Migrant workers all around the world make the products we buy and harvest the food we eat.
In many ways our economy is driven by migrants, who cross borders for jobs that can help them achieve a better life, or simply allow them to feed their family. No matter what product - clothes, shoes, computers, toys, furniture and food - it is likely that migrant workers were a part of making or harvesting it. Migrants provide the flexible workforce that keeps our just-in-time global economy humming.
Workers will go to great lengths to snag promising jobs, no matter where they are located. Often prospective workers will pay sizable sums to one or more middlemen - labor brokers and moneylenders - whose practices are often exploitative and illegal. Often workers take out loans to pay the fees. In doing so, they make a simple calculation: if they work so many months at a certain rate, they will have a specific sum at the end of the contract period -enough to pay off the loan and still net significant savings.
What they don't realize is that:
- The job probably won't pay what the broker promised;
- They don't often know about the compound interest on their debt, which increases every month;
- There are illegal wage deductions and unexpected fees;
- Their passports may be taken away so that they can't complain or flee;
- Their work visas will tie them to their employer, giving them no other alternative way to dig themselves out of debt; What they also don't know is that they may end up for months - even years -- in slave-like conditions or debt bondage.
How do we end this practice? Join Verite's Well Made initiative, which begins with fair hiring worldwide.
It all starts with hiring. Whether you are - or work with - multinational brands, governments, investors, anti-slavery or labor-rights organizations, social auditors or certifiers, your approach to protecting migrant workers is not complete unless it includes a focus on the path into the workforce.
The questions below provide a guide and a starting point. By addressing the recruitment and hiring practices of workers in all supply chains, we can decrease the vulnerability of workers and improve the compliance record of suppliers to major brands.
Below are the questions that stakeholder groups with an interest in stopping human trafficking and forced labor need to ask to begin reversing this pattern. (watch for Verite's upcoming Solutions Seminars and Toolkits to address slavery and human trafficking throughout supply chains.)
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Companies
Fair hiring helps your company address the root causes of many compliance problems.
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Governments
Governments can adopt and enforce policies that promote fair hiring in order to protect migrant workers from human trafficking and slavery.
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Advocates
Help lead the movement to end exploitive hiring practices that can lead to slavery
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Investors
The investor community is well-positioned to take a leadership role in addressing trafficking.
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Auditors
Social auditors and certifiers can help by integrating practices that address abuses before they begin.
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Want to learn more? Below you'll find our report on hiring, human trafficking and modern-day slavery in the global economy as well as frequently asked questions and Facts and Faces, our look at the real lives impacted by these issues.
Help Wanted Report
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Help Wanted Release
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Facts and Faces
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