problem is extremely low.
To address this Matt has decided to focus on emphasizing the business risk association with this issue and to engage corporates.
What changes are happening in this space?
- Legislation, especially related to the supply chain and annual reporting requirements (see photo)
2. Aggressive legal responses to companies who profit from these practices
3. More awareness of the issue
4. Consumer campaigns, including Act Now which has 9M subscribers on their list
5. Investments, metrics like ESG ratings, and demand from investors for more transparency.
What are some “red flags” we should all watch for?
1. Use of fees and debts among employees
2. Passport withholdings
3. The inability to resign
Matt then gave an example of a corporation who attempted to address the risk of modern slavery in their supply chain. Her is what they did:
1. Researched and accessed online resources
2. Reviewed and refined their policies and procedure
3. Assessed the data on risks
4. Focused on what risks are in what areas
5. Applied the risk factors (annual audits)
6. Review audit limitations, for example, interviewers are good at finding health and safety concerns but not at spotting (or addressing) issues related to modern slavery
7. They also “got beyond auditing” to do training that is accessible in local languages; makes use of technology; allows for anonymous reporting and determines what it means to “release people” from these situations.
Matt is the CEO of the Mekong Club, which consists of a group of corporates who are acting as a catalyst for change. They work in the areas of finance; apparel and footwear; hospitality; and retail.
They have produced as series of new tools, accessible e-learning videos; apps; use of blockchain; remediation toolkits; typologies; and alternative approaches.
He ended by telling us the story of one young woman who was subject to horrible abuses. When Matt tried to empathize with her, he was told that she was not mad at those who abused her but at “the good people” who did not help her — despite her prayers for intervention.
We were encouraged to share news of this event (thus this blog); be an active and aware consumer; volunteer; donate and fundraise as simple ways to take action.
For my point of view, this means recognizing your sense of agency — as a consumer, as talent, as an investor. To keep the issue of risk front and forefront of this work. To find ways to make it easy for people to do the right thing.
People also asked if the numbers were increasing and it seems they are but it is important to note that this year the data also includes forced marriages for the first time. We discussed the fact that we need multi-sectoral responses and that we need to demand disclosure and push for fines because brand reputation means everything to companies.
What’s next? Matt is exploring “care points” and how we incentivize people to get engaged in this work. Learning form Air Miles for Social Change and Carrot Rewards may offer some well-heeled lessons.
ADDENDUM. When corporates are seeking to choose their social issue to focus on we recommend finding one aligned with their business. I just learned of Maritz Global Travel who help people with exceptional events. They are one of the largest purchasers of hotel nights in the world and given that the hospitality industry is often unwittingly complicit in trafficking — they have chosen this cause to focus on. That means, putting a hotline number on all their business cards and training those who work with them along their supply chain to identify people who may be experiencing trafficking. It seems the engagement of corporates is well on their way to making an impact against the horrific abuse we learned of at the Ryerson CSR event.
