Trafficking

The trafficking of persons involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer or sale of people using threats of violence, deception or other forms of coercion in order to exploit them sexually or economically. Exploitation includes the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, and the removal of organs. Trafficking is commonly associated with forced labour, especially where it involves illegal economic migrants, although trafficking of women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation are also serious problems. A 2006 UNODC report found that human beings were trafficked from 127 countries to be exploited in 137 countries. In 2009, UNODC noted that only two out of every five countries from a total of 155 had recorded a trafficking conviction.

Implications for business

Companies may be considered complicit in trafficking if they, or organisations in their value chain, employ victims of trafficking. There are also cases of individuals in companies providing hospitality to business partners that involve the provision of sex workers. Companies in the airline, shipping and other transportation industries, as well as those in the tourism sector, are of particular risks of being complicit in trafficking of persons.

The following examples were identified through background research:

  • UNODC reported in 2009 that, of all identified cases of human trafficking, 79% of victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 18% for forced labour. The actual figure of trafficking for forced labour is likely to be higher given the hidden nature of forced labour.
  • As of November 2008, only 63% of 155 countries had passed laws against the major forms of trafficking. Another 16% had passed anti-trafficking laws that cover only certain elements of the 2003 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
  • The ILO estimates that around one million illegal migrant workers may be victims of labour trafficking in Russia.
  • In February 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, Director of UNODC, urged governments and the private sector to do more to combat trafficking, claiming that “many governments are still in denial. There is even neglect when it comes to either reporting on, or prosecuting cases of human trafficking”.

Identifying the dilemma

How does a company minimise the risk of being complicit in forced or involuntary labour in its value chain when its business partners or suppliers are based in a country where trafficking for forced labour is a serious problem and the authorities are known to facilitate such violations?

The following have been identified as possible components of this dilemma:

  • Lack of anti-trafficking legislation
  • Corporate cultures and sexual exploitation
  • Supply-chain management
  • Root causes and embedded practices
  • Economic and social consequences
  • Recruitment practices
  • Labour laws inadequately enforced
  • Migrant workers

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