Construction faces 'strong risk of slavery'

The global construction industry faces a “strong risk” of modern slavery, according to a new report by a business research firm.

The report by LexisNexis found that throughout the global construction industry and its material supply chains, forced labour and other exploitation that constitutes modern slavery are “common, concealed and subject to inadequate prevention, policing and prosecution”.

It analysed articles from more than 6,000 licensed news sources in more than 100 countries across the world between January 2015 and May 2016.

The report comes after a pledge by new UK prime minister Theresa May in July to spend £33m from the aid budget to tackle modern slavery overseas, describing it as “the great human rights issue of our time”.

Case studies used in the report include allegations of forced labour being used to build World Cup 2022 stadiums in Qatar, a marine construction project in the USA, and Brazilian workers at a plant in Angola.

In particular, the report relates to compliance with the recently introduced UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, which comes after the Home Office estimated in 2014 that there were 10,000–13,000 potential victims of modern slavery in the UK.

Mark Dunn, director at LexisNexis BIS, said: “Forced labour needs to move up the global agenda.

“A wide range of stakeholders - international bodies, governments and the public sector, industry organisations, construction companies, investors, the media and civil society - have roles to play in preventing and avoiding collusion in worker exploitation in the construction industry.”