Labour Exploitation campaign 2017 by Mediaplanet UK&IE

DECEMBER 2017

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Labour Exploitation GLOBALCAUSE.CO.UK #Achieve87

A COMPANY’S SUPPLY CHAIN

is only as strong as its most unethical link P6

2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery and Child Labour P4

THE MULTIBILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY

causing systematic failure in the global economy globalcause.co.uk

PHOTO: LISA KRISTINE/HUMAN THREAD FOUNDATION

50 for Freedom is a global campaign calling on governments to ratify an international treaty – The Forced Labour Protocol - to help end modern slavery for good. We want at least 50 governments to ratify by the end of 2018. Sign up to show your support: 50forfreedom.org

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IN THIS ISSUE

READ Is fair recruitment possible? P6

SLAVERY in modern Britain P3 & P11

ROSA’S STORY - EXTENDED A Togolese former domestic worker in Lebanon P10 & ONLINE

PHOTO: LISA KRISTINE/HUMAN THREAD FOUNDATION

Ending modern slavery and child labour: A global challenge Human Rights Day is an important moment to highlight the plight of the 40 million people estimated to be working in modern slavery and 152 million children in child labour, half of them toiling in hazardous conditions.

he international community has set ambitious targets to eliminate those human rights violations: by 2025 to end child labour and by 2030 to see the end of forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking. The deadlines were set in target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. A year later, a group of UN Agencies working in partnership with governments, trade unions, business associations, NGOs and other stakeholders formed a global partnership – Alliance 8.7 – to accelerate action, share knowledge, drive innovative solutions and harness Follow us

resources to meet these ambitious targets. We need more collaborative action to strengthen the rule of law, encourage businesses to eliminate child labour and forced labour in supply chains, protect children and other vulnerable groups in situations of conﬂict and migration, and to promote the development of rural communities. We need to raise education standards so parents know their children are better off at school. We need social dialogue so that women and men everywhere receive a fair wage for their work, backed up by social protection to help them weather through crisis situations.

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Beate Andrees Chief of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch, International Labour Organization ilo.org

There is a lot of momentum behind the work of Alliance 8.7. This year, at the IV Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labour, we received pledges from 96 governments and organisations around the globe to take concrete action against forced and child labour. Implementation will be the main focus next year coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Today, on Human Rights Day, I’d like to thank you for reading this supplement and helping us raise awareness of the daily plight of millions of people working in the most indecent conditions.

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Project Manager: Sophie Thackray E-mail: Sophie.thackray@mediaplanet.com Content and Production Manager: Kate Jarvis Business Development Manager: Jake Crute Managing Director: Alex Williams Content and Social Editor: Jenny Hyndman Designer: Juraj Prikopa Junior Designer: Mushada Raquib Mediaplanet contact information: Phone: +44 (0) 203 642 0737 E-mail: info.uk@mediaplanet.com

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“We see harrowing cases of exploitation and slavery” By Tony Greenway

have post traumatic stress and are unable to work. If they come from overseas they sometimes go back to their country of origin, but can quickly fall back into being re-trafficked. It’s a vicious circle.

Slavery is taking place right now in modern Britain, says Paul Broadbent, CEO, Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA). To end it, we all have to be more vigilant.

What does the GLAA do? It was formerly the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), a body created after the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockle pickers disaster. It changed its name after receiving additional powers and funding from the Government to investigate modern slavery across the entire labour market. Official statistics show that there are between 10,000 and 13,000 victims of slavery in the UK. However, those ﬁgures are four years old and may be too low.

Are people scared of reporting slavery? Yes, because they fear being deported or beaten up, or their family and friends being killed. Some victims also have the — false — hope that they may actually get paid for the work they’ve done.

What kinds of cases have you seen? They can be harrowing. One slave driver exploited a number of people for their labour

What can people do to tackle it? Paul Broadbent CEO, Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) gla.gov.uk

until they physically couldn’t work any more, then told them they had three choices: work as a prostitute, enter a sham marriage or ‘donate’ one of their organs. We have also seen people who are homeless or who have learning difficulties being abducted and forced to work as labourers. But it’s not just vulnerable people who can be victims of this crime. We have seen security staff/doormen being exploited. The cash economy — wherever cheap services are offered to the public — often drives it.

