The private security sector is one of the fastest growing in the world, as security guards are increasingly hired to guard factories, office buildings, extractive worksites, residential facilities, transport hubs, and hotels, in addition to military and other government facilities. Migrant workers are often hired for these positions and, as such, a risk of human trafficking exists.
Based on the success of the FLIP Ghana model, the project is expanding activities into Côte d’Ivoire where project staff will similarly work to build stakeholder capacity to use the ILO indicators to understand and address forced labor risk.
Verité is active on many fronts to bring our labor rights experts together with those protecting the natural environment. We believe strongly that supply chain “sustainability” is best pursued holistically with the needs of people, communities, and ecosystems considered and approached in complementary ways. One significant effort has been our participation in the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFi).
As part of Verité’s ongoing work to improve labor practices in the Latin American coffee sector under the U.S. Department of Labor-funded Cooperation on Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project, this year we are launching pilot projects in three key coffee producing countries — Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
Verité research has found that the use of labor brokers (including village-level agents, recruiters, labor contractors, and crew leaders) is widespread throughout the Latin American coffee sector, including in Brazil.