MODERN SLAVERY MAY BE CLOSE TO HOME

When we think of slavery, the days of ancient Rome or Greece may spring to mind, or more recently, the horrific treatment of Africans on plantations in America’s south. 

It can be comforting to think that this stain on human history is a relic of the past, a regrettable memory of less enlightened times when life and freedom meant less than they do today. But what if slavery not only continues to exist but that many of us might be unwittingly help it to thrive? 

Sadly, the hard truth is that an estimated 50 million people around the world are trapped in modern slavery, some may even be in our very own neighbourhoods, and any of us might be unknowingly helping to keep slaves bound to their masters. 

It is a global problem, often hidden in the darkest recesses of human activity, but something is being done to combat it. 

As chair of State Parliament’s Modern Slavery Committee, I was privileged last month to attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s modern slavery conference in Nairobi, where MPs from across the commonwealth heard from experts, advocates, and those with lived experience. 

One of the most powerful ways of tackling this problem is to hear the expertise of people with lived experiences of modern slavery because by learning from them, we can begin to find solutions. 

A confronting example was presented to the conference by an African woman who was lured into domestic servitude in the Middle East, only to learn that once there, she could not escape. Paid a pittance for her work, she was financially bound to her workplace with no way to leave. Dreaming of a decent job and a better life in a foreign land, she had become a slave. 

She sought consular assistance and received official advice that her “best” course of action was to make money by working in prostitution – a dreadful situation that illustrates the stark choices that the vulnerable can face. 

Thankfully, she did manage to escape to tell her story, but she was just one of 50 million modern slaves, many of whom are without the same hope of freedom.  

Those millions are being exploited in supply chains around the world, through the trafficking of women and children for the commercial sex trade, or in countless forced marriages where an unwilling spouse becomes a slave. 

Agriculture is one industry where the unscrupulous exploit the vulnerable. 

Even in Australia, where there are an estimated 40,000 people in modern slavery, overseas labour contractors may have recruited workers into the agriculture sector, only to starve them of wages and intimidate them with threats to their visas to stop them from leaving. 

In these cases, modern slavery could be taking place on Australian farms without the knowledge or consent of landholders who mistakenly believe they are simply hiring foreign workers to perform crucial tasks for a fair wage. 

Slavery in global supply chains is rampant, and any of us could be unknowingly helping to make it happen. We often like to purchase cheap overseas-made goods but too often, the workers producing these goods are effectively enslaved, paid little or nothing, and by purchasing the results of their labours we might be paying their slave masters without knowing it. 

But how can we know that is happening when the products we buy are made far away and often in multiple countries? 

Fortunately, there are ways to check. The first step is to begin a learning journey at the Federal Government's Modern Slavery Register. From there, global change can begin to happen.  

However, it is a massive task that will an international effort. As part of that, the conference in Kenya passed an important resolution to harness the powers of the Commonwealth countries to tackle slavery. Thankfully, NSW is leading the way, with the appointment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner and the creation of the Modern Slavery Parliamentary Committee. 

Together, by making the right choices about the goods and services we choose to purchase, we can start to deliver basic human rights to people suffering in awful conditions and in doing so, we will create a fairer, safer, and happier world.     

If this story has affected you and you need help, or to report modern slavery, contact the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner at antislavery@dcj.nsw.gov.au.