What are the consequences for the victims? The cockle pickers lost their lives. Other victims

Be vigilant, particularly when buying services from cash industries and ask yourself if they might have been touched by modern slavery. For example, if you go to a hand car wash and someone wearing ﬂip ﬂops in winter is washing your car, that should be an alarm bell. Or if someone working in, say, a nail bar appears frightened, bruised and avoids eye contact; or if you know of shift-workers in low-skilled jobs living together in overcrowded conditions. All these people could have been trafficked.

What help is there for people affected by it? There’s a national Modern Slavery Helpline you can ring in conﬁdence to pass on your concerns. If exploitation is more subtle — for example, if you aren’t receiving the minimum wage — you can ring Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), the GLAA, or Citizens Advice.

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Rt Hon. David Hanson MP Vice Chair, UK Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA)

Combatting what many believed was a crime left behind in the 19th century. A number of our amendments were not accepted, showing that this is an issue that is constantly evolving and needing the scrutiny of Parliament.

Modern slavery and human trafficking are receiving increasing attention on the global stage. I ﬁrst became interested in the campaign to end modern slavery following my appointment to the Shadow Home Office team. The UK government, in 2014, introduced the Modern Slavery Bill to Parliament and as the lead within the opposition team I was responsible for ensuring that it met our high standards. Despite consensus on many areas, the Opposition put forward a large number of amendments to try and tighten rules around supply chains and domestic servitude in particular. A number of our amendments were not accepted, showing that this is an issue that is constantly evolving and needing the scrutiny of Parliament. I also learned during this process the need to work with our international allies. Modern slavery is an issue that ignores borders, treating people as commodities. It is with this desire for international cooperation that parliamentarians from the Commonwealth are working together as part of a modern slavery project organised by the UK Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. The project seeks to provide a platform for parliamentarians to exchange ideas and raise awareness. There is still so much for us to do, both as a nation and globally. Governments and parliamentarians across the Commonwealth need to make sure that they have appropriate legislation in place so that modern slavery becomes a relic of history.

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Time is running out on the 2030 deadline By Sean Hargrave

Modern Slavery In 2016 around 40.3 million men, women and chidren were victims of modern slavery Forced labour 24.9 million

Forced marriage 15.4 million

4.1 million state imposed forced labour

Art / Illicit / begging

1.6%

Prevalence of modern slavery by region

Mining

4% Personal service

6.8% 4.8 million forced sexual exploitation

Wholesale trade

9.2% Accommodation / food

16 million forced labour exploitation

Africa Americas Arab States

15.4 million forced marriage

he 193 UN member states embrace tough deadlines because it spurs on action. However, even its most optimistic statisticians believe it may be a stretch for the international community to hit a 2025 deadline to end child labour and forced labour. In 2015, Target 8.7 was created to help governments achieve this ambitious undertaking, in coordination with workers’ and employers’ organisations,

civil society, business, academia and other international organisations. Since 2000, the ILO has supported countries to collect data on child labour, which are used to inform policymakers at national level and to produce regular global and regional estimates. With underage working, the ILO statistics suggest there are almost 152m children aged 5 to 17 engaged in child labour and around half of these, 73m, are performing hazardous work.

Asia & Paciﬁc Europe & Central Asia

7.6‰ 1.9‰ 3.3‰ 6.1‰ 3.9‰

Some encouraging signs for children Federico Blanco Allais, Senior Statistician at the ILO, reveals there has been some encouraging progress on reducing child labour since 2000, in particular in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia and the Paciﬁc. “The best way to tackle child labour is to offer a good education system to encourage parents to send their children to school and keep them there,” he says. “The other critical issues are social protection and access to decent work

9.5%

Women Men

and income for parents. Child labour most usually happens when families are exposed to shocks, such as losing a job, illness or an accident, which means the breadwinner can no longer earn. It helps greatly to have access to social protection and to credit, so that households are not forced to resort to child labour as a fall-back mechanism. ” Although child labour has slightly decreased globally, in sub-Saharan Africa, child labour rates are increasing. There are many factors in play, although Blanco points to

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Governments need to step up if the goal of eradicating child labour by 2025 and forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking by 2030 is to be reached. Read insight from Federico Blanco Allais and Michaëlle De Cock, Senior Statisticians at the ILO.

