The famous adage of ‘knowledge is power’ is particularly relevant to the fight against modern slavery – and most crucially, to its effectiveness. Identifying the extent of modern slavery, the challenges in addressing it and its weaknesses is a yearly endeavor undertaken by consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft. Its recently published 2017 Modern Slavery Index has underlined two key issues: the positive correlation between migrant arrivals and higher modern slavery risks in Europe, and the persistent yet unaddressed consequences of unregulated outsourcing to the developing world.
With legislation criminalising modern slavery blossoming in the UK, France, and the Netherlands, Europe seemed poised to do well. But Europe fared worse than hoped, with nearly three quarters of EU countries witnessing a risk in modern slavery risks. Romania’s modern slavery situation is deemed as deteriorating more than in any country in the world, leading it to drop 56 places in the ranking to 66th highest risk. Italy was found to be the second worst-faring EU country, with modern slavery instances expected to rise in line with the steady drip of migrant sea arrivals. Turkey suffered the 2nd worst drop in the index owing to similar reasons, proving that modern slavery is not independent from contingent factors, and will not be solved unless the root causes are addressed.
The most disappointing results were those that were expected the least. Germany and the UK, countries often regarded as epitomising the rule of law, dropped from the ‘low risk’ to the ‘medium risk’ category, due to gaps in the former’s labour inspectorate, and increase of trafficking crimes in the latter’s territory. Such a negative development is particularly surprising in light of the UK’s recent Modern Slavery Act, which fuelled hopes for positive change.
But the report also revealed more of the same. It unsurprisingly confirmed fears that Asian manufacturing hubs, such as Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines remain in the ‘extreme’ or ‘high risk’ categories. India and Thailand, whose development and enforcement of anti-slavery and anti-trafficking laws has resulted in drastically improved rankings in the MSI, provide a glimmer of hope for the South East Asian region. However, this progress is unlikely to extend to the entirety of the region without international comprehensive legislation making modern slavery a crime both domestically and abroad.
A possible solution is for foreign jurisdictions to take the first steps in developing and honing modern slavery legislation. Effective cross border collaboration and intelligence sharing is also key to eradicating modern slavery worldwide.