The new issue of Anti-Trafficking Review examines the complexity of labour exploitation in the global economy
Anti-Trafficking Review explores new approaches to worker protection, the Clean Clothes Campaign calls attention to poverty wages in the garment industry, and MAP Foundation raises awareness of a regional Thai employment system that allows the exploitation of Myanmar migrants.
The new issue of Anti-Trafficking Review examines the driving forces behind the increasing prevalence of precarious work, the expanding role of migrant labour within the global economy, and the relationship between everyday abuses and the forms of severe exploitation which have come to be defined as human trafficking and modern slavery.
As the editorial notes, the theme of this issue was chosen long before anyone had heard of COVID-19, yet the pandemic’s effects have brought many pre-existing trends, which Anti-Trafficking Review is keen to explore, into sharp relief. First and foremost, it has become clear that the burdens associated with the pandemic have fallen much harder on some groups of people than others. In addition, we have seen how companies benefit and workers suffer from certain labour practices – thanks to subcontracting, outsourcing and other strategies, many companies have insulated themselves from direct responsibility for their workforce, so when COVID-19 emerged they found it relatively easy to walk away. A number of recent developments associated with the pandemic can be traced back to the overall design and operation of the global economy.
This issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review has four main goals:
To better understand the effects of global economic systems and regulations upon precarious workers and migrants;
to draw attention to lived experiences within these systems;
to explore the relationship between everyday abuses and interventions targeting human trafficking and modern slavery, and
to evaluate the different approaches to improving the status quo.
The articles featured in this special issue explore the topic of everyday abuse from a variety of angles, including a proposal to shift anti-exploitation interventions away from human trafficking and modern slavery and towards the everyday abuse of wage theft. Since wage theft is one of the most common forms of labour abuse, the author argues that migrant workers can more easily identify with not being paid than with being labelled as ‘trafficking victims’. According to the author, interventions designed to recover lost wages and reduce the likelihood of wage theft not only represent a pragmatic, migrant-oriented response to a concrete problem, they also seek to address the inequitable distribution of resources that sits at the heart of neoliberal globalization.
Such divergent views help to underscore the complexity of the underlying structural issues, and the fact that there is never going to be a single straightforward solution to the problems associated with everyday abuse and extreme exploitation. The authors argue that it is instead necessary to take into account the way in which specific constraints, opportunities, and strategies inform our diagnosis and understanding of the problem.
The newest issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review is available online here.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
Between June and September, the Danish Refugee Council and the Mixed Migration Centre conducted two studies, looking at COVID-19 and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and COVID-19 and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) respectively. The findings will be presented by the two lead researchers at a webinar on 14 October 2020.
A new report by the Clean Clothes Campaign examines how poverty wages remain at the center of systematic exploitation in the global garment industry and where brand commitments and practices fall short. Legal minimum wages in garment-producing countries are far below a living wage and garment workers are unable to meet their basic needs.
Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) Foundation, a grassroots non-governmental organization which seeks to empower migrant communities from Myanmar living and working in Thailand, highlights a local system which allows employers to exploit the vulnerable due to a lack of transparency and accountability.
Research by Cambridge University criminologists suggests that those charged with drug cultivation in the UK have often been forced into illegal work as a condition of debt to criminal gangs for smuggling them into the country.
A report by Anti-Slavery International and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) details a number of case studies which clearly demonstrate how EU-wide mandatory cross-sectoral human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, with a strong liability and enforcement regime and improved access to remedy rules, would have resulted in very different outcomes.
A recent report from the National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the US proposed 127 recommendations for state representatives, Congress, NGOs, and other government agencies to adopt, in order to improve anti-trafficking measures.
Seefar is seeking applications for a Research Intern to support the Research and M&E Team on several projects related to trafficking in persons, modern slavery and migration, and to provide analytical and research services.
SAFE Seas is looking for a Multidisciplinary Inspection Policy Brief Consultant who can support the SAFE Seas Project Team in developing policy briefs for Indonesia and the Philippines to help inform decision makers and key government agencies about forced labour and trafficking in persons on fishing vessels on multidisciplinary inspections.
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