According to the Global Slavery Index, a shocking 50 million people are currently living in modern day slavery worldwide, with 10 million of those being children. The reasons for this are numerous, with the Global Slavery Index citing complex conflicts, widespread environmental degradation and the economic and social impact of Covid 19 as just some contributing factors.
In this edition of The VICTVS Podcast, we discuss this complex and challenging issue with help from our expert guests Lucy Mann and Marija Jovanovic. As today is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, there’s no better time to discuss this topic and educate ourselves on what exactly modern day slavery is, how we can spot it and what should be done to prevent it.
We discuss the difficulty of defining modern slavery and the many subtle forms it can take, talking through real life incidents our guests have come across throughout their work. From here, we examine how to identify modern slavery as it happens, as well as what governments should be doing to prevent it. Finally, Marija outlines her research on the imprisonment of modern slavery survivors, highlighting how more survivors of modern slavery are in prison than traffickers.
In her work with the British charity Unseen, Lucy Mann helps businesses monitor for and prevent modern day slavery and worker exploitation. Unseen also runs the UK’s modern day slavery and exploitation helpline, where survivors can seek support and get advice.
Our second guest, Marija Jovanovic, is a lawyer and researcher at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. She is also a co-investigator at Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), producing research that aims to enhance people’s understanding of modern slavery and transform the effectiveness of law and policies designed to address it.
Should you or someone you know suspect they are experiencing modern day slavery, Unseen’s national helpline service is available here.
VICTVS Assured works to provide Ground Truth Reporting to clients around the world. We help our clients achieve ESG compliance, which includes spotting and stopping modern day slavery. Visit us here to find out more.
