Blood Bricks: Examining the Climate Change-Modern Slavery Nexus in the Cambodian Construction Industry

“气候变化和奴隶制：完美风暴？”——这是2013年《卫报》的一个有先见之明的标题，它呼吁就这些对环境和人类安全的紧迫威胁之间的联系进行更多的国际对话。本研究通过研究气候变化、不同的结构性不平等轴线（如性别、年龄）和被贩卖为现代奴隶的脆弱性之间的内在联系，推进了这一呼吁。该项目询问谁是气候变化的最大“接收端”，最有可能进入现代奴隶制，谁比其他人更没有能力和资源以其他方式适应气候变化？这项研究是在柬埔寨进行的，柬埔寨是2014年世界上第二大气候最脆弱的国家。这一状况不仅源于其面临的洪水和干旱等气候风险加剧，还源于其缺乏适应和应对能力。80%的人口生活在农村地区，他们的知识、基础设施和机会有限；70%以上依赖对气候变化非常敏感的农业（联合国开发计划署，2014年）。2016年，柬埔寨的人均现代奴隶比例也位居世界第三。在这些令人信服的情况下，该项目将重点放在柬埔寨建筑行业，作为研究气候变化如何促进人口贩运成为现代奴隶制及其持续生计的手段。英国和柬埔寨学者将进行具有挑战性的研究，旨在结合定性访谈与建筑行业线人和在砖窑和建筑工地工作的现代奴隶制受害者；砖窑发烧村农业生态分析、定量入户调查和访谈纵向二手数据分析（柬埔寨社会经济研究2014）。这一发现将提高人们对环境破坏和现代奴隶制的“致命舞蹈”的理解。

'Climate change and slavery: the perfect storm?' - this was the prescient headline of The Guardian (2013) which called for more international conversation on the links between these urgent threats to environmental and human security. This study forwards this call by examining the inter-linkages between climate change, different axes of structural inequality (e.g. gender, age), and vulnerability to trafficking into modern slavery. The project asks who is most at the 'receiving end' of climate change, is most likely to enter into modern slavery, and who has fewer capabilities and resources than others to adapt to climate change in alternative ways?The research is based in Cambodia, the world's second most climate vulnerable country in 2014. This status derives not only from the heightened climate risks its faces in the form of floods and droughts, but also the lack of capacity to adapt and respond. Eighty percent of the population lives in rural areas with limited knowledge, infrastructure and opportunities; and more than 70 percent rely on agriculture that is heavily sensitive to climate change (UNDP 2014). In 2016, Cambodia also recorded the third highest proportion of modern slaves per capita in the world. Under these compelling set of circumstances then, the project focuses on the Cambodian construction industry as a means to examine how climate change facilitates trafficking into modern slavery and ongoing livelihoods within it. UK and Cambodian scholars will undertake challenging research that aims to combine qualitative interviews with construction industry informants and victims of modern slavery working in brick-kilns and construction sites; agro-ecological profiling, a quantitative household survey, and interviews in brick-kiln sender villages; and analysis of longitudinal secondary data (Cambodia Socio-Economic Study 2014). Findings will improve understanding of the 'deadly dance' of environmental destruction and modern slavery.