Apple Will Employ Trafficking Survivors To Help End Modern Slavery

London, on November 15, Apple announced that trafficking survivors will have job opportunities at its retail stores after it won an international award for publicizing its supply chain details as an attempt to end modern slavery.

The tech giant says that there have been less underage workers in its broadened supply chain since 2012, including places where it mines rare earth minerals for making smartphones.

Previously, Apple and Foxconn, its major manufacturing partner, were criticized for making employees work overtime, employing underage workers, and not providing health insurance.

Wednesday, at Trust Conference hosted by Thomson Reuters Foundation, in London, Angela Ahrendts, Apple retail’s head, said that the company has a huge responsibility for turning its values into action as its work has touched so many lives.

Angela Ahrendts at Trust Conference, London

The Thomson Reuters Foundation Stop Slavery Award is awarded to enterprises who detect, investigate and eliminate forced labor for their supply chains. Unilever also won the award. Standard Chartered and Thai Union were highly appreciated.

Ahrendts stated that there a great chance for Apple to become the beacon of hope for surviving trafficking victims and they can do that by employing them.

According to Apple, 35,000 contractors have received over $30 million paid to unscrupulous recruiters to ensure the employment, which Apple has given back to them.

Slavery is now considered a global problem. As reported by Walk Free Foundation and the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are about 40 million people trapped as slaves in forced marriages and forced labor, most of whom are women and girls.

Plus, 25 million work as sex or domestic workers in construction sites, factories, fishing boats, and farms.

Hence, initiatives are under scrutiny so that we can meet a U.N. goal which aims at ending trafficking by 2030, a $150 billion industry.

Moreover, governments and consumers are pushing businesses to publicize their supply chains to help end slavery.