IOM launches map to help companies fight human trafficking

IOM launches map to help companies fight human trafficking

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched the idea of an interactive map to help businesses fight human trafficking.

The UN agency International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recently launched an Interactive Map for Business of Anti-Human Trafficking Initiatives and Organizations (modernslaverymap.org), with the objective of sharing information to fight human trafficking. 

The map, the organization said in a statement, will give companies and other institutions a global list of initiatives to help them fight this phenomenon within their operations and in the production chain. 

Demand for low-cost workers driving phenomenon 

The organization stressed that it has a permanent relationship with managers operating in the private sector to fight human trafficking. In 2017, IOM became part of the global initiative against transnational organized crime (GI) and the initiative of the Babson College on human trafficking and modern slavery to form the ”Responsible and Ethical Private Sector Coalition against Trafficking” (Respect), through which the map has been organized. 

Sarah Di Giglio, a IOM representative in the UK, said that ”in our global economy, demand for low-cost workers and services is driving human trafficking”. 

”However, the responsibility of industry and consumers who are asking for low-cost workers and goods is often not recognized”, she added. 

Database with best practices 

The interactive map, as a resource for unified information, includes a database on best practices and reports by stakeholders that can be used by companies opposing human trafficking and forced labor. IOM recalled that the organization has been fighting human trafficking since 1994 and has implemented over 2,600 projects in over 150 countries over the past few years, assisting tens of thousands of trafficking victims.

“Until we, as a global community, will not confront this request and recognize that goods are sold at a low cost due to the exploitation of workers, including migrant workers, our efforts to end human trafficking will be totally inadequate”, added Di Giglio. 

Original: http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/9504/iom-launches-map-to-help-companies-fight-human-trafficking