Child Labour Agriculture / ﬁshing

11.3%

In 2015 the UN Member States committed to ending child labour by 2025. The 16 year period starting in 2000 saw a drop in the number of children in child labour of 94 million. The current pace is too slow to meet the target.

151.6m

Manufacturing

15.1%

151.6 million children aged 5 to 17 are victims of child labour

Construction

18.2%

Boys – 87,521,000 Girls – 64,100,000

Domestic work

Over 1/2 of affected children live in lower middle and upper middle income countries

29%

71%

Demands too many hours

Performed by children who are too young

72.5m Almost half (72.5 million) are performing hazardous work

24.3%

What is Child Labour?

43hrs

Some children in child labour are working gruelling weeks of more than 43 hours

Puts their health, integrity and wellbeing at risk

Deprives them of time for healthy childhood play

Denies them the right to education

Nearly a third of those in child labour are outside the education system

7 out of 10 children in child labour are working in agriculture alliance87.org/2017ge

improvements that could be made in education policies and improving agricultural yields so families earn enough money without making children work the land.

Preventing and detecting forced labour The latest statistics developed jointly by the ILO and Walk Free Foundation in partnership with the IOM, estimate there are just over 40m adults in modern slavery globally – 25m are employed in forced labour and 15m are trapped in forced marriages. Michaelle

De Cock, Senior Statistician at the ILO, reveals that – just as with child labour – one of the prevention strategies is access to decent work for all and better social protection. This means fewer people are forced to seek work abroad on the promise of good wages, only to ﬁnd they are not being paid and their passport has been withheld. “Good migration governance is key to prevention and protection efforts. We’re working on fair recruitment guidelines that need to be enforced to ensure that workers do not pay any recruitment fees to get a job. This is

one of the measures to ﬁght against debt bondage (which affect 51 per cent of the victims of forced labour in the private economy),” she says. “When the employer holds back money, the employee is effectively bonded to them. We also call for better detection and there is also a lot of good work being done, such as with the UK’s Gangmaster and Labour Abuse Authority.” Once detected, victims need to be protected to recover from their traumatic experience of forced labour and receive counselling and training to prevent falling into it

again. Social and economic assistance is needed for both short- and long-term recovery and rehabilitation. Victims’ participation in legal proceedings against their exploiters is encouraged. The ILO is working on more and better data, improved capacity of national data collection, and reﬁnement and improvement in the measurement of forced labour. ILO statisticians believe that, unless more efforts are put into the prevention and detection of child labour and forced labour, the eradication deadlines will not be met.

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Read more on ICCR.org

‘Wake up call’ given to companies on slavery By Victoria Briggs

work with senior corporate representatives and encourage them to take a leadership position and drive change in their sectors.”

Modern slavery is a global problem, but with the help of technology and support from business, we can eradicate it faster.

For more than 40 million men, women and children in the world, slavery is a fact of life. As a practice, slavery is endemic, and comes in many forms. Whether the result of trafficking, exploitation or forced marriage, slavery is a violation of an individual’s human rights, and one that businesses are being called upon to do more to help eradicate. David Schilling of the US-based Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) works with its members, who are investors in some of the world’s most powerful corporations to raise awareness of the human rights abuses present within their supply chains. An important ICCR initiative focusses on the system of labour recruitment that often ends with workers in debt bondage through the payment of fees to secure employment. “Five years ago, very few companies were thinking beyond their ﬁrst tier suppliers when it came to this issue. Now we see far more doing the necessary due diligence all the way down to the commodity level. It’s a major step forward,” says Schilling, citing companies like Coca-Cola HP, Marks & Spencer and Unilever, all member of the Leadership Group For Responsible Recruitment that provide examples of best practice.

