Vol.6 Week 32 | 11/08/2010 |
FROM Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia: Business Solutions for Global Challenges | |
by Richard Welford rwelford@csr-asia.com | |
Last week in Malaysia, authorities announced a welcome new crackdown on human trafficking with more training for law enforcement officers and tougher penalties for those involved in such abuses. According to officials, between February 2008 and last month, authorities rescued 1,656 victims from 19 countries who had been placed under an Interim Protection Order. But this probably represents a minority of those actually trafficked. Unfortunately, the recent rebound in the manufacturing (and other) sectors in the Asian region has returned us to a situation where there are major labour shortages in many locations. I recently saw at first hand, in another country, how a number of migrant workers had been “placed” in factories and food processing plants. It was not entirely clear to me just how they got there but the use of agents to move people across borders was certainly part of the story. What struck me was that few people within the country, let alone outside it knew of the movement of such individuals. Globalization fuels trafficking and associated slave labour goods that enter the global market place. Commonly, consumers have little or no knowledge of the supply chains and work conditions that resulted in their production. This is problematic for both the consumer and many businesses which are increasingly faced with the challenge of ensuring that complex supply chains are untainted by forced and trafficked labor. Countries such as America blacklists nations considered to be the worst offenders of human trafficking every year. But some of the cases are occurring within the context of otherwise legal transnational labour migration, which is itself on the rise. Moreover, it is claimed that very few, if any, of agreements forged by governments, particularly in Asia, contain provisions explicitly protecting migrant workers from conditions of forced labor or other forms of trafficking in persons. With labour shortage sometimes becoming acute there is a need for another serious look at steps to ensure that recruited workers were not victims of fraudulent work offers or conditions of debt bondage. One of the key problems however, is that the people benefitting from human trafficking are actually quite widespread. Not only can employers find cheap labour and traffickers earn fees but there are a series of bribes and facilitation payments linked to the movement of people. It is claimed that in some countries the problem of labour recruitment being vulnerable to human trafficking is compounded by the fact that labour recruiters have direct connections with senior government officials. The most vulnerable to trafficking are those who face particular hardships. They are often victims of organized crime groups who make huge sums of money at the expense of trafficking victims. Those organized crime groups often have power and influence over law enforcement agencies and government officials who are supposed to be preventing this type of human rights abuse. Governments are not doing enough to combat trafficking and that the NGO sector does not have sufficient resources. Too often governments are over-reliant on a complaint-based system of identifying trafficking crimes and victims. This type of reactive approach to trafficking is inadequate since few victims are willing to identify themselves upon initial contacts with law enforcement agencies. Moreover, due to the highly clandestine nature of the crime of human trafficking, the great majority of human trafficking cases go unreported and culprits remain at large. Moreover, sometimes members of the local law enforcement agencies are involved in the lucrative business of illegal exportation or importation of human beings. Prosecution is further complicated by victims of trafficking being afraid to testify against traffickers out of fear for their and their family members' lives or because they are not treated as victims but as illegal immigrants or criminals by the law enforcement. The present situation is grim. The ILO estimates there are 12.5 million people in forced labour, bonded labour, forced child labour and sexual servitude at any given time. Economic globalization has encouraged an unprecedented mobilization of unskilled and low-skilled labour in response to demand in labour-deficient markets for construction, manufacturing, agriculture and domestic work. The ILO estimates the population of migrant workers to be 120 million. These workers are often at risk. Indeed, abuse of this situation means many workers are forced into modern-day slavery by unscrupulous employers. The business community is a critical partner in helping eliminate human trafficking. But, to date, most anti-trafficking initiatives have been undertaken by governments and non-governmental organisations, but few programmes have engaged the business sector and harnessed their global reach and connections yet. What is becoming increasingly apparent is servitude imposed on large numbers of migrant workers who accept contracts in other countries for low-skilled work. These people are often recruited legitimately in their home countries and travel to places where low-cost foreign labour is in demand. Once in the country, conditions of employment are often changed from those stipulated in contracts back at home. Confiscation of passports, confinement, physical force and withholding wages are all tactics employed by abusive labour agents or employers. Adequate victim protection requires proactive measures by governments to identify trafficking victims through careful and thorough interviews and counseling. Law enforcement authorities should be given more training on how to identify indications of trafficking and awareness of trafficking in all communities needs to be raised. Malaysia is clearly leading by example here. But to be effective, anti-trafficking strategies must target both the supply side and the demand side of the practice. Conditions that drive trafficking must be dealt with through efforts to: alert communities to the dangers of trafficking; improve and expand educational and economic opportunities for vulnerable groups; promote equal access to education; an awareness of legal rights; creation of better and broader life opportunities. Law enforcement must vigorously prosecute traffickers and those who aid and abet them. There is a need to fight public corruption and identify and intercept trafficking routes. Employers of forced labour should be punished. Very importantly, there needs to be public awareness campaigns which should be conducted in destination countries. And, of course, victims of trafficking need to be rescued, rehabilitated and given back their dignity. Many multinational producers have come to rely on low labour costs in their supply chains and this is where many victims of trafficking are to be found. But, it is now clear that it is not enough simply to monitor the conditions of work in supply chains. To get at the root of this problem there is a need to ask how the workers arrived in the workplace to begin with. The ILO has developed a Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration for governments, employers and workers to address the conditions that lead to trafficking of migrant workers into what is essentially forced labour. There is a dialogue underway among labour source governments and labor destination governments in Asia and the Middle East called the "Colombo Process." But the process needs the involvement of more of the corporate world. Some businesses are taking an active role in attempting to cleanse production chains of forced labour. There are also notable corporate actors who are using their individual expertise, corporate strengths and core competencies to counter trafficking and affect change. This effort benefits the victims but it also benefits the companies in that it builds trust and legitimacy, often garners positive publicity and earns the support of increasingly socially-conscious buyers and investors. There is a need for business to engage more with issues surrounding human trafficking. It is just good business to make sure that trafficked and forced labour is not being used anywhere in the supply chain. But there is also a moral obligation on business to make sure that workers are not exploited and are not victims of such crimes against humanity. ■ |
CSR Asia - Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia
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