JOHANNESBURG - Awah Francisca Mbuli is the Founder of Survivors' Network SN Cameroon.
She gave the keynote address at the W20 event held recently in Sandton, South Africa.
Modern slavery is often described as a hidden crime, but it lives with us, in our families, churches, economies and communities.
Each day, people are tricked or forced into situations of exploitation that they cannot refuse or leave. And each day, we buy their products or use their services without realising the human cost.
Modern slavery has deep roots in our global systems and it demands urgent, coordinated action to remove it.
G20 countries are in a powerful position to lead this call for change. Not only do G20 countries have the economic strength to change markets and business practices, but they have the political influence to make real structural change possible.
Yet, G20 countries continue to import billions of dollars worth of products made with forced labour still today.
Even I did not believe that wealthy countries could be impacted by modern slavery. When I started my journey 10 years ago in this fight, I was in denial that human trafficking exists in places like the United States, until I met and listened to survivors from the country.
As time went on, and I met more survivors and learned more about their experiences, I understood the sad reality is that modern slavery exists everywhere.
It is the hidden system that provides many goods we need and consume every day, from food, to our electronics and cars, and even our clothes.
Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to modern slavery, all over the world and including G20 nations.
They are over three times more likely to be in forced labour than local workers. This is an urgent issue, considering there are millions of migrant workers in the world.
The promise of decent work is the draw that pushes these men and women to leave their homes to provide for their families.
This motivation can be taken advantage of by traffickers and recruiters who lie, abuse, and coerce migrants into exploitative working conditions in many sectors, like manufacturing, construction, hospitality, and domestic work to name a few.
Discriminatory systems heighten this vulnerability by treating migrant workers as lesser, such as laws that exclude migrant workers from labour protections, collective bargaining, or which limit the freedom of a migrant worker to change jobs without their employer’s approval.
It can be even harder for migrant women who work in the domestic work sector, as their work is often not considered “real” labour, an experience many women have had in the care economy.
To name a few examples: Australia and the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Acts; the Republic of Korea’s recently proposed human rights due diligence bill; the European Union’s Corporate Social Due Diligence Directive; Japan’s guidelines for responsible supply chains; Saudi Arabia’s National Policy to Eliminate Forced Labour; France’s Duty of Vigilance law; China’s public list of non-compliant employers with the labour regulation; and the United States’ Tariff Act import ban.
What this list shows is that there are many different approaches taken by G20 nations to combat forced labour within their sphere of economic influence.
However, what lacks is coordination.
Given how closely tied the global economy is, and how deeply connected modern slavery is to other social issues, patchwork efforts cannot eradicate forced labour by themselves.
We need a concerted push as a collective to boost the impact of laws and policies that aim to eradicate forced labour.
This is true for survivors in particular.
Survivors need economic empowerment in various forms – from job placement programs, to diverse vocational training skills, psychosocial support services, emergency safe housing, long term residence during healing, and formal and advocacy education opportunities.
We need investment in our rejuvenation, in our sustainability, and our resilience. Economic empowerment is key to this.
Growing up with my siblings in one of the hardened ghettos of an English-speaking region in Cameroon, my mother hustled hard in her small trading business to make sure we had food on our table and a good education.
This is how I understood the vital importance of empowering a woman right from my childhood.
At my organisation, Survivor’s Network Cameroon, 80% of our activities are focussed on economically empowering women, as we know how well it works as prevention. Poverty is what we must tackle to reduce modern slavery.
In over 10 years of my organisation working, we have eradicated poverty in innovative ways: in livelihood support, cash donations, providing emergency shelter, life skills training including on how to save money, business and cooking training, vocational training, in-kind contributions for startups, agriculture and food transformation.
We have done all these things and more to meet the needs of survivors in our community.
Our goal is to ensure each woman has a way to sustain herself and those depending on her for survival.
We have recorded over 10,000 women and girls as direct benefactors of our various economic empowerment programmes and look forward to attaining 100,000 by 2035!
This is the power that local organisations can have within their communities, even in the current turbulent times of uncertain funding and even more concerning political instability.
This is why good solutions need survivors to develop them. What’s more, survivor-led solutions should be embedded into policies related to decent work, gender equality, sustainable development, and peacebuilding.
We have touched upon some of the solutions that the G20 is uniquely placed to undertake.
They can support survivor-led advocacy. Enact legal obligations on businesses to keep supply chains free of modern slavery. Economically empower women and girls. Improve the rights of migrant workers. Coordinate with each other to ensure that no country is a safe haven for modern slavery. These are all vitally important for each country.
What’s more, the G20 can change working conditions all over the world through their powerful influence.
The very trade that connects G20 countries and is the reason for the wealth and power of this group, is powered by the exploitation of people in global supply chains who work under deplorable conditions.
It is time for G20 countries to properly reckon with the hidden coerced labour that has provided them with the economic fruits they have enjoyed.
The remedy of this is real action to prevent further exploitation.