THE DARK SIDE OF THE TOKYO 2020 SUMMER OLYMPICS (2019)
In September 2018, an international BWI delegation visited Tokyo, Japan to investigate the working conditions faced by workers in the construction of Tokyo 2020 Olympic facilities. The delegation met with key decision-makers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare and the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, visited construction sites (the Canoe Slalom Course, the Olympic Aquatic Center and the Sea Forest Waterway), and held a public forum advocating for Decent Work in Tokyo 2020.Workers and trade unions that attended the meeting outlined alarming concerns regarding occupational health and safety, the rights of migrant workers under the guise of “trainees” and the right to freedom of association for all workers regardless of their employment status. To substantiate findings of the 2018 Mission, the BWI and its Japanese affiliate Zenkensoren conducted consultation and individual interviews in 2019 with workers engaged on two key Olympic construction sites – the National Stadium and the Olympic Village – to examine working conditions and labour rights. Key findings include: almost half of the workers consulted did not have formal employment contracts; dangerous patterns of overwork; some workers were made to purchase their own personal protective equipment; when a complaint was filed about a poorly lit area resulting in worker injury, the lighting was removed entirely and the complaint rejected. In addition, workers reported that migrant workers were being left to do only menial tasks, such as handling raw materials. They spoke about how delays in the construction process were causing stress amongst workers and creating poor safety practices. A far more troubling finding is that workers reported a pervasive “culture of fear” discouraging workers from making complaints on working conditions, for fear that they might be reprimanded or lose their job.
Citation: BWI (2019) The Dark Side of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. Switzerland Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI).
PROTECTING MIGRANT WORKERS FROM EXPLOITATION IN THE EU: WORKERS’ PERSPECTIVES (2019)
This report, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s fourth on the topic of severe labour exploitation, is based on interviews with 237 exploited workers – both people who came to the EU, and EU nationals who moved to another EU country. They were active in diverse sectors, and their legal status also varied. But their stories all paint a bleak picture of severe exploitation and abuse. Respondents were forced to work for endless hours with no or little pay, often in dangerous settings and without minimum safety equipment; sleep in fields or construction sites, without access to toilets or running water; and suffer humiliating sexual harassment. They endured – and rarely reported – these violations out of fear of losing wages owed to them or, for those without a right to stay, of expulsion. As a result, labour inspectorates and law enforcement authorities uncover only few of these misdeeds, and offenders face little risk of being investigated or prosecuted. This report shows how exploitation often starts with false promises and fraud, describes the extreme conditions the exploited workers endure, and identifies the factors that facilitate exploitation. But it also outlines what can be done to help exploited workers access justice.
Citation: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2019) Protecting migrant workers from exploitation in the EU: workers’ perspectives. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Human trafficking for sex, labour and domestic servitude: how do key trafficking types compare and what are their predictors? (2019)
Combatting trafficking in human beings is a well-established social policy and crime prevention priority for the twenty-first Century. Human trafficking, as defined in international law, can occur for diverse exploitative purposes. Yet, different forms of trafficking are routinely conflated in research, policy and interventions. Most of the attention to date has been on sex trafficking of women and girls, leaving male victims and other trafficking types comparatively overlooked. In this study, we disentangle differences between key trafficking types using rare individual-level data from the United Kingdom’s central system for identifying trafficking victims. For a sample of 2630 confirmed victims, we compare those trafficked for sex, domestic servitude and other labour across variables relating to victim demographics, the trafficking process and official responses. Having established significant and substantial differences at bivariate level, we use multinomial logistic regression to identify predictors of trafficking type. Overall, our results underline the complexity and diversity of human trafficking and warn against conflating different types. Within a holistic counter-trafficking framework, a more disaggregated and nuanced approach to analysis and intervention is vital in ensuring more finely-targeted responses. This original study has clear lessons for research, policy and practice.
Citation: Cockbain, E. and K. Bowers (2019) ‘Human trafficking for sex, labour and domestic servitude: how do key trafficking types compare and what are their predictors?’, Crime, Law and Social Change, 72, pp. 9-34.
