Debt bondage, due to the imposition of recruitment fees and costs on foreign migrant workers, remains the most pervasive and entrenched form of forced labor in global supply chains today. Reimbursement is an important remedy but, on its own, it is not a solution to the underlying root causes of this ongoing labor abuse.
The U.S. prison system has been under increasing scrutiny in recent years for issues such as systematic racism, inhumane conditions, overcrowding, and sexual violence. While these issues are extremely pressing, another important issue, forced prison labor, is often overlooked. Therefore, as a labor rights organization, Verité determined that we could most effectively contribute to the critique of the U.S. prison system by lending an international human rights lens to the conversation on prison labor.
Working to End Forced Labor for Cotton Workers in Central Asia | New report on forced labor goods and Department of Defense (DOD) commissaries and exchanges | Commission sets out strategy to promote decent work worldwide | More than 2 billion workers make up the informal economy
The political and humanitarian crises in Ukraine are reshaping the landscape for supply chain accountability throughout the broader region. More than 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine into neighboring countries, according to the UN. Prior to the Ukraine crisis, the numbers of internally displaced people and refugees globally were already at record highs, with more than 26 million Syrians, Central Americans, Venezuelans, South Sudanese, Rohingya, and others living as refugees abroad, and more than 84 million people around the world forcibly displaced in the first half of 2021.
New Global Initiative to Empower Workers, Ensure Rights, Promote Democracy | World Migration Report 2022 | The Role Institutional Investors Can Play in the Fight Against Forced Labor and Modern Slavery | Small Children are Climbing 60-Foot Trees to Harvest Your Açaí | The Secretive Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe | The Supply Chain Crisis is a Labor Crisis