The Impact of Covid-19 on Modern Slavery (Article Sample)

Impact of COVID-19 on Modern Slavery in Multinational Corporations’ Global Supply Chains
Introduction
The paper is about the impact of COVID-19 on modern slavery in the global supply chains of multinational corporations. The goal is to conduct a literature review and identify the effects of the virus on people already in slavery and the survivors. The focus is on determining how the pandemic has caused increased vulnerability to enslavement. The study will also include the industries that have been most affected by the pandemic and worsened slavery. It will also indicate why products’ supply chains are highly vulnerable to modern slavery, especially during the pandemic. The content will also indicate how governments, non-governmental organizations, civil groups, and international agencies, among others, can assist in combating modern slavery in the COVID era.
Literature Review
Impacts of the Pandemic on People Already in Slavery and Survivors
COVID-19 has not only revealed some of the issues related to modern slavery but has also created new challenges. In an article written by Searcy (2022) aimed at identifying the impact of the pandemic on modern slavery in global supply chains, the author noted that the pandemic increased vulnerability and deteriorated the working conditions through various factors. For example, enslaved workers were not offered protective gear to minimize their chances of catching the virus. In other scenarios, due to worker shortages triggered by the quarantine policies, the employees who could attend to their physical duties often had to work overtime (Searcy et al., 2022). Such factors exacerbated already worse working conditions in various workplaces.
The article by Murray and Malik (2020) identified that even though the pandemic has hit everyone, it has caused different repercussions on diverse people. The authors indicated that modern slavery victims are at a higher risk of infection due to unsafe/crowded accommodation, lack of facilities, and employers only interested in profits. Murray and Malik (2020) also noted that the survivors of modern slavery faced closures of shelters, reduction or withdrawal of support, and the shutting down of government offices.
The pandemic has significantly impacted the situation of children already in slavery and survivors. The study by Jiménez et al. (2022) explored how the pandemic has impacted child victims and survivors of modern slavery in the UK. The authors identified that the pandemic response may have affected the children’s rights to representation, development, participation, safety, food, and education. Jiménez et al. (2022) explained why the pandemic exacerbated the slavery problem among children in the UK. Before the pandemic, Britain was exiting the European Union, leading to economic uncertainty and threats. Before Brexit, the country had been dealing with austerity policies for a decade. These policies caused the underfunding of social and children’s services, education, and healthcare. As an outcome, the resources to prevent children’s vulnerability to modern slavery were compromised. Brexit and the pandemic only put more strain on an already strained area. Searcy et al. (2022) also indicated that school closures increased children’s chances of being forced to work in sectors that offer casual jobs, such as the clothing industry.
The study carried out by Asekenye et al. (2022) also identified the effects of the pandemic on human trafficking in Uganda and Kenya. The scholars found that the pandemic caused agencies dealing with modern slavery issues to shift their resources to basic provisions for their clients. When the travel restrictions were put in place, they affected rescue activities, thus causing delayed travel plans and interference of services such as the provision of essential services. Moreover, the pandemic created new enslavement opportunities such as online trafficking.
In Australia, Chazal and Raby (2021) revealed that a significant share of the resources in various departments, including the justice department, was redirected to curbing the pandemic. The authors found that police efforts and other resources once directed to dealing with modern slavery cases were redirected to the pandemic. This reallocation of resources exacerbated the already existing challenges against modern slavery. Chazal and Raby (2021) aimed to examine the effects of the pandemic on the identification of modern slavery.
In a study carried out by Christ and Burritt (2021), the authors noted that the pandemic had reduced the capabilities of businesses to track and trace victims of modern slavery. This weakness was an outcome of the strain on businesses during the pandemic. Christ and Burritt (2021) found these results when examining the impact of the pandemic on corporate modern slavery accounting, auditing, and accountability.
Bari (2021) revealed that certain factors would lead to unemployment, thus increasing people’s susceptibility to modern enslavement. For instance, transnational corporations (TNCs) in Viet Nam were expected to incur losses worth US$ 2 billion due to shortages in manufacturing materials. Such losses would lead to implementing risk management strategies such as cost cuts. The author also noted that at the international level, orders of manufacturing materials were down by about 42%. The expected revenues from the products manufactured by these TNCs in 2020 would decrease by 32%. Bari (2021) also stated that Myanmar manufacturing orders were expected to go down by about 70% and 80% in Bangladesh. In Sri Lanka, businesses in the country were estimated to lose US$ 5 billion worth of manufacturing orders by the second quarter of 2020 (Bari, 2021). Such figures in developing countries pushed businesses to redirect their resources to survival strategies rather than fight against modern slavery. These weaknesses negatively impacted the victims and survivors of modern slavery because organizations were willing to take extreme measures (such as reduction of labour costs) to salvage their organizations' financial status.
Voss (2020) also explored the implications of the pandemic on human rights within the context of modern slavery. The study focused on TNCs, where the author concluded that COVID-19 restrictions and policies had contributed to increased human rights violations in these organizations (TNCs). Like in Bari’s study, Voss found that isolation, restrictions, and other factors led to overworked and underpaid employees who worked in harsh conditions; hence, a form of enslavement.