MAKING WORKERS PAY: RECRUITMENT OF THE MIGRANT LABOR FORCE IN THE GULF CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY (2017)
Oil was discovered in the Arabian Gulf region in the early 20th century, followed by a long-term rise in the prices of oil and natural gas beginning in the late 1990s. Since then, the countries of what is now known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman – have experienced development at a furious pace. The most visible sign of the region’s growth is its booming construction landscape. Governments are spending their enormous wealth commissioning new campuses for international artistic and educational institutions and hosting mega-events like the 2020 World Expo in Dubai and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The combination of vast wealth and large-scale development has resulted in significant structural changes within these societies, including mass migration of low-wage workers, mostly from South and Southeast Asia, into the local construction and service sectors. Thus far, Gulf societies have not provided adequate protections for the influx of outsiders. The situation of workers on high-profile construction projects in the region has been the subject of considerable public attention in recent years. The international migrant recruitment industry is meant to facilitate these workers’ migration. But in practice, the recruitment industry exacerbates the many issues that migrants face once they arrive in the GCC. While abuses faced by workers have been well documented by others, the nature of the recruitment business is less well understood. This report explores the current labor recruitment model for the GCC construction industry and the ways in which it contributes to workers’ vulnerability to abuse and payment of high recruitment fees, and offers recommendations to make the industry better for the millions of workers making difficult journeys to take up employment in the Gulf.
Citation: Segall, D. and S. Labowitz (2017) Making Workers Pay: Recruitment of the Migrant Labor Force in the Gulf Construction Industry. New York, United States: NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
BITTER HARVEST: EXPLOITATION AND FORCED LABOUR OF MIGRANT AGRICULTURAL WORKERS IN SOUTH KOREA (2016)
Amnesty International’s reports have documented systematic failures by the South Korean authorities to protect migrant workers, especially within the Employment Permit System (EPS), from exploitation and abuse. Despite provisions in the EPS, which give migrants the same labour rights as South Korean workers, the research found that restrictions on changing jobs severely hindered migrant workers from raising abuses at work, such as late or non-payment of wages or benefits, inadequate safety measures, and physical or sexual violence. Although it is 10 years since the EPS was established, EPS workers continue to be subject to human and labour rights abuses. This follow-up report focuses on migrant workers in the agriculture sector. Although the EPS makes a distinction between the agricultural and livestock breeding sectors, this report looks at migrant workers employed in both sectors under the term “agricultural workers”. Combined, these sectors made up 8% of the EPS workforce in 2013. Migrant agricultural workers are particularly at risk of abuse and exploitation due to a number of factors, including the exemption of the agricultural sector from labour laws regarding work hours, daily breaks and weekly paid rest days; the seasonal nature of farming; and the remote location of their workplaces.
Citation: Amnesty International (2014) Bitter Harvest: Exploitation and Forced Labour of Migrant Agricultural Workers in South Korea. London, United Kingdom: Amnesty International.
LABOUR TRAFFICKING AMONG MEN AND BOYS IN THE GREATER MEKONG SUBREGION: EXPLOITATION, VIOLENCE, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH RISKS AND INJURIES (2016)
Men comprise nearly two-thirds of trafficked and forced laborers in common low-skilled labour sectors including fishing, agriculture and factory work. Yet, most evidence on human trafficking has focused on women and girls trafficked for sex work, with scant research on trafficked men and boys. The authors analyzed survey data from the largest systematic consecutive sample of trafficked people collected to date to describe the prevalence of violence, occupational health risks and injuries and associated factors. Participants were labour-trafficked men and boys using post-trafficking support services in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Data are presented on 446 males aged 10–58. Men and boys were mainly trafficked for fishing (61.7%), manufacturing (19.1%) and begging (5.2%). The study highlights the abuse and extreme occupational hazards suffered by trafficked men and boys. Occupational health and safety interventions are urgently needed to protect male migrant labourers working in high-risk sectors, particularly fishing.
Citation: Pocock, N.S., L. Kiss, S. Oram and C. Zimmerman (2016) ‘Labour Trafficking among Men and Boys in the Greater Mekong Subregion: Exploitation, Violence, Occupational Health Risks and Injuries’, PLOS ONE.
