From people sexually exploited in hotels, to unpaid sub-contracted staff, modern slavery lurks throughout the industry
LONDON, May 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A world away from the cotton fields of Uzbekistan and garment factories across India and Nepal, the managers of a luxury hotel group in central London are learning how to stamp out supply chain slavery and identify victims of sexual exploitation.
In the first training of its kind in Britain, anti-trafficking charity Unseen is advising the general managers and heads of operations of several major hotels across England how to combat modern slavery within the hospitality industry.
From adults and children sexually exploited in hotels, to sub-contracted staff made to work for little or no money, to goods produced in distant places by forced labour, modern slavery lurks throughout the industry, experts say.
There are as many as 13,000 victims of slavery in Britain, according to the Home Office (interior ministry).
Many are forced to work in factories and farms, sold for sex in brothels, or imprisoned in domestic servitude, in a global industry estimated to generate $150 billion a year in profits for those who exploit or enslave them.
Yet human traffickers are increasingly looking for opportunities to exploit the hospitality industry, which employs more than 2.4 million people and contributes some 34 billion pounds ($53 billion) to Britain's economy, campaigners say.
"The hospitality industry is a hub for human trafficking," said Meenal Sachdev, director of the Shiva Foundation, the anti-trafficking arm of the Shiva Hotel group, which is working with Unseen to train staff across its 10 hotels in England.
"Modern slavery is not specific to a certain type of hotel, it doesn't discriminate between a budget or five star hotel - it goes across the board," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at London's Hampton by Hilton hotel.
"FACELESS" CRIME
Trafficking victims in the hospitality industry are often eastern European men and women who are promised a job in Britain but then stripped of their identity documents and forced to work for little or no money.
Around one percent of forced labour victims in Britain worked in the restaurant or bar sector in 2013, while four percent of sexual exploitation victims were abused in hotels, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
While the numbers may seem small, the hidden nature of modern slavery means its prevalence in the hospitality sector is likely to be much higher, said the NCA, Britain's equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Traffickers in the hospitality sector often book a hotel room for a couple of nights and force their female victims to have sex with clients who have paid for their services in advance, according to Kate Garbers, managing director of Unseen.
"People can book hotel rooms online and remain faceless, which makes it problematic to spot cases of trafficking," said Garbers, who has also trained police, healthcare providers and border staff in Britain.
But a new British law designed to stamp out slavery could help hotels to clean up their supply chains, Garbers said.
The Modern Slavery Bill, which became law in March, requires British businesses to disclose what action they have taken to ensure their products and services are free of slave labour.
"Forced labour is most common in teams such as cleaning and housekeeping where subcontractors are used... as soon as you become removed from your employees, you increase the risk of trafficking," Garbers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"The hospitality sector is starting to act and the pressure from the top will filter down to the subcontractors."
OPEN TO EXPLOITATION
Anti-Slavery International, a London-based rights organisation which works with the hospitality sector, welcomed the training initiative but warned of poor recruitment standards across the sector.
Many hotels in Britain hand control of their workforce to recruitment agencies, leaving the sector open to abuse and exploitation, according to press officer Jakub Sobik.
Competition for unskilled jobs in the hospitality industry is high among newly arrived migrants, which pushes down wages and working conditions and leaves workers vulnerable, he said.
"Desperate to keep their jobs and having little other options on one hand, and often not fully knowing their rights on the other... workers have little chance of defending themselves from any abuses," Sobik told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Back in the London hotel, Garbers said she hoped to see other hotels across Britain follow the example of the Shiva Hotels group.
"We want to see a groundswell of consumer choice, whereby a consumer can book a hotel room knowing that the hotel is trying everything they can to eradicate slavery and trafficking within their business," she said.
($1 = 0.6447 pounds)
(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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