In Haiti, parents send their children to live with and work for an outside family who agrees to provide food, clothing, and shelter. Many families, however, exploit these children and subject them to domestic  servitude
and physical, sexual, and other types  of abuse.

PREVENTING DOMESTIC SERVITUDE IN DIPLOMATIC HOUSEHOLDS

“[D]omestic servitude has been detected in many OSCE countries, and it is important that we continue to work with the diplomatic community to prevent it.”

            –Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings

Involuntary servitude of domestic workers in diplomatic households has been detected in the United States and in many other countries around the world. In 2014,  OSCE released a handbook on preventing this form of human trafficking.    The handbook is a useful reference tool designed for foreign ministry protocol departments and other relevant  authorities and international partners to help regulate and oversee the employment of private domestic workers hired     by diplomatic personnel. It informs officials about how to detect and respond to human trafficking, and protect the rights  of domestic workers. The handbook highlights various preventive measures related to domestic servitude in the context  of diplomatic immunity and presents several approaches to resolving disputes. It also provides examples of promising practices in addressing allegations of abuse that governments have adopted and put into practice. The handbook How  to prevent human trafficking for domestic servitude in diplomatic households and protect private domestic workers is available on the OSCE website at www.osce.org/handbook/domesticservitude. The 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, for the first time, assesses the efforts of governments to proactively train and provide guidance to their diplomatic personnel      to prevent such abuses.

A shopping center in Singapore advertises maids who will work for low pay without a day off. Many of the more than 1.35 million foreign workers in Singapore are  vulnerable
to human trafficking, including debt   
bondage and involuntary servitude. Some  fraudulent brokers
lure young women abroad with promises of safe jobs and an education,  but instead  force  them  into sex trafficking, domestic servitude,  or  menial  labor.

PREVENTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS 21

NEW RESEARCH ON ABUSIVE RECRUITMENT PRACTICES AND  HUMAN TRAFFICKING

UNODC AND ILO  COLLABORATE ON  GLOBAL RESEARCH*
In 2014, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) each began research on the abusive recruitment practices known to facilitate human trafficking and emerging responses to protect individuals, particularly migrant workers, from such abuses. ILO and UNODC released their global research in June 2015. This coordinated research included three stakeholder meetings and field surveys conducted in different countries and regions of the world.
Some of the reports’ key findings and recommendations include:
1. Workers who have to borrow from third parties to cover recruitment fees and who suffer from fraudulent and abusive practices during their recruitment are at higher risk of coercion and debt bondage. As a result, they are more likely to accept exploitative working conditions, making them vulnerable to forced labor or compulsory service.
2. There is an emerging trend toward stronger regulation to prevent such abuses. Various national regulatory models, including under labor and criminal law, have emerged to strengthen the governance of internal and cross-border  labor recruitment.
3. There is further need to strengthen compliance with national and international standards. Government authorities, workers’ and employers’ organizations, businesses, and civil society have a key role to play in promoting compliance with standards of fair  recruitment.
4. At present, illegitimate or unethical recruiters are usually not being prosecuted under anti-trafficking laws in identified trafficking cases. Abusive and fraudulent recruitment practices often precede exploitation on the job site, making it difficult to prove that unscrupulous labor recruiters were part of the trafficking crime or that they knowingly recruited victims for the purpose of exploitation.
5. Stronger efforts are required to ensure that migrant workers who experienced abusive and fraudulent recruitment practices gain timely access to effective remedies at destination or in their country of origin. Such efforts would create positive incentives for workers to submit complaints and to collaborate with law enforcement authorities.
6. Coordination between labor inspectors and other law enforcement should be enhanced within and across countries to address gaps in enforcement.

Some Malian boys are forced to work in artisinal gold mines for unscrupulous
employers or guardians who confiscate their earnings.

22 2015 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

These reports are available on UNODC’s and ILO’s websites:
UNODC—The Role of Recruitment Fees and Abusive and Fraudulent Recruitment Practices of Recruitment Agencies in Trafficking in Persons
ILO—Regulating labour recruitment to prevent human trafficking and to foster fair migration: Models, challenges and  opportunities

VERITÉ REPORT ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN FEDERAL AND CORPORATE SUPPLY CHAINS*
In a report released this year, the labor rights NGO Verité analyzes the risk of human trafficking in federal and corporate supply chains. The report examines a range of sector-specific risk factors, as well as social, economic, and political risk factors in countries of production or service delivery and in those that supply the labor. Eleven sectors were found to be the most likely to have a risk of human trafficking globally:

• Agriculture
• Construction
• Electronics
• Fishing  and Aquaculture
•
Forestry
• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Housekeeping/Facilities  Operation
•
Mining  and  Basic Metal Production
• Textile and Apparel Manufacturing
• Transportation   and  Warehousing

The report will also include an in-depth examination of more than 40 of the world’s most important primary commodities, analyzing global production and trade patterns, reports of forced labor and the incidence of child labor (an indicator of the risk of forced labor), and the structure of each commodity’s supply chain. Many, if not most, of these commodities can be found in products used by consumers every day, all over the world.

• Bamboo
• Coltan, Tungsten, Tin
• Leather
• Steel
• Bananas
• Copper
• Melons
• Strawberries
• Beans
• Corn
• Nuts
• Sugar
• Brass
• Cotton
• Palm Oil
• Sunflowers
• Bricks
• Diamonds
• Pineapple
• Tea
• Cattle
• Fish
• Rice
• Tobacco
• Charcoal
• Flowers
• Rubber
• Tomatoes
• Citrus
• Gold
• Salt
• Wheat
• Coal
• Granite and Other Stone
• Shrimp
• Wool
• Cocoa
• Gravel and Crushed Stone
• Silk
• Zinc
• Coffee
• Jewels
• Silver