LABOUR EXPLOITATION, TRAFFICKING AND MIGRANT HEALTH: MULTI-COUNTRY FINDINGS ON THE HEALTH RISKS AND CONSEQUENCES OF MIGRANT AND TRAFFICKED WORKERS (2015)
There are an estimated 232 million international migrants and 740 million internal migrants worldwide, most of whom are in search of work. Global assessments also suggest that a substantial proportion of labour migrants ends up in situations of extreme exploitation, sometimes formally identified as victims of human trafficking. However, despite the numerous occupations in which extreme exploitation has been found to occur, health research has been limited, with most research focused on the health of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. As greater attention turns to people who have been exploited in labour sectors, it is necessary to understand the range of occupational health and safety risks and hazardous working and living conditions of workers exploited in specific sectors. Moreover, because large numbers of migrant workers fall into a “grey area” along a spectrum encompassing varying degrees and types of exploitation, including human trafficking, there is reason to explore the differences and similarities between the health needs of those who have been identified as trafficked compared to other migrants working in the same labour sector who have not. This study explores the types of exploitation and harm people experienced in certain so-called “low-skilled labour sectors” that are commonly considered to be exploitative or known for practices associated with human trafficking: textile work, construction and artisanal gold mining. Each of the selected study countries – Argentina, Kazakhstan and Peru – has destination locations for either international or internal trafficking into these sectors. As concerns about the human effects of global trade, increasingly mobile and precarious labour forces and extreme levels of exploitation – including human trafficking – have received greater policy attention and donor investment, there is now a need for a stronger evidence base to understand the links between low-skilled labour migration, human trafficking and health, to inform appropriate and effective responses.
Citation: Buller, A.M., H. Stoklosa and C. Zimmerman (2015) Labour Exploitation, Trafficking and Migrant Health: Multi-country Findings on the Health Risks and Consequences of Migrant and Trafficked Workers. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Migration.
Editorial: What’s in a Name? Distinguishing forced labour, trafficking and slavery (2015)
Over the last fifteen years the parameters of anti-trafficking have shifted considerably. This shift has not been immediate or seismic. It has been a gradual shift, and what was once advocated for as a specific practice of trafficking is now associated with, and at times used interchangeably with, slavery and forced labour.
Trade Unions, Forced Labour and Human Trafficking (2015)
This article examines the dilemmas facing trade unions seeking to engage on questions of forced labour and human trafficking. The International Labour Organization and elements of the international trade union movement have succeeded in getting forced labour on the policy agenda globally and within many national settings. However, trade unions have limited capacity to effect real change in relation to these issues because of limitations on their influence, determined largely by membership density and the limited number of sectors in which they are present, but also internal assessments of what constitutes ‘core business’. As a consequence, while trade unions may advocate for legislative or policy change, partner with non-governmental organisations to deal with particular cases, or even engage directly with vulnerable populations, the integration of those populations into the day to day concerns of trade unions necessarily remains elusive—particularly in the global south, where forced labour is most prevalent.
Deploying Disclosure Laws to Eliminate Forced Labour: Supply chain transparency efforts of Brazil and the United States of America (2015)
States are increasingly addressing forced labour in supply chains by implementing transparency or disclosure measures that aim to make companies disclose the existence of forced labour in their supply chains. Examining the recent approaches of Brazil and the United States of America shows some promising practices to best inform governmental policy going forward.
