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The U.K. government predicts that there are about 13,000 victims of modern slavery in Britain, yet there have only been 130 convictions related to human trafficking.

The Modern Slavery Act was passed by Members of Parliament earlier this year, which increases maximum sentence from 14 years to life imprisonment and enhances techniques to identify victims. As a part of this act, the independent anti-slavery commissioner position was created and Kevin Hyland was appointed to fill the role.

Kevin Hyland has since said that both consumers and the police lack awareness of modern slavery in the U.K. He recently asked consumers who suspect business workers to be victims of trafficking or exploitation to boycott and report those businesses. “In cases that have been reported to the police, [workers] look hungry, worn out, their clothes are poor, things like health and safety aren’t there, the equipment they are using is cheap, shoddy. Boycott it, but contact the local authority, contact the police – once enough people do that, then there will be a response.”

The migrant crisis exposes vulnerable people to criminals who promise jobs and opportunities, but later become debt-bonded or face physical threats and abuse. Modern slavery can be found in many forms, from sexual exploitation to organized begging. “This is the complexity of it all and that’s why the public needs to be more aware of it…People really need to open their eyes and understand what this criminality is – it is the sale of human beings. It is not just hard work.”

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Source: The Guardian

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Last Thursday, a total of 71 migrant bodies were found in a lorry in Austria near the Hungarian border in a suspected human trafficking operation gone wrong. Autopsies revealed that the migrant men, women, and children died due to suffocation after being locked in the truck.Four suspects have since been arrested and charged with aggravated human smuggling in Hungary and will be in custody until September 29th. Officials expect Austria to push hard for the extradition of the four suspects.

Following Thursday’s incident, the United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged “for more concerted action to alleviate Europe’s migrant crisis” as an increasing number of migrants from the Middle East and Africa are trying to reach Europe. Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz says “if we don’t find a European solution to the refugee crisis there is a danger that more and more countries try to solve the crisis on their own by building a fence, like Hungary does for example.”

Last month, there were 107,500 migrants who crossed the EU borders. It’s been reported that just this month, more than 40,000 asylum seekers have landed in Hungary from the Balkans, most of them seeking refuge from Syria.

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Source: BBC

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Sustainable consumer products have been in select demand for a few years, but only recently have they become much more common within big retail chains such as Walmart and Target. The reason behind this retail trend is no more complex than the fact that it has been increasingly profitable, but fortunately that is a direct side effect of a much more important trend: consumers caring about what’s inside a product and where it came from. Target’s former Director of Sustainability, Kate Heiny described the phenomenon. “With their words and wallets, our customers are asking for more sustainable products.”

Consumers have always called for sustainable products, it just wasn’t until recently that the big market consumer goods companies have started to listen. But in order for these companies to prove to their customers that sustainable products was something they actually cared about, they needed to put in the time and effort to audit their own goods. Target “painstakingly built its own Sustainable Product Standard. Working with UL’s Good Guide system, Target scores 7,000 products on a 100-point scale, with 50 points at stake related to the toxicity of ingredients. Additional points are awarded for reduced packaging impacts (can consumers recycle it?) and transparency (that is, sharing all ingredients on the product labels with deductions for things like “fragrance” without the details).”

While the current emphasis in regards to sustainable goods is what goes into the products rather than where a product comes from or who makes it, it is nonetheless a step in the right direction. On top of this, the most important aspect of sustainable goods is the initial conscientiousness that leads to consumers choosing to shop responsibly. Shoppers being mindful of what goes into products they buy is the first step to creating change within consumer targeted businesses. Hopefully Target and Walmart’s emphasis on sustainable products will cause other big name retailers to join the trend.

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Source: Harvard Business Review

Human trafficking is a crime that is found all over the world, at any given moment. Although there are hundreds of anti-trafficking organizations, not enough people take the necessary actions to combat the criminal activity.

A recent study conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), found that trafficking is often a direct result of disaster. Whether it be natural or man-made disaster, human trafficking has been proven to flourish in chaotic situations. Upon discovering that, the IOM now makes the case that preventing trafficking should be considered a “life-saving action,” alongside “traditional” relief interventions.

In places like Syria, Nepal, and the Philippines, traffickers exploit vulnerabilities caused by all sorts of disasters. “In conflict, the lack of rule of law creates a condition of impunity, where people are trafficked to finance the war, to provide sexual services, and to reinforce enslavement of ethnic minorities.”

Massive disasters create the perfect opportunity for traffickers to experiment with new ways of “exploiting vulnerable people.” Out of the estimated 800,000 people that are trafficked across borders each year, only 45,000 of them are identified. That means there are still hundreds of thousands of victims that need our help.

Ultimately, trafficking is an issue that needs emergency responses from the worldwide community. “The links between the vulnerability of mobile populations and exploitive practices which existed prior to a crisis need to be factored into a humanitarian response.” The key to this is raising awareness, and taking the initiative to combat human trafficking — not only in times of crisis — but everyday.

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Source: International Organization for Migration

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“Modern slavery” has become such a large industry, that it is now found almost everywhere. From getting our nails done to having a clean hotel room, forced labor is something many Americans fail to recognize. Victims who tell stories of working long hours with no pay help us realize how easy and common it is for people to be trafficked into the U.S.

“It’s astonishing, really, just how easy it is for unethical labor recruiters to prey on people, trick them into paying large sums of money to secure ‘good jobs in the United States’ where victims end up trafficked and trapped under debt bondage with no documents to establish identity or legal status, no English skills, and no easy means of escape.”

A lack of regulation on foreign labor recruitment is what prevents these cases from being stopped. Unfortunately, the Fraudulent Overseas Recruitment and Trafficking Elimination Act (FORTE), did not pass when introduced to Congress. “Such legislation would deter human trafficking, forced labor and exploitation in part by increasing transparency for overseas workers, providing them with accurate information about the job, visa, and other terms and conditions of work in the United States. It would also require registration of foreign labor recruitment agencies at the Department of Labor, and prohibit recruitment fees paid by workers.”

Assisting victims is another goal the United States should strive for. While there are some shelters and immediate services offered to victims, space is limited and long-term support is rare. Many victims never receive the help they need to get back on their feet, which leads to a life of poverty with a high chance of being trafficked again.

Although the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report ranks the U.S. as a Tier 1 nation, the country has to continually improve its efforts to combat human trafficking. As a country, we should encourage Congress to be more committed to ending forced labor, and pass laws that will prevent workers from being trafficked across our border.

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Source: CNN