What is Modern Slavery?
“Situations of exploitation in which a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuse of power”
Modern slavery is the umbrella term for many different forms of exploitation, explored in detail below.
Navigation Panel
This section includes information on:
Forced Labour (and the different forms it takes)
Forced Marriage
Child Labour
Organ Trafficking
This section includes information on laws and regulations from:
Australia
European Union
United Kingdom
United States of America
This section includes information on questions you can ask to help work out if someone is in circumstances of exploitation.
These questions cover some of the red flags that you can look out for.
This section includes information on different products and services that have a high prevalence of modern slavery. This list is wide and varied and might include ones you don’t expect.
What forms does modern slavery take?
Keep scrolling to learn more, or click on the headings to go straight to a specific topic
Forced Labour, including:
Forced Marriage
Child Labour
Organ Trafficking
What is Forced Labour?
“All work or service that is extracted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily”
Forced labour can happen in a job or home setting and takes many different forms. It can be perpetrated by a state, organisation, group, family or individual.
Keep scrolling to learn more about the different forms it takes.
State-enforced Forced Labour
This type of forced labour is organised by the government of a country. It can be in a variety of industries from agriculture to mining to textiles and food production. State-enforced forced labour is often widespread and impacts the lives of a large proportion of the population. There are often few local resources to support someone is in these conditions.
Case Study: Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the CCP
Commonly known as the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, or Xinjiang, there are many groups that are persecuted by the state government and placed into forced labour. This includes the Uyghur, Turkic, Uzbek, Kazakh and Tatar people.
These groups have lived in what is now known as China for many thousands of years. They have their own practices and religious beliefs. This is different to the Han people, the largest ethnicity by population in China. In an effort to assimilate the other ethnic groups, the CCP has introduced various programmes and policies that amount to forced labour.
Forced labour of these groups has been found in at least 26 industries, and evidence is so strong that many countries are banning the importation of products made in East Turkistan or have processes taking place there. This includes bricks, aluminium, Christmas decorations, cotton, coal, lithium-ion batteries and many more.
Case Study: Eritrea
Eritrea is a small country in East Africa. The government requires citizens to undertake mandatory military service, often indefinitely. The treatment of people working under this regime, both men and women, have led to Eritreans fleeing their country.
In this case, the state is not persecuting the group for religious or cultural reasons, rather simply to take advantage of the labour that they can provide to the state.
Domestic Servitude
Domestic servitude is understood to be occurring when people are forced to work unusual or excessive hours in a home setting. It is a form of forced labour that happens behind closed doors in someone’s home. It can be perpetrated by family members or employers looking for help around their house.
This form of forced labour is difficult to monitor, as people in these circumstances are often not allowed to leave the house. Sometimes, they might not even know that they are living in conditions of modern slavery.
Case study: Sri Lankan Diplomat in Canberra
Recently, a Sri Lankan diplomat living in Canberra was found to exploit a woman who was employed from Sri Lanka to work in the diplomat’s home. The diplomat took the woman’s passport and made her work excessive hours, paying her a mere 65 cents an hour. The employee was only allowed to leave the house under strict circumstances and was not allowed to develop a social circle outside of the house. She was not paid for her overtime hours, nor given any sick leave or payslips.
Read the full story here
Case study: Melbourne couple kept Grandmother as slave
This case is another example of domestic servitude, where a grandmother was employed and bought to Australia from India to work for a family. She was so badly treated that she ended up malnourished in a hospital before her living conditions were revealed. She was paid a few dollars a day and was subject to beatings by her employees for eight years.
See the full story here
Visa Exploitation
Visa exploitation occurs when someone moves to a country and the visa conditions and basic working conditions are not met. This may amount to human trafficking if they are coerced into working in exploitative conditions and/or their identity papers are withheld or freedom restricted.
Case study: PALM visa
The PALM visa (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) is a visa that allows people from the Pacific Islands to work in Australia for up to four years, often on farms, in abattoirs or rural areas more broadly. The key issue with this visa revolves around a stipulation that ties an employee to their employer. This means that employees in circumstances of exploitation feel that they cannot leave their role or speak out to their employer, given that loss of a job results in the cancellation of their visa.
This visa stipulation has seen many people in forced labour, such as Ezekiel from Papua New Guinea. Working through a recruitment company that is now in liquidation and under investigation from the Fair Work Ombudsman, he often worked seven days a week and was paid very little for it. After being forced to leave the exploitative role, he lost his visa and had to sleep on the streets. He did not have access to state resources after losing his visa, meaning he was alone and did not have enough funds to get back home.