Asylum, Immigration Restrictions and Exploitation: Hyper-precarity as a lens for understanding and tackling forced labour (2015)
The topic of forced labour is receiving a growing amount of political and policy attention across the globe. This paper makes two clear contributions to emerging debates. First, we focus on a group who are seldom explicitly considered in forced labour debates: forced migrants who interact with the asylum system. We build an argument of the production of susceptibility to forced labour through the United Kingdom’s (UK) asylum system, discussing the roles of compromised socio-legal status resulting from restrictive immigration policy, neoliberal labour market characteristics and migrants’ own trajectories. Second, we argue that forced labour needs to be understood as part of, and an outcome of, widespread normalised precarious work. Precarity is a concept used to describe the rise of insecure, casualised and sub-contracted work and is useful in explaining labour market processes that are conducive to the production of forced labour. Using precarity as a lens to examine forced labour encourages the recognition of extreme forms of exploitation as part of a wider picture of systematic exploitation of migrants in the labour market. To understand the reasons why forced migrants might be drawn into severe labour exploitation in the UK, we introduce the concept of hyper-precarity to explain how multidimensional insecurities contribute to forced labour experiences, particularly among forced migrants in the global north. Viewing forced labour as connected to precarity also suggests that avenues and tools for tackling severe labour exploitation need to form part of the wider struggle for migrant labour rights.
‘Tied Visas’ and Inadequate Labour Protections: A formula for abuse and exploitation of migrant domestic workers in the United Kingdom (2015)
This article examines the link between restrictive immigration schemes, specifically ‘tied visas’ and the selective application of labour laws, with exploitation of workers. It focuses on the situation of migrant domestic workers, who accompany their employers to the United Kingdom (UK) and are exposed to both an excessively restrictive visa regime, introduced in April 2012, and limited labour protections. The immigration status of these workers is currently tied to a named employer, a restriction that traps workers into exploitative conditions, often amounting to forced labour, servitude or slavery. Additionally, current UK labour laws are either not enforced or not applicable to domestic workers. The article concludes that unless the current immigration regime is abolished and comprehensive labour law protections are extended to migrant domestic workers, exploitation will continue.
Vulnerability to Forced Labour and Trafficking: The case of Romanian women in the agricultural sector in Sicily (2015)
This paper focuses on labour and sexual exploitation faced by Romanian female workers employed in the agricultural sector in Ragusa, Sicily, Italy. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2013 and 2014 with Romanian female farm workers in Ragusa, the paper identifies factors that contribute towards their vulnerability to exploitation. By paying specific attention to the experiences of women who are mothers with dependent children, we look at structural factors that increase their vulnerability and consider how this vulnerability ‘forces’ women into situations whereby they effectively accept and/or submit to abuse. We also highlight how European Union (EU) citizenship does not automatically protect migrants from such abuse. This is important because, as we argue, the mistreatment experienced by participants in this study can be regarded as cases of forced labour and trafficking, based on International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators[1] and the definition of trafficking provided by the Directive 2011/36/EU. For a long time, these cases have mostly been neglected by incompetent authorities or addressed using only repressive and assistentialist approaches. Thus, this paper also investigates the limits and potentialities of the Italian legal framework on trafficking, and the ways local institutions and organisations confront the rights violations occurring in the agricultural sector. We contend that in order to effectively counter these phenomena, labour rights measures and anti-trafficking interventions have to be combined based on a comprehensive approach aimed not only at assisting victims, but also at tackling the structural factors that create their vulnerability.
Policy and Practice: The Role of Trade Unions in Reducing Migrant Workers’ Vulnerability to Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion (2015)
The focus of this article is on advocacy opportunities provided by the anti-trafficking framework in a new political climate. Through the case study of the United Kingdom (UK) Modern Slavery Act 2015 deliberations the article explores opportunities to use political interest in human trafficking to advocate labour rights and protections for vulnerable workers. The article explores how, largely cynical, political motivations for the debate on ‘modern slavery’ in the UK, provided an opportunity to reframe the anti-trafficking discourse in this context. Whilst migration control and labour market deregulation are key priorities for the UK government, the Modern Slavery Act process enabled advocates to highlight the impact of such measures on vulnerable, predominantly migrant, workers. It also ultimately served to persuade decision makers to make a connection between widespread labour abuses and severe labour exploitation. Through this case study the article argues for engagement with anti-trafficking frameworks to both highlight and harness the political rhetoric, and maximise the space provided for promoting the rights of vulnerable workers.
