We all have a role to play to end forced labour

It’s an uncomfortable fact that many of the products consumed in vast quantities by high-income countries – coffee, clothes, mobile phones, palm oil – are produced in low-income countries where forced labour is part of the supply chain.

Modern slavery is a significant global issue with more than 50 million people deprived of their freedom for someone else’s profit. It is estimated forced labour accounts for at least 27 million of these people.

A cocktail of COVID-19, climate change and escalating conflicts around the globe have created opportunities for the hidden crime of modern slavery to thrive.

A sweatshop worker room near polluted water in Bangladesh.

Australians are known for their love of coffee but how many of us make a point of educating ourselves about the provenance of our morning caffeine fix?

We love buying clothes – An Australia Institute report found that Australians are the biggest purchasers of new clothing in the world per capita – but how many of us are aware of the hidden human cost behind the low prices and abundance of stock on offer?

Forced labour can mean a nine-year-old working in a cobalt mine for less than $1 a day to supply materials for mobile phones. It can mean women toiling up to 14 hours a day in a workshop without ventilation to fill fast fashion orders.

The Walk Free Foundation, which aims to eradicate modern slavery and maintains a Global Slavery Index, calculates that G20 countries imported $US468 billion worth of goods at risk of modern slavery.

Efforts are being made to stamp out the forced labour which is being exploited by manufacturers. Earlier this year the European Parliament approved rules to ban products made with forced labour from the EU market.

The regulations mirrored a similar law enacted by the United States in 2021 banning the import of goods made by forced labour, driven by concerns about human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region.

The EU’s regulations mean that any suspected use of forced labour can be investigated and authorities have the power to demand goods be withdrawn from physical and online markets and confiscated at borders. There are also significant financial penalties for businesses found to be fostering practices which support forced labour.

The EU’s regulations also tightened up its reporting processes to identify supply chain vulnerabilities and created a facility to encourage whistleblowers.

Closer to home, Australia has also made moves to tackle the scourge of modern slavery.

We have criminalised all forms of modern slavery and have specifically tried to address the vulnerability of Pacific migrant workers in our region.

The federal Modern Slavery Act came into effect in 2019 and compels large businesses with a revenue of more than $100 million a year to release annual reports on their actions to address forced labour in their operations and supply chains.

But a review of the federal act last year found that the reporting-only approach had not always translated to accountability and made a series of recommendations to improve Australia’s response to modern slavery.

These recommendations include expanding the mandatory reporting requirements, lowering the reporting threshold to include companies with an annual revenue of $50 million or more and creating a national anti-discrimination commissioner.

These are all welcome measures but anti-slavery advocates believe the federal government should look to a similar import ban as the US and EU.

An import ban to Australia has merit. Global supply chains are complex and opaque and tackling modern slavery needs robust measures.

Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in our region, which has a high prevalence of countries where forced labour is rife.

The Sun-Herald believes we have a responsibility to ensure products being sold in Australia are not the result of forced labour and urges the government to take all steps possible to ensure this is the case.

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