Human trafficking in the supply chain

Seven years ago, David Arkless took a call from the first lady of an African state. She wanted to know what his company was doing about human trafficking. His answer was blunt: "What human trafficking?" The question prompted him to investigate. The figures proved startling. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, more than 2.4 million people are being exploited by traffickers at any one time. Some campaign groups suggest the annual number of victims could be as high as 27 million.    "There are more slaves today than in any time in human history", says Arkless, who heads up corporate and government affairs for Manpower, a global employment services firm. He's become something of an evangelist on the subject. As board president of the campaign group End Human Trafficking Now, he helped push through the Athens Ethical Principles - a seven-step charter designed to stamp out the use of trafficked labour by companies and other organisations. Arkless' attempts to win over other senior executives are met with mixed responses, however. While most companies lament the problem, he says, they fail to see what it has to do with them. They're wrong, the Manpower executive maintains. And he tells them as much: "At some point in your supply chain or partner's supply chain, it's likely that you are using products, supplies or services that involve people who have been trafficked."    To read the full article by Oliver Balch, please click on this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/human-traficking-rights-business?newsfeed=true  .