Policy and Practice: Claiming Space for Labour Rights within the United Kingdom Modern Slavery Crusade (2015)
The focus of this article is on advocacy opportunities provided by the anti-trafficking framework in a new political climate. Through the case study of the United Kingdom (UK) Modern Slavery Act 2015 deliberations the article explores opportunities to use political interest in human trafficking to advocate labour rights and protections for vulnerable workers. The article explores how, largely cynical, political motivations for the debate on ‘modern slavery’ in the UK, provided an opportunity to reframe the anti-trafficking discourse in this context. Whilst migration control and labour market deregulation are key priorities for the UK government, the Modern Slavery Act process enabled advocates to highlight the impact of such measures on vulnerable, predominantly migrant, workers. It also ultimately served to persuade decision makers to make a connection between widespread labour abuses and severe labour exploitation. Through this case study the article argues for engagement with anti-trafficking frameworks to both highlight and harness the political rhetoric, and maximise the space provided for promoting the rights of vulnerable workers.
Debate: The Challenges and Perils of Reframing Trafficking as ‘Modern-Day Slavery’ (2015)
In the last five years, we have seen a rebranding of global anti-trafficking efforts as ‘modern-day slavery’ abolitionism. The United States of America (US) Department of State and powerful philanthropists are key proponents of the slavery makeover, prompting other governments, international organisations, and non-governmental organisations alike to adopt the ‘modern-day slavery’ frame. The slavery frame has helped ignite outrage and galvanise political support for modern anti-slavery campaigns. It has also helped expand the anti-trafficking spotlight beyond the sex sector to expose the extreme exploitation that men, women, and children suffer in the non-sexual labour sectors of our global economy. These benefits come at a cost, however, both with respect to legal doctrine and practice, and, perhaps more significantly, to how we understand and respond to the problem of extreme exploitation for profit.
Debate: When it Comes to Modern Slavery, do Definitions Matter? (2015)
On the 3rd of April 2015, Indonesian government officials visited the remote island village of Benjina.[1] This followed press reports by Associated Press (AP) that Burmese men were being kept on Benjina island in cages, beaten with stingray tails and paid little or nothing, to fish for a company that occupies the port on the island, Pusaka Benjina Resources.
Debate: Forced Labour, Slavery and Human Trafficking: When do definitions matter? (2015)
We can spend a lot of time debating the connections or essential differences between the concepts of trafficking, forced labour, slavery and modern slavery, or slavery-like practices. Some insist that trafficking is a subset of forced labour, others the reverse. The arguments between academics, bureaucracies and even government agencies have often been vitriolic.
Debate: Towards a Cohesive and Contextualised Response: When is it necessary to distinguish between forced labour, trafficking in persons and slavery? (2015)
In my view, the answer to the debate question of whether it is necessary to distinguish between forced labour, trafficking and slavery depends on the context. Therefore the focus should instead be on identifying when it is necessary to distinguish and when it is not required. Furthermore, an essential follow-up is the question of how we can prevent and address these different forms of coercion in a coherent manner.
Debate: Use of the Term ‘Bonded Labour’ is a Must in the Context of India (2015)
There is no question that we should distinguish between forced labour, trafficking and slavery. But, we should also include in the debate another concept, ‘bonded labour,’ as it describes a distinct and widespread form of forced labour in India that does not fully accord with the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) definition of forced labour. The sociopolitical reality in India and bonded labour’s intimate link with the Indian caste system demand that the term ‘bonded labour’ be retained in the discourse on forced labour and trafficking in persons. Addressing bonded labour enables two interconnected areas of exploitation and discrimination to be addressed, namely working towards emancipation of the minority Dalit community and of the Moolnivasi indigenous communities.
MIGRANT LABOUR IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR IN THE STATE OF QATAR (2014)
This is an independent review of the legislative and enforcement framework of Qatar’s labour laws in the light of the numerous allegations made regarding the conditions for migrant workers in the construction sector. Having reviewed the relevant legislation and approach to governance, the authors conclude that, while there are shortcomings, much appropriate legislation is already in place. However, they note a number of enforcement issues which need to be addressed and make recommendations to this effect.
Citation: DLA Piper (2014) Migrant Labour in the Construction Sector in the State of Qatar. United States: DLA Piper.
