Slaves of the 21st Century
By: Aravind Sanjeev
Tags: Slavery, Humanity, Technology, People, Corporate Culture

Slaves of the 21st Century

Medieval illustration of men harvesting wheat with reaping-hooks, on a calendar page for August. Queen Mary’s Psalter. Source: Wikimedia commons

This is an essay post partially based on my original post here.

Are you of the impression that slave labor is a thing of the past? Well, impress yourselves again. In fact, after researching this topic, I am forced to come to terms with myself. Everything from the shoes I wear to the device I write this piece might have blood on it. That also means you’re most probably not free of blood either. Slaves do sound like something from the past. And frankly, it is. We don’t have privately owned slaves like the times of racial prejudice. But we do have a modern adapted version of them. And it is facilitated mostly thanks to all the governments and corporations turning a blind eye for profit.

Although there are many forms of modern slavery, I intend to focus on forced labor as the main theme here. A 2012 report from the International Labor Organization estimated that at least 20.9 million people are victims of forced labor globally. That number increased to 25 million in their 2017 report. Please note that the figures are conservative due to the strict methodology used to define forced labor. In both the studies, women, and children account for the greater share of the total taking up from 55% to 70%.

Forced labor comes in multiple forms. Ones that come due to debt bondage dominates the private sector. We can see such forced labor even in the modern developed states. The other form of forced labor is the one directly facilitated by the state. This is very prominent in regions like Xinjiang in China where there are notorious detention camps known to detain minorities and submit them to forced labor.

The 2017 report estimates that in 2016 alone, an estimated 16 million people have been submitted to forced labor in the private economy. This comes in the form of debt bondage where the personal debt of the worker is used to exploit them. Women are widely more affected by this at 57.6% (9.2 million) compared to men at 42.4% (6.8 million). The same report estimates that at least 4.1 million people were submitted to state-imposed forced labor in 2016.

A classic example of forced labor using debt bondage is Malaysia’s electronic industry. It is an industry that is dependent on the cheap labor of foreign workers from other developing countries. In 2018, there are 2.2 million registered migrants in Malaysia. The undocumented amount is estimated between 2 million and 4 million migrants. Most of the workers originate from countries like Nepal, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Uneducated and low-skilled workers are recruited from these countries using local recruitment agencies. They are asked to pay up to 4,000 euros to get employed. Most of the time, these workers do not have the money or partially pays the amount. The agency themselves pays the rest, and you have to work until they are repaid.

Regardless of whether you paid the full amount, partially paid the amount, or didn’t pay at all, you’re forced to work in questionable conditions to earn back the amount you paid or to pay the debt you owe. Over 5000 companies from 40 countries take advantage of these migrant workers. That includes about 24 American electronic companies that have invested over 10 billion USD to receive benefits from this.

Debt bondage is very prevalent in most parts of the world. In the western world, although there might not be a deliberate attempt to indebt someone for work, personal debts including student debt are making many people work against their will. People tend to complain less about working conditions in favor of keeping the job and paying their debt. Arguably, this is forced labor and a modern form of slavery.

Now comes the state-induced forced labor. Multiple examples can be pointed across the globe but nothing excels what the Chinese state is doing with Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. The lack of transparency from the Chinese govt makes it even worse to get a sense of the atrocities. This study from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute sheds some light on the issue using credible means. They estimate at least 80,000 Uyghur were submitted to forced labor between 2017–19 and have identified 82 foreign and Chinese companies that directly or indirectly benefit from this. This includes Apple, Huawei, Samsung, Nike & other MNCs.

They took 3 separate case studies to back their claims. One, a factory in Qingdao that manufactures Nike sneakers. The factory has barbed wire enclosing, police guard box & watchtowers. Two, based on satellite evidence that graduating detainees from camps are sent to factories in Anhui province. The province hosts Haoyuanpeng Clothing Manufacturing Co. Ltd, whose factory is supplying for multinational sportswear brands like Adidas & Fila. Three, a factory of O-film, the company that manufactured selfie cameras for iPhones. Tim Cook himself was pictured in the Guangzhou factory. It is estimated that over 700 Uyghur workers were transferred to the province before Tim’s arrival.

What makes matters worse is not just the state-imposed forced labor but that most corporates don’t really care. KnowTheChain is a resource for companies and investors to address forced labor in global supply chains. Their benchmark indicates how much a company is willing to curb forced labor in their supply chains. On average, a company only scored 29 out of 100. The average score for worker’s voice is only 12 while every company scored 0 in its effort to make sure its supply chain workers were free to organize and collectively bargain for better working conditions.

The general public needs to rise to the occasion. Our convenience is important, so is the convenience of people that helps build ours. While you and I may be working in white-collar jobs in the better part of the world, there are people working in absolute inhumane conditions who are providing for us directly or indirectly. If you own an iPhone, you also owe to know about the suicides that are happening in iPhone manufacturing plants. Gaining a little bit of knowledge can make the world change for the better.