Since the adoption of the UN Trafficking Protocol, most efforts to eliminate exploitation of migrant workers have focused on human trafficking. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year on counter-trafficking initiatives, particularly on trainings to ‘raise awareness’, criminal investigation and prosecution, and shelter and ‘rehabilitation’ services.
More recently, the emergence of the modern slavery discourse has emphasised the role of business in perpetuating the exploitation of workers. Against the background of a worldwide pursuit of ever cheaper labour and reduced regulation, encouraging more ethical business practices by the private sector has been heralded as a force for change.
Technological solutions have also been posited as key to solving the problem of human trafficking, including smart phone apps for reporting abuses, satellite imagery to identify modern slavery from space, blockchain technology to eliminate contract substitution, and big data to improve the evidence base.