UNDERSTANDING THE ORGANIZATION, OPERATION, AND VICTIMIZATION PROCESS OF LABOR TRAFFICKING IN THE UNITED STATES (2014)
This study examines the organization, operation, and victimization process of labor trafficking across multiple industries in the United States. It examines labor trafficking victim abuse and exploitation along a continuum, from victims’ recruitment for work in the United States; through their migration experiences (if any), employment victimization experiences, and efforts to seek help; to their ultimate escape and receipt of services. Data for this study came from a sample of 122 closed labor trafficking victim service records from service providers in four US cities. In addition, interviews were conducted with labor trafficking survivors, local and federal law enforcement officials, legal advocates, and service providers in each site to better understand the labor trafficking victimization experience, the networks involved in labor trafficking and the escape and removal process, and the barriers to investigation and prosecution of labor trafficking cases.
Citation: Owens, C. et al. (2014) Understanding the Organization, Operation, and Victimization Process of Labor Trafficking in the United States. United States: Urban Institute and Northeastern University.
BETWEEN DECENT WORK AND FORCED LABOUR: EXAMINING THE CONTINUUM OF EXPLOITATION (2010)
This paper examines how forced labour is currently framed within national legislations; introduces a continuum of exploitation and interventions, ranging from decent work to extreme exploitation and covering both labour law and criminal law; uses case studies to demonstrate how the concept of a continuum can be applied in practice in the UK.
Citation: Skrivankova, K. (2010) Between decent work and forced labour: examining the continuum of exploitation. United Kingdom: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Trafficking in Men, a Trend Less Considered: The Case of Belarus and Ukraine (2008)
Men are often overlooked in discussions of human trafficking and those who are targeted by trafficking enterprises. Reflecting this bias, trafficking in males has been under-considered in research. This despite noteworthy signals that many males, adult and minors, are subjected to trafficking exploitation. Often these severely exploited male victims, especially in the context of migration, are overlooked, with women and girls identified more commonly as victims of trafficking. This deficiency in identifying and assisting males who have been victims of trafficking exploitation needs to be addressed. “Trafficking in persons” must be understood and addressed as affecting all victims: women and men, adults and minors. In Belarus and Ukraine, male victims accounted for 28.3 per cent and 17.6 per cent of the IOM-assisted caseload respectively between 2004 and 2006. Through the lens of trafficking in males (primarily adult men) from Belarus and Ukraine, this study considers male victims’ pre-trafficking life (namely their personal, family and socio-economic background), trafficking experience (from recruitment, through transportation and during exploitation) and post trafficking experience and needs. The report examines, on the one hand, what is known about this less-considered profile of trafficked persons and, on the other hand, what can be done to meet their needs, both as a means of assistance and protection. The study draws on primary data collected about 685 trafficked males assisted by IOM and its partners, through IOM’s Counter-Trafficking Module Database in Geneva as well as qualitative information from interviews with and case files of assisted men. The research findings should not be read as representative of the full scope of trafficking in either country; they are instead representative of trafficked males who have been identified and received assistance and not male trafficking victims generally.
Citation: Surtees, R. (2008) Trafficking in Men, A Trend Less Considered: The Case of Belarus and Ukraine. Washington, D.C., United States: NEXUS Institute and Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Migration.
FORCED LABOR AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING: ESTIMATING THE PROFITS (2005)
This paper estimates the global magnitude of forced labour profits in order to throw light on the scale of this economic exploitation. The first section defines forced labour, describes its main forms, and summarizes the ILO’s global minimum estimate of forced labour in the world. The second section briefly explains what is meant by profits and how they can be calculated. In the third section, the authors calculate the profits made from forced labour in agriculture and other non-sexual activities. This includes an estimation of the profits from the “labour dimension” of human trafficking. In the fourth section, we estimate the profits made with forced commercial sexual exploitation – both with trafficked and non-trafficked victims. The last section brings together the estimates from the previous sections and aggregates the total profits of forced labour and human trafficking.
Citation: Belser, P. (2005) Forced Labor and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organization.