Creating top-down change To facilitate the kind of corporate deep-dive capable of driving change within established business models, ICCR members, as shareholders, engage companies to adopt policies prohibiting worker-paid fees, conﬁscation of worker passports and personal papers and requiring written

Technology is a gamechanger

David Schilling Senior Program Director for Human Rights at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)

Didier Bergeret Social Sustainability Director, The Consumer Goods Forum

contracts at the point of recruitment – all designed to reduce and eliminate forced labour and slavery. “We use investor leverage to inﬂuence business decision-making that leads to remedial action within a company supply chain,” he says. Working with the ICCR in tackling the issue is The Consumer Good Forum (CGF), a CEO-led industry association that champions best practice in sustainability, health, food safety and human rights issues across the retail and manufacturing sectors.

not alone. Do so as part of a jointinitiative within your sector that’s working on these issues to increase your inﬂuence with suppliers. The good news is that working as part of a broader alliance enhances your power to convene peers, other businesses, unions, governments and affected communities... We need all stakeholders involved if we are to eradicate slavery.” When it comes to taking a joinedup approach, Bergeret is in agreement. “Collaboration is the only way forward on this issue. There are new forms of abuse cropping up all the time, and some, such as the issue of recruitment fees (a form of bonded labour) are difficult to identify,” he says, a situation compounded by the fact that often the workers involved don’t realise they are victims of illegal practices. In situations where visibility is lacking, the ICCR can provide insight by sharing its expertise and case studies on ethical recruitment informed by local stakeholders. “When we show the evidence to companies of slavery, they are appalled at the working conditions within their own supply chains and often are reluctant to draw a link in public between their organisations and those conditions. There are no sectors, though, that are immune to this issue,” says Schilling. “We

“Too big to solve alone” Describing modern slavery as a global problem, Didier Bergeret, CGF’s social sustainability director, says the issue is, “Too big to be solved by any one company alone.” “It’s a very complex problem and one that isn’t easy to talk about for consumer-facing companies where there’s a risk that comes with being associated with certain practices.” That problem is often made even more difficult when companies lack visibility of their supply chain at a grass roots level.

Collaboration offers a way forward “The ﬁrst step for companies is to acknowledge there is an issue,” advises Schilling. “The second is to map the supply chain, but

One of the main weapons expected to prove a game-changer in the fight against modern slavery, is modern technology. Bergeret is optimistic that blockchain technology and artificial intelligence will soon be utilised by businesses to introduce greater traceability and transparency into their supply chains. “Blockchain is being used in pilot studies and is expected to be particularly good for those companies with a lot of paper documentation. The technology prevents manipulation of those documents, enabling practices to be written in stone, and can be very useful in environments where there might be a lack of trust among participants.” Another technology that offers huge potential is the smartphone. Ubiquitous, even within poor communities, phones can be used to provide education ‘at scale’ to workers about their rights and remedies, says Schilling, as well as being a tool to report unacceptable conditions or recruitment processes, like the confiscation of passports, or paying fees to a recruiter or cash deposits to an employer. “Technology can be used to give workers a voice,” he says, while stressing that it brings with it a requirement for respecting confidentiality and preventing retaliation against workers. For companies not yet engaged on this issue, Bergeret urges a wake-up call. “This is the most salient problem facing industry today and requires all companies, big and small to step up.”

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Fishing industry harnesses technology to ﬁght abuse

Cindy Berman Head of Modern Slavery Strategy, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)

Why ‘zero tolerance to modern slavery’ isn’t good enough for companies

By Kate Sharma

Companies need to turn statements about zero tolerance into action.

Digital technology is improving transparency within the fishing industry and helping crews to stay better connected.

What happens at sea, stays at sea – or at least that was how it used to be. The ﬁshing industry in Thailand has been under particular scrutiny for its treatment of migrant workers and earlier this year the International Labour Organization (ILO) urged the Thai government to remedy the abuses on ﬁshing vessels operating in Thai waters.

