Understanding and Governing the Global Business of Forced Labour

这项研究的总体目标是深入了解强迫劳动（以及奴隶制和人口贩运等重叠做法）如何在全球供应链中运作。换句话说，了解犯罪个人或组织是如何从正规产业中获利的，无论是通过有意的人口贩运过程，还是通过剥削本已脆弱的工人。关键问题包括：哪些因素在供应链中产生了对强迫劳动的“需求”？有哪些途径允许强迫劳工进入正规产业？腐败和非法行为的肇事者如何逃脱当局和“领导”这些供应链的零售公司的侦查？通过该项目产生的新的重要证据基础将有助于正在进行的关于全球商品生产中强迫劳动的原因和解决办法的学术和政策辩论。研究问题将通过一系列定性方法进行调查，包括对关键线人的精英访谈和对工人本身的民族志实地研究。供应链分析将用于了解沿着供应链（原材料，组件，制造，分销和零售）的五个阶段中的每个阶段的企业对企业的强迫劳动动态。该研究将重点关注由英国零售公司主导的可可和茶叶行业；这两个行业都有大量关于强迫劳动、高水平分包和行业主导的反奴隶制倡议的报道。虽然有媒体报道和轶事证据表明，强迫劳动在可可和茶叶行业盛行，但迄今为止，还没有对导致这种现象的商业模式进行强有力的研究。该项目将为广泛的受众提供高影响力的多学科研究，包括寻求打击人口贩运、强迫劳动和现代奴隶制的政府、民间社会和商业组织。它将就如何加强最近的“反奴隶制”立法以打击全球强迫劳动业务提出建议。它还将提供建议和“最佳做法”，以加强现有的商业战略，以发现和防止全球业务中的强迫劳动。研究结果将通过在线报纸文章和定期媒体输出（高质量报刊和广播）向公众广泛传播。这将使项目的具体学术主题转化为更广泛的辩论和讨论主题。

The overall aim of this research is to achieve an in-depth understanding of how forced labour (and overlapping practices like slavery and human trafficking) operate in global supply chains. In other words, to understand how criminal individuals or organisations profit from formal industry, either through deliberate processes of human trafficking or by the exploitation of already vulnerable workers. Key questions include: What factors create 'demand' for forced labour within supply chains? What are the pathways that allow forced labour access to formal industry? How do perpetrators of corruption and illegality escape detection by the authorities, and by the retail companies 'leading' these supply chains? The new and important evidence base generated through this project will contribute to ongoing academic and policy debates on the causes of, and solutions to, forced labour in global commodity production. The research questions will be investigated through a range of qualitative methods including elite interviews with key informants and ethnographic field research among workers themselves. Supply chain analysis will be used to understand the firm-to-firm dynamics of forced labour along each of the five stages of the supply chain (raw material, component, manufacture, distribution and retail). The research will focus on cocoa and tea sectors dominated by UK retail companies; both sectors have widespread reports of forced labour, high levels of subcontracting, and industry-led anti-slavery initiatives. While there are media reports and anecdotal evidence to suggest that forced labour is thriving in the cocoa and tea industries, to date, there is no robust research on the business models that give rise to it. The project will provide high impact, multidisciplinary research for a wide-ranging audience, including government, civil society, and business organisations seeking to combat human trafficking, forced labour, and modern slavery. It will produce recommendations for how recent 'Anti-Slavery' legislation can be enhanced to combat the global business of forced labour. It will also provide recommendations and 'best practices' to strengthen existing business strategies for detecting and preventing forced labour within global operations. The research findings will be disseminated widely to the public, through online newspaper articles and regular media output (high quality press and radio). This will allow the specific academic themes of the project to be translated into broader topics for debate and discussion.