This story was published in Smith Journal volume 30, March 2019.
There are currently more people living in slavery than at any other time in history. But what can the average Australian, who invariably doesn’t like this type of thing, do about it?
Sinet Chan was born in Battambang Province, Cambodia, in 1990.
Her parents lost their respective battles with HIV when she was young. After their deaths, Chan and her siblings were sent to an orphanage. She was 10 years old and, having spent her life in poverty up to that point, was hopeful the orphanage would provide a fresh start. She had no idea how bad things were about to get.
At the orphanage, when Chan and the other children weren’t tending to the orphanage director’s farm, they were forced to dance, sing, and play games with the tourists who’d come to visit. The mandatory theatrics encouraged donations, which went straight to the director.
Meanwhile, there was never enough food to eat, and the children often had to hunt mice, catch fish and pick plants from the surrounding fields to survive. Chan’s brother was regularly physically abused, and she herself was raped by the director for years. “I dreamt about running away, but I had nowhere to go, and no way to feed myself and my siblings,” she remembers. “Our main focus was to just survive.” To escape, she hid out in the orphanage library, where she’d bury her head in books. “I loved stories with a strong female.”
The only thing more unsettling than Chan’s story is how common it is. Between 2005 and 2015 it’s estimated that the number of orphanages in Cambodia increased by more than 60 per cent. Most, if not all, of that growth has been attributed to a boom in so-called ‘orphanage tourism’, where tourists turn up, spend some time with the children, then leave behind a nice wad of cash.
At first, Chan liked the visits, because they were the only time when the director would ensure there was visibly enough food for the children, and she often made friends with the tourists. “But as the years went on, the cycle of visitors started feeling worse and worse,” Chan says.
“It hurt every time they left.”
The problem with orphanage tourism isn’t just that tourists’ dollars end up going to the orphanage directors: around 75 per cent of these so-called orphans actually still have a living parent. The whole endeavour is built on a lie. “You now have recruiters going out into the provinces and actually recruiting children to come into orphanages,” says Jo Pride, CEO of Hagar Australia, one of several organisations working to end the cycle of modern slavery and help those who’ve endured it. “They convince parents that their children will get a better education [at the orphanage]. It’s instigating this kind of stolen generation.”
“There’s a good chance you put money into slavers’ hands the last time you went shopping for clothes, gadgets or groceries – especially if you purchased a computer or mobile phone, fish, cocoa or sugarcane.”
You’d have been forgiven for thinking that in this, the year 2019, we were done with slavery. But you’d be dead wrong. At the time of writing, according to the Global Slavery Index (GSI), some 40.3 million people are living in slavery, or in slave-like conditions like Chan’s, around the world. That’s more than at any other time in human history.
When we talk about modern slavery, we’re talking about forced labour (of which there are 24.9 million victims globally, equal to the entire population of Australia), human trafficking, sexual and child exploitation and slave-like practices, such as forced marriage. Enslaved people might be forced to work in factories and sweatshops, brothels, massage parlours or nail salons. They might be stuck in orphanages, in domestic servitude, or on fishing boats. But whatever the individual situation, one thing is clear: the world’s most vulnerable people are the most at risk.
Not visiting orphanages when you travel is certainly one way to help, but the issue doesn’t start and end with tourism. Slavery is everywhere, and its tendrils slither into many aspects of everyday Australian life. “One of the biggest misconceptions is that slavery is perpetrated far away from us,” Pride says. “But there aren’t many supply chains coming into Australia that are completely free from it.”
In fact, there’s a good chance you put money into slavers’ hands the last time you went shopping for clothes, gadgets or groceries – especially if you purchased a computer or mobile phone, fish, cocoa or sugarcane. (Meanwhile, a recent study by the University of Melbourne found that it’s almost impossible to buy tuna from the supermarket that wasn’t produced using slave labour.)
While you don’t have to look hard to find products labelled free-range, organic, gluten-free, biodegradable, compostable (and so on), you’re unlikely to find any slavery-free stickers plastered across supermarket items. That’s because they don’t exist. The way big business operates – with scores of suppliers, distributors, vendors and producers spread across the world – makes it very difficult to peer into every aspect of production. Fairtrade-certified products are currently the closest you can get to slavery-free labelling.
But while Fairtrade Australia New Zealand told us that examples of supply-chain slavery in their products are “very rare”, and that any exceptions are dealt with swiftly, even they can’t guarantee it outright.
“Sartorially minded folks can peruse the Ethical Fashion Guide, which is an online resource that allows you to plug in your favourite fashion brand’s name and see how they rank on the slavery scale (from A+ to F). ”
Thankfully, momentum for the erasure of this largely hidden chapter of human history is building. In 2016, the GSI found that only four countries were taking steps to investigate forced labour in public or private supply chains. Last year, that number had risen to 36. In 2017, the Cambodian government and the UN launched a plan to crack down on fake orphanages in the country.
And on January 1, 2019, Australia introduced a law requiring big businesses to report on the risks of modern slavery in their supply chains, and the steps they have taken to address those risks, annually. “It’s really the first time that many boardrooms in Australia have had to discuss this issue,” Pride says, though she notes the importance of not naming and shaming companies who do find instances of slavery in their business. “We don’t want to discourage them from looking – it’s only when we identify it that then we can start to address it.”
Some businesses are also taking active steps towards being ‘better’ by pursuing B Corp certifications, which are awarded to for-profit companies that meet strict environmental and ethical criteria. And on the issue of orphanage tourism, many travel companies are removing orphanage visits from their itineraries and actively discouraging travellers from the practice.
Other industries are starting to take matters into their own hands, too. Queensland-based Outland Denim doesn’t just promise slave-free premium jeans – it employs formerly enslaved women (96 to date, and they’re recruiting) as seamstresses, teaches them how to make jeans, and pays them a living wage (which is considerably more than just minimum wage).
“We create an opportunity and give them the tools, but they have to [see it through],” says founder James Bartle, who cites the movie Taken as his first exposure to the issue of modern slavery. The work Outland provides isn’t a gift, which Bartle hopes makes it all the more meaningful. “The fashion industry has a huge role to play in ending slavery,” he adds. “We all wear clothes, and 99 per cent of us would want to help change things. We just need to begin using our purchasing power to do that.”
Bartle is far from alone in his pursuit to put slavers out of business. Sartorially minded folks can peruse the Ethical Fashion Guide, which is an online resource that allows you to plug in your favourite fashion brand’s name and see how they rank on the slavery scale (from A+ to F). Outside of fashion, antislavery.org.au is a veritable field guide on how not to buy slave-made stuff.
Of course, individual consumers can only do so much. But according to Pride, if enough people are vocal about the subject, it may just reach a tipping point. “Communicate with the brands you love, and maybe with your local member of parliament about this issue being important to you.” Ending slavery, however, isn’t enough on its own. “Supporting survivors is important,” she adds. “They have a long journey ahead to rebuild their lives.”
On August 17, 2007, Chan and 14 other children were finally freed from their orphanage. She celebrated her 18th birthday the day after. Since then, Chan has turned her passion for books into a career – she now works as a freelance scriptwriter for a range of Cambodian TV shows. “I can use my imagination to write stories that empower women to be themselves,” she says. “And to fight for what they believe in.”
Thanks to Jo Pride and Hagar Australia, Karen Flanagan and ReThink Orphanages, Liz Manning and Intrepid Travel, and Tara Winkler and the Cambodian Children’s Trust. Special thanks to Sinet Chan for sharing her story.