Technology improves transparency In the middle of the ocean, hundreds of miles from land and human contact, with no satellite, no mobile phone signal, and scant paper records, it’s easy to see how isolated crews are open to abuse. In response, the global fish processing company, Thai Union, has been looking for innovative ways to improve transparency throughout their supply chain. “By fixing a satellite to the vessel, a ship’s crew can use e-logbooks to capture fishing information, which will help to reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and make sure there is compliance on

Dr Darian McBain Global Director for Sustainable Development, Thai Union

board vessels,” explains Dr. Darian McBain, Global Director for Sustainable Development at Thai Union. Following a successful pilot project earlier this year, the company is planning to roll out the initiative on a number of other vessels. Not only will this help to protect crew, it will also provide the company’s global customers with the ability to trace the product from catch to consumption – something that more brands are now pushing for.

Helping crews stay connected Harnessing the power of the satellite, the company have also developed an app to allow crew members to contact loved ones and report any

unacceptable working practices they experience while on board. “After monitoring the pilot project what we discovered was that crews were just glad to be able to contact home,” says McBain. “There was a father who was calling his son every day just to see how he was getting on at school. He’d not been able to do that before; it was really humanising. It’s vital to ensure people are not being exploited, but it’s also important to make sure people can continue to live their lives.”

Expanding digital technology Thai Union are planning not only to encourage greater uptake of the technology on other vessels and by other ﬁshing companies, but also to expand the capabilities of the system to include more in-depth monitoring of conditions and working practices on board. It’s a step in the right direction, but, as an ILO report highlighted, ending of human rights violations in the industry will take a united effort including global brands, local supply chains, recruiters and the government.

Read more on ethicaltrade.org

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Anh Nguyen Head of Migrant Assistance Division, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Mathieu Luciano Head of Assistance to Vulnerable Migrants Unit, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Making migration work Modern slavery and trafficking violation are on the rise. However, there are ways in which we can better understand the issue and make a counter-trafficking impact.

“Demand for cheap labour and services is driving human trafficking,” says Mathieu Luciano, Head of Assistance to Vulnerable Migrants Unit at the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “It’s important to work with consumers to create awareness of trafficking, but we also need to incentivise companies to take action. Legislation plays a critical role. Companies are obligated to report measures used to address trafficking risks or incidents in their labour supply chain.” Luciano highlights remediation as an aspect less understood by companies: “Companies have the duty to prevent trafficking, but also an obligation to remedy the harm of individuals through their supply chain. One remedy may be to reimburse recruitment fees that migrant workers have paid to secure a job.” Anh Nguyen, Head of Migrant Assistance Division at IOM, says, “We want to encourage companies to move away from looking at things from a management system perspective, and towards a human resource mindset. It’s not just about the requirements companies need to meet, it’s about why they’re doing it and looking at their values.” IOM have helped 90,000 victims over the last 20 years, assisting NGOs and governments in setting up protection for individuals. IOM has recently developed The Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC), the world’s ﬁrst human trafficking online portal which includes rich, comprehensive data on individual victims gathered overtime. “Researchers and policymakers can now access this data to conduct their own analysis and better understand trends,” says Luciano. “The dataset comprises of 80,000 records of 180 nationalities exploited in 117 countries, in partnership with other counter-trafficking organisations. We want to work with more partners worldwide to make sure that additional data is collected. This will have a large counter-trafficking impact.” Read more on iom.int

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Companies need to take responsibility for worker recruitment By Kate Sharma

To protect migrant workers from debt bondage, we need more employers to take greater interest in the recruitment of their workers.

What role does recruitment play in modern day slavery? The issue of modern slavery goes deeper than just the conditions in which someone has to work. Many workers are already in debt bondage, many paying between US$500 and US$10,000 even before they start working. Most have taken loans out and are making huge repayments, which puts them and their families at risk of further exploitation.

Are companies concerned about the recruitment of workers? A handful of leading companies are beginning to address the risks here and look at their suppliers’ recruitment practices, but the vast majority of companies are staying silent on the issue, due to the complexities involved. We have a huge trend for outsourcing, and for a company to be doing due diligence all the way down its supply chain is virtually impossible. Another problem is the insatiable appetite for cheap products and the slim

Frances House Deputy Chief Executive Institute for Human Rights and Business

margins brands are operating on; it’s often the labour prices that are squeezed the hardest. In parallel, weak government legislation or enforcement, vested interests and corruption all contribute to a thriving, unregulated recruitment industry in many countries.

