"Hong Kong lags behind in the battle against modern-day slavery", 16 Dec 2016

…Walk Free Foundation’s data for 2016 shows 45 million people are victims of modern slavery, which closely relates to almost every aspect of our daily lives…Yet, a new benchmark by KnowTheChain found that, in the global garments industry, action to tackle the scourge is lacking…

Some of the incentives for companies to act is coming from government legislation. In the US, California enacted the Transparency in Supply Chains Act in 2010…UK last year passed its Modern Slavery Act…These laws have played an important role in pushing businesses to at least start looking into the issue…

For its part, the Hong Kong government should consider broadening its current narrow approach to tackling forced labour – focused on trafficking for prostitution – to also encourage companies to prevent exploitation through their supply chains. A strong response from business involves assessing risks to the lowest level of the supply chain, starting with commodities. Cotton and leather are both among the goods produced by forced labour in China, the world’s largest cotton producer and exporter, for example. Moving up the chain, forced labour is also prevalent in the manufacturing stages…