Modern Slavery’s Threat to the Economy, Society and More
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You have probably heard the term “human trafficking”, but you may not have thought it had a connection to business, finance or fraud. According to Matt Friedman, it does. Friedman, who has had a 30-plus year career in countertrafficking, shared his insights and experience at the 2023 ACFE Fraud Conference Asia-Pacific.
He presented a scenario that he said plays out too often in Asia: A young man approaches a family in a village, flashes around money and tells the family that he wants a wife. The young man marries the family’s teenage daughter and pays the girl’s family. It sounds like a textbook arranged marriage, but then the young man takes the girl out of the country, sells her to a brothel and returns to Nepal to repeat this scam. The girl tries to get out of this situation, but she stays due to threats made to her and her family.
Friedman said human trafficking is not just sex trafficking. It does, in fact, include forced prostitution and can also include forced labor, which is sometimes found in fishing industries and sweat shops in Asia. Friedman said we should think of human trafficking instead as “modern slavery,” of which there are six markers:
Withholding wages.
Debt and other forms of bondage.
Retention of identity documents.
Restricted movement.
Physical and sexual violence.
Threats to self or family.
Modern slavery is taking shape to create a widespread problem most are very familiar with: scam rings, potentially leading to the spam call most have received on their phones.
“Human traffickers are now trafficking young, educated Asian people from different countries with the expectation that they will get into a good job paying a lot of money, only to be picked up at the airport and taken to a scam center,” said Friedman. “They are then forced to scam from six in the morning to 11 o’clock. If they don’t meet a target they get beaten, tasered.”
According to a report from the United Nations (U.N.) Friedman noted, about 120,000 people from around the world are in Cambodia scam centers and Telegram is being used to buy and sell these people. Friedman said Asia leads the world when it comes to prevalence of human trafficking, and he believes this is due to the large populations in the region and because “Futile systems in this part of the world have never been completely dismantled.”
Solving the Problem
Unfortunately, Friedman said enough is not being done to end human trafficking, even though local governments, the U.N and non-government organizations are doing some work. He said he wishes the private sector, like various businesses and retailers, would join the fight more. Having supply chains tied to human trafficking is a reputational risk, and with the ESG-minded society we live in now, these connections could be detrimental to businesses.
Still, out of the estimated 50 million human trafficking victims, only about 108,000 were identified last year. Meanwhile, only 0.8 percent of criminals were convicted for the crime.
Friedman made a point that the problem with fighting human trafficking is not due to lack of concern. For one, it is due to lack of funding to combat the excessive profits being brought in by slavery. Friedman said the scale of the problem is also an issue: 500,000 million criminals said to be involved in human trafficking versus the 25,000-30,000 people working to rectify the problem. He also pointed out that there is an issue with awareness of the problem, but he said presentations, like the one he was giving, are helping to bring awareness and understanding of the problem.
Friedman shared a list of relevant questions companies should consider when doing business:
Due diligence: Does your company assess potential suppliers for modern slavery risk before entering any contracts?
Contracting: Does your company request its suppliers to sign contracts/sub-contracts that include anti-slavery clauses?
Auditing: Does your company audit or do due diligence in your supply chain?
Remediation: If a potential modern slavery vulnerability arises, does your company have a policy to address this?
What You Can Do
Friedman ended his session by sharing what he thinks the average citizen can do to combat human trafficking. He presented a scenario, saying 100 or so people were in the room he was speaking in.
“If I could get each of you to do one thing a year related to this topic, that’s one times 100,” said Friedman. “If there are a thousand people, it would be one times a thousand. If it was a million, one times a million. So, what can you do? You can learn about the topic. That’s right – you did your one thing. How easy was that? But if you tell another person, then another thing.”
“Awareness raising is important,” said Friedman. “If you see an article, post it on LinkedIn. Share information and so forth. All of that adds up. Another thing you can do is be a responsible consumer. Before you buy something from a brand or organization, go online to see if they have an [anti-slavery] policy. If they do, congratulate them. If they don’t, say ‘Listen, I like your products. I’ll feel better if you have [an anti-slavery policy].’”
“You can volunteer,” said Friedman. “We all have God-given gifts…If we apply what that is to volunteerism, it really makes a difference.”