Are there enough ethical recruiters? Sadly, there are very few ethical recruiters who aren’t charging worker fees. We need more companies to be negotiating with their suppliers to encourage the shift to an ‘employer pays’ model. As demand grows, we need to support recruiters who are already working legally to switch their business model by providing training, capacity building and accreditation.

What role does legislation play? The UK is at the forefront of implementing legislation

with the introduction of the UK Modern Slavery Act. The mandatory, annual modern slavery statement is a way for companies to be publically held to account and is pushing the issue into the boardroom. All this helps to provide an enabling environment in which businesses can act, but we’d like to see things go a step further by including legal sanctions on those who aren’t reporting or who are not taking adequate steps to address issues.

How can companies move toward more ethical recruitment? A move to an ‘employer pays’ system is not easy, but it is essential. If more companies journey together then suppliers will see that it’s not just one of their customers asking and the risk will be shared. We also need a critical mass of leading global companies across all sectors who are setting the pace in their own industries. Through our Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, we’ve handpicked companies that demonstrate good responsible practice to act as advocates for eradication of worker fees, talking not just to their industry peers, but also to government, and that can happen more effectively if it happens collectively. Read more on IHRB.org

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There is a systematic failure in the global economy

Sharan Burrow General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) For the first time, a new, online platform will put the power of information into workers’ hands. Migrant workers expose recruitment practices that force millions into modern slavery.

The global workforce is in trouble, some 89 million people have experienced periods of total enslavement in the last ﬁve years and there is a systemic failure in the global economy for working people. The search for a job, the hope of escaping from poverty wages and the desire to provide for your family is pushing vulnerable people into the hands of abusive recruiters and employers. Case by case, workplace by workplace, workers and their unions have been exposing the scandals of modern slavery. For the ﬁrst time a new platform www.recruitmentadvisor. org will put the power of information into workers’ hands.

Modern laws to end modern slavery With slavery now found in the global supply chains of some of the world’s most powerful companies, we need to change the laws that perpetuate modern slavery. The universal ratiﬁcation of the ILO Forced Labour Protocol, which updated the international regulatory framework making it ﬁt for purpose, would give us the global minimum standard we need to tackle contemporary forms of slavery. A binding treaty and mandatory human rights due diligence for

multinational companies would clean up slavery in global supply chains. Workers and consumers demand it. Ninety per cent of people in the ITUC Global Poll want their government to stand up against modern slavery and discrimination. Workers, including migrant workers who travel away from their homes, can be vulnerable to abusive recruitment when they are coming from an area of high unemployment, when there is intense competition for jobs, domestically or abroad, and when they are not protected by clear laws and effective enforcement. We know an organised workforce cannot be enslaved, but when governments fail their citizens and allow corporations to escape the rule of law, slavery can ﬂourish.

Niyama Rai National Project Coordinator, International Labour Organization Country Ofﬁce for Nepal

Is fair recruitment possible? Why is fair recruitment important? While, globally, labour recruiters play an important role in cross-border recruitment to match labour demand and supply, there is growing concern around unscrupulous and abusive recruitment practices that have a direct relationship to forced labour. Thus, to address these challenges, recruitment needs to take place in a way that respects and protects human rights of all workers and treats them as individuals rather than perpetuating commodiﬁcation.

What is a key component of fair recruitment? Rate my agency Recruitment practices which lure workers with promises of jobs which don’t exist, salaries which aren’t paid, and charge unscrupulous loans forcing workers into years of debt bondage are deceptive and fraudulent. In the search for a better future for their families, many workers are still unaware of their rights or which recruiters are making false promises. To clean up the recruitment practices of unscrupulous recruiters, we need stronger laws, and fair recruitment based on human and labour rights standards. History shows us that before laws are changed, it’s often workers who act ﬁrst. Migrant workers can now share their experiences and rate recruitment agencies in a new platform. With listings of more than 10,000 agencies, people in search of work can access reviews by other workers. The platform also provides a support service and has a reporting system of violations experienced by migrant workers. Together we will stop unscrupulous recruitment practices, we will eliminate slavery in our supply chains and we will end modern slavery.