His future is still uncertain.
See his story here
Debt Bondage
Debt bondage is when informal loans are taken out with ambiguous terms. In other instances, they are fees that are to be paid back to an employer, such as flights or visa costs. They are often extortionately expensive and have high interest rates. People in debt bondage are often forced to work indefinitely to pay off these debts.
Case Study: Brick makers in Pakistan
A family of brick makers in Pakistan were working for a low wage for their employer. When one of the family members became ill and needed hospital treatment, they were forced to take out a loan from their employer to pay for it. After 23 years and half of their wages being kept by the employer to pay back the loan, they continue working to pay it off. The family signed a contract that they do not have access to, and they don’t know how much is left to pay off. They do not have enough income to support them over a job change and are stuck working in the brick factory.
See their story here
Human Trafficking into Forced Labour
What is Human Trafficking?
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime describes human trafficking as:
“Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world. The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims”
People who experience human trafficking are forced to work in circumstances of forced labour or sexual exploitation.
In the case of human trafficking for forced labour, people are deceived into taking job roles overseas that they do not know are fraudulent. They are then forced into working in these exploitative roles to repay a debt - often a recruitment debt - in cruel conditions.
Case Study: Miriam’s Story
Miriam was a highly educated Moroccan woman living in Turkey, who made friends with a fellow Moroccan who was her neighbour. After developing their friendship, her new friend offered her a job in Thailand with great career prospects. After being interviewed, she ended up accepting the job. Her friend accompanied her on the flight to Thailand, where the first red flag was a uniformed officer escorting her out of the airport without passing customs. Her friend took her phone, and she was taken across the border into Burma. There, she was forced to work in a scam farm and subject to torture for ‘mistakes’ in her job. She was at last able to contact her parents and was able to escape with the help of a Thai-based NGO
Sexual Exploitation
Sexual exploitation is when someone is forced or tricked into providing services of a sexual nature.
Case study: Ji-Min
Ji-min was lured from Korea to Australia by a ‘recruiter’, who promised her a secure and well-paid job as a karaoke singer and dancer. Ji-min’s sponsors paid for her flight and for her apartment, which Ji-min shared with five other women. On her first day of work, Ji-min found herself in a brothel. Her recruiters told her that she owed more than $8,000 in travel and accommodation costs and that she was required to provide sexual services in order to pay the debt.
Case Study: Two Sisters in NSW
Two sisters moved with their father to NSW from overseas. At ages 15 and 17, the father tried to arrange their marriages without their consent. They did not know what date marriages would be, and they did not know to whom he was planning them to marry.
They managed to escape their home and contact NSW Police, who were able to investigate. Their father has now been charged for attempting to orchestrate a forced marriage has been imprisoned
Forced Marriage
Forced marriage is when a marriage occurs without free and full consent from one or both parties due to force, threats, or deception. This can be perpetrated by their own family and is often for religious or cultural reasons.
Forced marriage can happen to any person of any gender or sexuality. There are many instances of forced marriages being arranged for LGBTQ+ people, to avoid ‘bringing shame’ to the family. My Blue Sky can help all people in forced marriage.
If you think that someone you know is in a forced marriage - reach out to My Blue Sky.
Some signs include:
Sudden wedding announcements
Feeling pressured to get married
Being afraid that something bad will happen if they don’t marry
Sudden withdrawal from socialising
Appearing anxious, stressed, depressed
Suddenly missing work, university or school
Case Study: Sam (taken from the My Blue Sky Website)
Sam is gay. When he was 20, his parents found out that he was dating another man. His parents are very traditional and believe it is wrong that he is dating a man, fearing shame on the family if other people find out.
They try to arrange a marriage for Sam to a willing woman in the community and threaten to disown him if he does not go through with it, though Sam refuses.
Sam got help through the wellness team at the university he was attending, who put him in touch with My Blue Sky. He was then able to find accomodation and move away from his family.
Child Labour is work that is undertaken by children, where it is hazardous or harmful to their development.
Child labour is categorised under three key tiers.
Light work that does not interfere with schooling
Work that interferes with schooling
Hazardous work that interferes with schooling
The worst form of child labour is that which is hazardous and interferes with a child’s schooling. This is classed as a form of modern slavery. Child labour often occurs when their parents are not paid enough for their work, and the children are relied upon to help support the family.
