UNB, Dhaka :
International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General William Lacy Swing has called upon all for redoubling efforts to ensure that support for victims of trafficking becomes a key pillar in their work.
“We must redouble our efforts to ensure that support for victims of trafficking becomes a key pillar in our work,” he said in an op-ed marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons that falls on Monday (July 30). Swing said businesses should also ensure they have established feedback loops so that they can continually improve reporting mechanisms, protection for whistle-blowers, and prevention of further harm.
“More and more companies are coming together to address the risks they face in supply chains, but remediation for victims of trafficking remains a new area of work for the private sector,” he wrote in the article titled “With Public and Private Sectors at Odds.
Traffickers Win. Let’s work together to protect its victims.” Terming positive trends encouraging, he said much more needs to be done. “Today, I will focus on a key challenge, which I see as the next frontier in supply chain engagement: mobilizing the private sector to ensure that migrants who have been wronged receive the remedy and justice they deserve.” Beyond strengthening their due diligence, he said, companies can and must take responsibility for harm perpetrated against their workers and ensure that all possible steps are taken to assist victims of trafficking in their recovery – which they can do by working closely with governments, civil society organizations, international organizations, and the victims themselves.
Swing said, States bear the primary responsibility to address human trafficking and protect trafficked victims. “By establishing stronger connections between private sector and public efforts to help victims of trafficking, together we can do the work of rebuilding broken lives.” Earlier this year IOM, the UN Migration Agency, launched a set of practical
guidelines for companies to address this challenge. In line with the United Nations’ “Protect, Respect, and Remedy” Framework, IOM’s Remediation Guidelines describe the many avenues that businesses can take to offer remediation to victims of exploitation, in partnership with local State and non-State actors.
These routes include facilitating access to victim services and support systems such as medical or psychosocial care; relocating victims to new job environments; offering voluntary return to countries of origin; support for recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration where possible, said the IOM chief.
“But as we mark the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, we also are reminded, sadly, that migrants are too often exposed to disproportionate risks of exploitation and abuse when looking for better employment opportunities away from home,” Swing said.
Every year, millions of migrants are trafficked within and across borders and find themselves trapped in forced labour. In some cases, men and women are coerced by force into work, enduring violence, threats or psychological manipulation. Often they find themselves indebted via unfair recruitment processes or employment conditions, all the while facing enormous pressures from their families and communities who may have gone into debt themselves, just to start their job search. Other forms of exploitation only slightly more benign;-having to toil under dangerous conditions, settling for menial wages, facing hidden deductions and unreasonable restrictions during both work and non-work hours.
“These abuses, too, harm migrants and violate their rights,” Swing said adding that these types of abuse can occur all along an industry’s supply chain and can be easily concealed among layers of sub-contractors. He said trafficking in persons exists today in every country and every economic sector. “Whether the business is coffee, clothing or construction, this much is clear: no workplace or community is immune to human trafficking.” “We must all insist that supply chains are free from human trafficking and other forms of exploitation,” Swing said.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General William Lacy Swing has called upon all for redoubling efforts to ensure that support for victims of trafficking becomes a key pillar in their work.
“We must redouble our efforts to ensure that support for victims of trafficking becomes a key pillar in our work,” he said in an op-ed marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons that falls on Monday (July 30). Swing said businesses should also ensure they have established feedback loops so that they can continually improve reporting mechanisms, protection for whistle-blowers, and prevention of further harm.
“More and more companies are coming together to address the risks they face in supply chains, but remediation for victims of trafficking remains a new area of work for the private sector,” he wrote in the article titled “With Public and Private Sectors at Odds.
Traffickers Win. Let’s work together to protect its victims.” Terming positive trends encouraging, he said much more needs to be done. “Today, I will focus on a key challenge, which I see as the next frontier in supply chain engagement: mobilizing the private sector to ensure that migrants who have been wronged receive the remedy and justice they deserve.” Beyond strengthening their due diligence, he said, companies can and must take responsibility for harm perpetrated against their workers and ensure that all possible steps are taken to assist victims of trafficking in their recovery – which they can do by working closely with governments, civil society organizations, international organizations, and the victims themselves.
Swing said, States bear the primary responsibility to address human trafficking and protect trafficked victims. “By establishing stronger connections between private sector and public efforts to help victims of trafficking, together we can do the work of rebuilding broken lives.” Earlier this year IOM, the UN Migration Agency, launched a set of practical
guidelines for companies to address this challenge. In line with the United Nations’ “Protect, Respect, and Remedy” Framework, IOM’s Remediation Guidelines describe the many avenues that businesses can take to offer remediation to victims of exploitation, in partnership with local State and non-State actors.
These routes include facilitating access to victim services and support systems such as medical or psychosocial care; relocating victims to new job environments; offering voluntary return to countries of origin; support for recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration where possible, said the IOM chief.
“But as we mark the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, we also are reminded, sadly, that migrants are too often exposed to disproportionate risks of exploitation and abuse when looking for better employment opportunities away from home,” Swing said.
Every year, millions of migrants are trafficked within and across borders and find themselves trapped in forced labour. In some cases, men and women are coerced by force into work, enduring violence, threats or psychological manipulation. Often they find themselves indebted via unfair recruitment processes or employment conditions, all the while facing enormous pressures from their families and communities who may have gone into debt themselves, just to start their job search. Other forms of exploitation only slightly more benign;-having to toil under dangerous conditions, settling for menial wages, facing hidden deductions and unreasonable restrictions during both work and non-work hours.
“These abuses, too, harm migrants and violate their rights,” Swing said adding that these types of abuse can occur all along an industry’s supply chain and can be easily concealed among layers of sub-contractors. He said trafficking in persons exists today in every country and every economic sector. “Whether the business is coffee, clothing or construction, this much is clear: no workplace or community is immune to human trafficking.” “We must all insist that supply chains are free from human trafficking and other forms of exploitation,” Swing said.