One of the key principles of fair recruitment is that no recruitment fees or related costs should be borne by workers to secure a job. An ILO/WB KNOMAD (ILO World Bank Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) study noted that, on average, the total recruitment costs borne by a Nepali migrant worker going to Qatar are equivalent to 3.3 months of their earning at the country of destination. Working just to pay back their ﬁnancial obligations leaves migrant workers highly dependent on the employers or recruiters and unable to leave exploitative working conditions, thus increasing their vulnerability to forced labour.

So, is fair recruitment possible? The ILO is currently piloting a fair recruitment model for Nepali migrant workers going to work in the Jordanian garment sector. Keeping migrant workers at the core of the work, the pilot uses a multi-stakeholder approach and works with governments, brands, factories, workers’ organisations, and labour recruiters to ensure fair recruitment along the global supply chain. The costs of recruitment are borne by the employers and the Nepali workers have access to free and accurate information regarding conditions of recruitment and employment prior to their departure.

Nepal Work in Freedom The UK continues to help women at risk of trafﬁcking and forced labour across South Asia and the Middle East. The Work in Freedom programme has helped 380,000 women through the ILO and increased funding will focus on victims in domestic work and garment manufacturing, helping an additional www.gov.uk 350,000 women.

Read more on recruitmentadvisor.org Read more on globalcause.co.uk

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PHOTO: PIXABAY

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stand living like a slaveâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Once, she locked me in an empty room for three days with nothing to eat or drink. No water, nothing! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d never felt thirst like that before, the desperation was driving me mad, I even drank my own urine.â&#x20AC;? Rosa, a Togolese former domestic worker in Lebanon.

osa was one of thousands of migrant domestic workers trapped in forced labour. The International Labour Organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Forced Labour Protocol aims to protect women like Rosa. Read her story: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I thought I was giving my children a chance at a better life. The job in Lebanon promised an extra US$40 a month, but it was all lies. I arrived in Beirut and the agency placed me in a wealthy family that lived in the suburbs. They had many beautiful things. I worked there for 10 months, day and night without

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I thought that it couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get any worse but it did.â&#x20AC;? a break and without a single day off. I was allowed to eat twice a day, for only two minutes. Madam stood there and timed me with her phone. I was only given a piece of bread. Madam would never hand it to me, she would toss it on the ground. If I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ďŹ nished my bread when the alarm went off, Madam would snatch it away and throw it in the

fy i t n ide o t y r e v How Sla n r e Mod

One day, after 10 months of working for them, I woke up in the hospital with stitches on my stomach. The stitches were very neat, a straight line directly up the centre of my stomach. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what had happened and nobody would tell me. Finally, Madam told me that I had fallen from the window. But it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make sense. After two days, I was still weak but Madamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father took me to his house and locked me in a room with no windows. After eight days, Madam opened the door and said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going home nowâ&#x20AC;?. They left me at the airport, with a ticket, my suitcase, and two monthsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

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Behaviour Withdrawn, scared, not willing to talk, doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t speak English

Helpline: 08000 121 700

bin. She never gave me water, so I would hide and drink water from the bathroom. Everyday, Madam would beat me for no reason with a shoe, a stick or a belt. Today, I still get pains in my ears from where she hit me. I wanted to leave but I was always being monitored and they were always locking me in, plus they hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t paid me yet. One day I asked to leave but Madam told me that they had spent lots of money to have me there so I had to stay without any salary for 15 months. I thought that it couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get any worse but it did.

Appearance Unkempt, malnourished, few possessions, health concerns

Work Inapropriate clothing for job, long hours, little or no pay

Fear of a Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t w to police o

MEDIAPLANET 11

AN INDEPENDENT SUPPLEMENT BY MEDIAPLANET

â&#x20AC;&#x153;One day, after 10 months of working for them, I woke up in the hospital with stitches on my stomach. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what had happened and nobody would tell me.â&#x20AC;?

