Iris Publishers_Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology (JTSFT)

Modern Slavery in Global Apparel Supply Chain: An Important Research Agenda

Introduction

More than 150 years have passed since President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 which declares that all person held as slaves “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”. When we thought that we have passed the age of salves and the slavery practices has extinct from our modern society, the unfortunate truth is slavery still exists in every corner of the world, yet invisible to most people. The slavery in modern world have a different face but it happens to people in every country, across races, at all ages [1]. The recent estimates show that there are 40.3 million slaves who are part of our modern society and alone G20 countries (a group of nations which account for 80 percent of world trade) are importing product worth of $354 billion which are at-risk of being produced by people experiencing slave like conditions [2]. This shows that the product made by the people who are treated like slaves are ended up in seemingly legitimate commercial channel. Means, most possibly slaves have built or cleaned many of the buildings where we live, they have produced some of the cloth we wear or the food we eat every day. The objectives of this article are to introduce readers with the idea of modern-day slavery, modern slavery practices in global apparel supply chain, highlights the limited research in this area, and why modern slavery is an important research agenda.

Modern Slavery

When one think of a modern slavery practices, most apparently the force labor comes to mind. Often people are taken to a state or in a workplace with a fair job commitment, but they are eventually pushed to work with no pay and often with inhuman and dangerous working conditions. People are forced to work under constant threat or coercion on manufacturing factories, on fishing boat, on construction, and in sex industry. And this prevails from the poor African countries to GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries and even in the modern Europe and America. While the private individuals and groups are often responsible for this forced work, many times even the state authorities are also involved.

As the practices of slavery has evolved with times, the terminology to define the modern slavery has also evolved. According to Walk Free Foundation, modern slavery is defined as a state of a person who is exploited but not able to refuse the situation because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, abuse of power. Modern slavery is also defined as the umbrella term to cover forced labor, human trafficking, debt bondages, forced marriage, and the sale and exploitation of children [2].

Estimations on Modern Slavery

According to Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates [2], there are 40.3 million people are in modern slavery among which 71% is female. 24.9 million people are involved in forced labor and 15.4 million people are involved in forced marriage of this total 40.3 million people. International Labor Organization (ILO) has also made the similar estimates in 2016 [3]. There were 5.4 victims of modern slavery for every thousand people in the world. There were 5.9 adult victims of modern slavery for every 1,000 adults and 4.4 child victims for every 1,000 children in the world.

The most alarming parts of the Global Slavery Index is how fluidly the product made by the slaves are merging into the legitimate commercial channel. There are almost $354 billion worth of product are imported by G20 countries which are at a risk of being produced by the slave working conditions. Top G20 countries contributing this import are: United States ($144b), Japan ($47b), Germany ($30b), United Kingdom ($18b), France ($16b), Canada ($15b). The top 5 products at risk of modern slavery (Figure 1) imported in G20 are electronics ($200.1 billion), garments ($127.7 billion), Fish ($12.9 billion), Cocoa ($3.6 billion), and sugar can ($2.1 billion).

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