TODAY (Monday, February 8) is the Feast Day of St Josephine Bakhita, a one-time slave who became the patron saint of victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.
An estimated 40.3 million people are enslaved in the world today with the highest number in the Asia Pacific Region.
Even in Australia there are 15,000 victims, trapped in forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage or human trafficking.
These acts of modern slavery can be closer than you think.
A Brisbane man and women faced court last Friday after Queensland police found four women allegedly subjected to sexual servitude, stupefying drugs and branding tattoos in a Mt Gravatt home, and police are now investigating whether there are more victims.
Today has a special significance for the Archdiocese of Brisbane where bold new steps are being taken to combat modern slavery through ethical business practices.
The ink is still drying on two new documents, “Archdiocesan Modern Slavery Policy” and “Archdiocesan Modern Slavery Guidelines”, signed off by Bishop Ken Howell, that will reshape the way Church agencies in Brisbane do business.
The new policies and guidelines forbid any worker exploitation and make it mandatory to report any actual or suspected exploitation.
Anti-slavery clauses shall be incorporated into procurement tenders and contracts that include the right to audit, review document and interview workers.
The new policies introduce anti-slavery awareness to supply chains to ensure that goods and services procured from around the world are sourced ethically.
“We really need to lead the way and this gives us a good start,” Brisbane archdiocese’s governance, risk and compliance officer, Phil Colley, said.
Mr Colley has the important task of leading local Catholic agencies, schools and parishes that do business with about 15,000 suppliers and vendors.
“If you look at a wholesaler or retailer we do business with, we don’t know the material they are using, where it comes from, how many interventions there are in that supply chain down from wholesalers, distributors, logistics and transport,” he said.
Mr Colley said modern slavery could exist in all stages of the supply chain, from the picking of raw materials such as cocoa or cotton, to the manufacturing of goods such as mobile phones.
Highlighted in the media lately is China’s Xinjiang region that produces more than 20 per cent of the world’s cotton, and where an estimated half a million people from ethnic minority groups have been coerced into picking the crop.
There is significant evidence that the cotton supply chain is “tainted” by human rights abuses, including suspected forced labour of Uighur and other Turkic Muslim minority people.
Mr Colley said the steps to establishing slavery-free supply chains started with better education and better engagement with suppliers.
“Making them aware that you won’t tolerate it [modern slavery],” he said.
“What’s it going to do to our reputation?”