Child Labour
Example: The Cocoa Industry
The farmgate price (the price that is paid to farmers) for cocoa is very low. It doesn’t accurately reflect the cost of growing the cocoa and the resources needed to do that, like fertilisers and labour. This means that a cocoa-growing family cannot hire employees to help grow cocoa on the farm. By consequence, they rely on the help of their children to help do all the jobs on the farm to ensure the cocoa grows. The growing, harvesting and drying of the cocoa is time intensive and means that children sometimes miss school to help out their family. Furthermore, they might need to help apply pesticides to the plants, which contain chemicals that are hazardous to their development.
Child labour can be found in many industries and is caused by a variety of systemic issues, however a low parental income is common among cases. By improving the living wage of their working parents, it helps to decrease reliance on children to help make ends meet.
Organ Trafficking
Organ harvesting occurs when a person's organs are removed without their consent or knowledge. Their organs are then trafficked to recipients, who often pay high prices for them on the illegal ‘red’ market. It is estimated that around 10% of organ transplants* use trafficked organs.
Cheng Pei Ming underwent state-sanctioned surgery where portions of his liver and left lung were removed without his knowledge.
He was originally detained for practicing Falun Gong, a Buddhist spiritual practice. He was repeatedly subject to torture, and ended up swallowing a blunt blade and nail that he found, which resulted in no visible impact on him.
He was taken to hospital, where doctors advised that he required a surgery with an 80% mortality rate.
He did not consent to the surgery.
He was forcibly injected with an anaesthetic drug, and woke up to a 35cm incision on his side. The surgery to remove the blade and nail would normally be conducted orally and require no incisions. Later tests found portions of his lung and kidneys had been removed.
Later, he was scheduled for another surgery while he was perfectly healthy. He managed to escape the hospital before it took place, fleeing China and becoming an advocate against forced organ harvesting.
Laws and Regulations Against Modern Slavery Worldwide
Australia
Modern Slavery Act 2018
This act is described as:
“An Act to require some entities to report on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains and actions to address those risks, and for related purposes”
Companies required to create these reports must reach the threshold revenue of $100 million AUD per year.
European Union
Forced Labour Regulation
The FLR is a regulation that passed in 2024, to be put into force in 2027. It bans goods produced with child or forced labour from being put on the EU market. This includes:
Goods imported from other countries
Goods produced within the EU
Goods exported from the EU
Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
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United Kingdom
Modern Slavery Act 2015
The UK’s modern slavery act is deisgned to:
“give law enforcement the tools to fight modern slavery, ensure perpetrators can receive suitably severe punishments for these appalling crimes and enhance support and protection for victims”
It also requires businesses to disclose their risks and actions around modern slavery mitigation.
United States of America
Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act
The UFLPA bans products produced in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region from entering the US border. It assumes that products from this region are produced with forced labour until proved otherwise.
What are the Signs?
The signs of modern slavery differ depending on the circumstances. Below, we provide some questions that can help you to identify potential red flags.
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Can they leave?
Is the person being forced to work?
Does the person have a large debt or bond?
Is the person a child, or performing work against the law?
Is the person unsure of their employment and working conditions?
Is the person made to work unusual and/or excessive hours?
Is the person subject to dangerous working conditions, such as unsafe work practices, or an unreasonably unhygienic work environment?
Is the person living at the workplace or at a place controlled by the employers?
Is the employer unable to provide records of wages paid to the person?
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Has the person been given false information about their migration to Australia?
Has the person asked for, received, offered or provided a benefit in return for visa sponsorship?
Are the person’s visa conditions not being met?
Will the person be punished if they leave or stop work?
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Has the person been forced into providing services of a sexual nature?
Has the person been moved from another country or state to provide sexual services?
Is the person under the age of 18?
Has the person experienced abuse such as abduction, assault or rape?
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Is the person who is married or about to be married under the age of 18?
Have other members of the person’s family been married under the age of 18?
Has there been a sudden announcement that the person is engaged?
Has the person said that they don’t want to get married, but are being made to by their family?
Has the person been spending a lot of time away from school, university or work?
Does the person seem nervous or scared about an upcoming overseas family holiday?
Does the person have an intellectual disability that may prevent them from being able to agree or not agree to the marriage?