The UK will not tolerate slavery International Development Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, says: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The continued trade in human beings is a global disgrace â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and simply not enough is being done to tackle it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is time to eradicate this shameful practice. Slavery, anywhere, must not be tolerated in the 21st-century, and our work to stamp out this practice abroad will support our effort to end slavery in the UK. This is a long-term challenge and others must follow our lead. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I met with victims of this horrendous crime during my time in Bangladesh, who had been exploited and abused who we are now supporting, and it is absolutely right that we protect vulnerable men, women and children from being duped into imprisonment, domestic servitude and forced labour.â&#x20AC;? Source: The Home OfďŹ ce and the Department for International Development (DFID) www.gov.uk

10 ways the UK is helping to end modern slavery

salary, instead of the 10 monthsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; salary that I was owed. I was 72kg when I came to Lebanon. I was 32kg when the nightmare ended. I was so weak that I could hardly stand, so the General Security refused to let me travel. I was eventually taken to the hospital and later sent to the Caritas shelter. Caritas gave me my life back. They gave me a lawyer who fought for me to get compensation. When Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m back in Togo, I want to go on the radio and tell my story. People need to know, they need to know what is happening here.â&#x20AC;?

Based on a real testimony; name has been changed. Caritas is a partner of the 50 for Freedom campaign that aims to get at least 50 countries to ratify the ILOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Forced Labour Protocol by the end of 2018.

The UK was the ďŹ rst country to introduce comprehensive modern slavery legislation.

Companies with more than a ÂŁ36m turnover must set out steps taken to prevent slavery in their business.

Through the Business Against Slavery Forum we are eradicating slavery from supply chains.

We are improving victim identiďŹ cation through recently announced reform of the national referral mechanism.

5. Read more on 50forFreedom.org

We are doubling aid spend to ÂŁ150m, while building partnerships with other governments, so together we can drive down the number of victims.

ÂŁ40m of funding will help 500,000 people at risk of exploitation. South Asia has the highest prevalence of forced labour and we will help 350,000 victims.

We are working with countries like Nigeria to tackle slavery by improving justice systems to root out traffickers.

Aid to the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery will target sectors with a high risk of slavery.

We are pushing for action through the G7, G20 and the UN. 40 countries have signed the Prime Ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global Call to Action to show they will not tolerate slavery.

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authorities ant to speak or authorities

Debt bondage In dept to, or dependent on someone else

Accomodation Overcrowded, poorly maintained, blacked-out windows

Lack of control No ID, no access to bank account, work transport provided

Lack of freedom Unable to move freely, unwilling or scared to leave

For more information go to www.modernslaveryhelpline.org

PHOTO: LISA KRISTINE

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:ŽŝŶ ƚŚĞ ϱϬ ĨŽƌ &ƌĞĞĚŽŵ ĐĂŵƉĂŝŐŶ ƚŽ ŚĞůƉ ĞŶĚ ŵŽĚĞƌŶ ƐůĂǀĞƌǇ͗ 50forfreedom.org

MAKE A STAND TO END MODERN SLAVERY

dǁĞŶƚǇͲŽŶĞ ĐŽƵŶƚƌŝĞƐ ŚĂǀĞ ƌĂƟĮĞĚ ƚŚĞ />K &ŽƌĐĞĚ >ĂďŽƵƌ WƌŽƚŽĐŽů͗ ƌŐĞŶƟŶĂ͕ ǇƉƌƵƐ͕ ǌĞĐŚ ZĞƉƵďůŝĐ͕ ĞŶŵĂƌŬ͕ ƐƚŽŶŝĂ͕ &ŝŶůĂŶĚ͕ &ƌĂŶĐĞ͕ /ĐĞůĂŶĚ͕ :ĂŵĂŝĐĂ͕ DĂůŝ͕ DĂƵƌŝƚĂŶŝĂ͕ EĂŵŝďŝĂ͕ EĞƚŚĞƌůĂŶĚƐ͕ EŝŐĞƌ͕ EŽƌǁĂǇ͕ WĂŶĂŵĂ͕ WŽůĂŶĚ͕ ^ƉĂŝŶ͕ ^ǁĞĚĞŶ͕ ^ǁŝƚǌĞƌůĂŶĚ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ hŶŝƚĞĚ <ŝŶŐĚŽŵ

modern slavery helpline 08000 121 700