The new EU Commission must lead the fight against modern slavery

18 October marks the annual EU Anti-Trafficking Day. Since 2007, it has confronted us with an ever-increasing number of workers in forced labour situations, often as a result of trafficking.

Today in Europe, there are more workers are in modern slavery than ever before.

The ILO estimates that 880,000 workers are victims of forced labour, including forced sexual exploitation.

That is one in every 500 EU citizens.

The annual profits made on the backs of 1.5 million forced labourers in the EU and other developed economies are estimated at US$46.9 billion.

If there is one truly global issue that requires urgent action, it’s this one.

In June this year, the world welcomed new global rules on forced labour and trafficking, aiming to improve prevention, protection and access to remedy for trafficking victims.

The new treaty acknowledged some of the regional obligations of EU and Council of Europe’ member states to combat trafficking as a global standard to address contemporary forced labour.

The harmonisation of the international regulatory framework should facilitate international cooperation in combating what is increasingly transnationally organised crime.

But this global recognition and new political momentum should not lead the EU to rest on its laurels.

On the contrary, the EU should now reflect upon and improve the substance of its internal anti-trafficking and anti-forced labour framework, including the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive.

This is especially relevant to the current process of monitoring progress on the transposition into national laws of the Directive, due by 2015.

Among other issues, the EU Commission should pay specific attention to assessing the extent to which the member states have taken the necessary measures to establish liability of legal persons for human trafficking (Article 5 of the Anti-Trafficking Directive) and to criminalise the use of services of trafficked victims (Article 18/4).

 

External action

The new ILO instruments are an open invitation for the EU to take the lead in combating forced labour and human trafficking globally.

The promotion of human rights at an international level is one of the main objectives of the EU’s foreign policy.

Since the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU is obliged to promote respect for human rights in all areas of its external action and to develop common policies and actions to consolidate and support democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the principles of international law in all fields of its international relations.

However, despite a number of EU Parliament resolutions, the EU has not consistently acted upon relevant findings of UN human rights monitoring mechanisms.

Since the EU withdrew Burma’s entitlement to the generalised system of trade preferences due to forced labour in the late 1990’s, it has never done so again – even in the face of clear evidence of sometimes even state organised forced labour.

Despite international condemnation of forced labour in countries such as North Korea, Qatarand Uzbekistan, the EU still allows investments and imports from these countries.

External action in an EU context also includes the control of conduct of the EU-based multinational corporations and their duty to identify and mitigate the risks of forced labour and trafficking in their supply chains.

In October 2013, the EU Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Commission to proceed with a traceability mechanism that would enable the tracking goods produced with forced labour and banning import in the EU.

Unfortunately, so far the European Commission has not responded to the call. The new ILO Protocol on forced labour confirms the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights outlining the responsibility of the private sector. Accordingly,
governments should now encourage businesses to undertake human rights due diligence.

Encouragingly, the previous EU Commissioners on Employment and Home Affairs welcomed the new ILO Protocol and Recommendation.

“With these new instruments, we will be better equipped to combat today’s forms of forced labour,” said László Andor, the then Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

The outgoing Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said: “Now we must ensure that these standards are applied globally”.

It is up to their successors, Marianne Thyssen and Dimitris Avramopoulos, to champion this commitment in deed – not only in words. Urging member states to ratify the new ILO treaty would be a step in the right direction.

For the number of victims of forced labour and human trafficking keeps going up – we cannot allow this to continue for another year.