In recent years, those concerned with the issues of trafficking, forced
labour and slavery have begun to focus on supply chains as a new arena of
action with a focus on girls and young women. Millions of people including women, men and
children continue to toil in forced labour for the private economy that reaps
some $150 billion in profits each year (ILO
report, Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced
Labour , 2014).Thousands
of goods and services bought and sold every day are touched by modern-day
slaves, in particular girls and young women who are not only the most
vulnerable to being exploited, but also comprise of the most invisible labour
in global supply chains.
Girls and young
women working in global supply chains
such as in the garment and seafood industry are most at risk of being victims
of unfair practices, violence and slavery. Factors such as the large mixed
movements of refugees and migrants, as well as conflict and natural disasters,
often create an environment for trafficking and slavery. Traffickers often use sexual violence and physical abuse
in addition to debt bondage to compel labour, in particular towards girls and
young women.
The key issues in addressing the problem of trafficking of
girls and young women within the global supply chains are –
- The complexities of the global supply chains with multiple tiers of production from large factories to home-based units, which are extremely fragmented
- Lack of transparency, making the monitoring of the supply chains and identification of trafficked workforce truly challenging
- The challenges in identifying the trafficking victims which not only makes them vulnerable to violence and labour exploitation but also invisible in the workforce
In
order to address these key issues for the prevention of trafficking of girls
and young women and their forced recruitment in the global supply chains, it is
essential to look into the trafficked
workforce “hotspots”
and situations such as high levels of migration. In the era of globalization and mass
production, the developed countries look out for cheap labour from the
‘backward’ economic zones such as South Asia. As industries become more competitive, it
creates circumstances for employing the migrants who are often trafficked for
labour exploitation. For instance the readymade garment-manufacturing sector
in Bangladesh accounts for over 80% of the nation’s export earnings, has around
4 million workers, with an estimated workforce of 55-60% [1] girls and young women and
ample evidences of forced and child labour. Many workers comprise the migrant
population with boys and girls of all ages often voluntarily working or being
trafficked.
While trafficking, forced labour and other forms of slavery
in the garment sector in global supply chains, has long been an area of concern,
seafood industry is one of the most overlooked area and at the same time one of
the most precarious sectors to work in. Estimates from countries such as
Bangladesh and Philippines- that are a source, destination and transit country
for girls and young women subjected to sex trafficking, all indicate instances
of child and forced labour in fisheries with frequent reportings of of sexual abuse, labour law violations and
children engaged as swimmers and divers, often working for nine hours without a
break in extremely unsanitary conditions.
According to the 2013 Philippine Fisheries Profile,
Philippines ranks seventh among the top fish producing countries of the world.
With a history and present consisting of trafficked and migrant workforce, there
are also reports of girl child labour working in the processing plants at shrimp
processing, freezing, and packaging factories. Young girls and boys are often
forced to become fishers or fish workers, leading to disruption in their education.
While young boys are employed to fishing and swimming in the dangerous waters,
young girls work in the cleaning and packaging of the seafood that enhances
their invisibility even more. The seafood industry is one of the most
significant industries for trade between many South Asian and South East Asian
and Western and European nations. The complexity of its supply chains ignores
where its major chunk of workforce is coming from and instead focuses on the
product, which is a concern for how accountable the supply chain process is. For
instance, many seafood companies’ certification of the product is based on the
quality of the product but not on its labour laws and recruitment policies.
Supply chain accountability for industries such as the seafood with extended
global supply chains is therefore extremely crucial to a company policy on
human rights and ethical sourcing.
No industry or region is fully insulated from the social
deficit which has emerged
from the rise of the modern global economy, and all leading multinational
corporations have come to recognize the risks associated with ever-expanding
supply networks. Thus, for businesses to be able to adequately identify and
address the issue of trafficking of girls and young women it is important build
the understanding to plug the knowledge gaps of human trafficking, forced and
gender related issues of the geographical region of the workforce. A close
co-operation with local stakeholders, such as NGOs and CSOs, is of crucial
importance to understand where they are forced to work and why the conditions
lend themselves to human trafficking. Understanding the local complexities of
the geographically fragmented garment and seafood industry, where cultural
notions may also be used to justify the curtailment of women and child rights, the local stakeholders can play a major role
in mainstreaming gender in the prevention strategies of trafficking, focusing
on the protection of girls and young women.
Global March thus aims to encourage companies to take
trafficking seriously not only for moral or ethical reasons, or for them to see
it as a ‘risk’ for their companies but as an overall responsibility towards
their product and the people involved. The absence of a responsible approach
combined with the incapacity or unwillingness of foreign governments to protect
the rights of girls and young women and their vulnerability created by poverty,
inequality and discrimination is the biggest threat to achieving sustainable
gender equality. We need to collectively act for the well being and livelihoods
of young girls and boys and address the issue of trafficking, forced labour and
slavery within a wider context of labour rights and working conditions. We also
need to be clear about who is facing the greatest risks: it is workers, not
corporations, but the onus to mitigate the risk lies with the latter.
