These Facts about Modern Slavery will Blow your Mind

What is the current situation with modern slavery? How can we play our part to ensure we (and our organisations) do not unwittingly support it?

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Three years on from the advent of the Modern Slavery Act in Australia, many of us like to think that we won’t be one of those who get named and shamed. However, after the global pandemic in particular, that may no longer be true – not even close! Experts say that the pandemic has heralded a whole new era in modern slavery. Exploitation has risen as much as 42%.

42%! With statistics like that, it’s high time that every single one of us in procurement took stock of the current situation. We need to remind ourselves of our important role in ending this shocking global phenomenon and what exactly we can do. 

Here is the current situation with modern slavery, and how we can play our part to ensure we (and our organisations) do not unwittingly support it: 

Lockdowns have brought alarming rise in modern slavery 

A 2020 survey by charity group Unseen revealed a hugely disturbing statistic: exploitation has increased by up to 42% in the last year. Exploitation, according to the survey, is defined as “individuals being held hostage and forced into work they never agreed to.”

Much of the exploitation that has occurred during the pandemic has been of the sexual and criminal variety. Specifically, young girls were forced in prostitution; women, men and children were forced to shoplift, beg or transport drugs and weapons. 

Exploitation has increased by up to 42% in the last year.

Yet much of this exploitation, the survey notes, was also worker exploitation. People were smuggled from developing countries, such as Romania, and made to work at cleaning companies, nail salons, and car washes, among others. The pandemic made this type of exploitation less visible. Due to the mayhem of the pandemic, many organisations unknowingly signed up to use less-closely vetted suppliers without realising. 

To be clear, this means there could be a higher chance than ever before that modern slavery is operating within your supply chain. 

Slaves suffering in silence, harder to identify 

In the age of social media, the solution seems obvious: surely all a slave needs is to access to the internet to draw attention to their cause. But in 2021, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology, only one in five victims of modern slavery is ever identified,.

Beyond this, victims of modern slavery aren’t always archetypally women in third-world factories. 

Professor Burn from Australian anti-slavery organisation Walk Free says that modern slaves are a ‘real mix’ of people.

“We know from the cases that have been reported that there is no particular demographic or group that is more at risk than any other,” he emphasises.

Does this mean that people you interact with everyday could be slaves? It absolutely does, says Professor Burn: 

“Modern slavery even exists across citizenship. There are Australian citizens who are victims of it. Victims are often hidden in plain sight. It could be someone in a takeaway shop; it could be backpackers; it could be people in cafes or cleaners in people’s homes.” 

What procurement can do to help 

Fortunately, back in 2019 (which now seems like a lifetime ago … a whole pandemic lifetime!), Procurious identified six things that procurement professionals can do to help their organisations fight against modern slavery: 

• Create strong policy and process frameworks 
• Understand forced labour and monitor for slavery red flags in your data 
• Conduct on-site inspections 
• Develop a corrective action plan
• Engage suppliers to develop their own antislavery policies
• Build out supplier incentives against modern slavery.  

Of course, these recommendations were all made pre-pandemic. Since then, a lot has changed. For that reason, we recommend that you attend our Modern Slavery panel: Break the Chains on 6 May at 11am. You’ll learn more about the best post-pandemic anti-slavery measures available to us. 

This session is for The Faculty Roundtable members only. Not a member? For more information, please contact [email protected].