Verite’s analysis of thousands of recent recruitment transactions between employers and labor recruiters in high-risk labor migration corridors into the Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Gulf Cooperation Council regions finds that fewer than 10% of employers are recruiting workers ethically by paying the full cost of recruitment and preventing workers from being charged for their job1.
On July 19, Verité and the International Cocoa Initiative kicked off a forced labor indicators training for human rights advisors of the National Council of Human Rights (Conseil Nacional des Droits de l’Homme— CNDH), an independent body that is tasked with ensuring the Côte d’Ivoire government’s adherence to all international treaties and cooperation agreements that the government has signed.
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