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WORKFORCE:
Forced labour

 

Forced labour: comment

One of the striking things about the use of trafficked and bonded labour in the wider economy is that it can so easily be part of the supply chain for products readily available to the consumer. If you are reading this, you probably have bought something associated with forced labour. Indirectly, for example, cheap bricks (beware - disturbing image) are supplied to build factories that produce cheap clothing for UK markets.

More directly, fresh produce handled by adults trafficked into agricultural labour in Lincolnshire for supermarket supply and chocolate we buy might be linked to trafficked children working on cocoa farms. See also the Stop the Traffik campaign .

Definition

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines forced labour as work or service exacted from a person under threat or penalty, which includes penal sanctions and the loss of rights and privileges, where the person has not offered him/herself voluntarily.

The ILO has categorised “forced labour” into five key areas.

  1. Slavery and abduction,
  2. misuse of public and prison works,
  3. forced recruitment,
  4. debt bondage and domestic workers under forced labour situations,
  5. internal or international trafficking.

Categorizing forced labour into these distinct areas reflects the fact that older forms of forced labour continue to persist along with new forms of forced labour, which are emerging in the global economy.

Facts and figures

There is growing consensus that the incidence of forced labour is on the rise. Yet, no accurate measurement of forced labour exists. Estimates in 2004 (see page 1) put the figures at twenty-seven million forced labourers on a global scale.

In the UK, illegal immigrants and victims of trafficking are vulnerable to exploitation by criminal gang-masters, who may pay very low wages (or none at all), and make inflated deductions for housing and transport that are often substandard and overcrowded. Some also use violence and intimidation.

Victims of trafficking are exploited for the purposes of cheap labour, often forced or tied. Examples include the agriculture, catering, construction, fishing, entertainment, manufacturing (sweatshops) and service sectors. Details here.

 

 

 

  

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