Written by Jonathan Porter, Finance Against Trafficking.

Human trafficking is not a straightforward challenge for a business, regardless of its size.  Businesses are often unaware of the unethical and sometimes criminal behaviour of others in their supply chain and the legal, reputational and operational risks associated.

Even if business owners possess a basic understanding of human trafficking and think their organisation could be vulnerable due to the locations in which they operate, how can they find out? The perceived scale of understanding what areas of your business and supply chain could be unwittingly supporting the crime and implementing policies, procedures and processes to stop this poses a huge barrier.  As a consequence, businesses have tended to concentrate on their core business activities and have other Corporate Social Responsibility targets and priorities.

What has become clear in recent months is that the CSR landscape is changing and businesses have to take note of the increasing, collective voice emanating from consumers, activists, governments, intergovernmental and international organisations about the atrocities of human trafficking and the responsibility that lies with the business community.  One of the most pertinent of these voices being the UN and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The truth is that any organisation may find it extremely difficult to trace their multi-national and possibly fragmented supply chain.  This is why we must begin with a risk-based approach.  If companies can begin to identify areas of high risk and focus on these, to ask questions of their suppliers and their supplier’s suppliers, they can start to make that change.

Finance Against Trafficking aim to be the enabler for businesses to take on the challenge of human trafficking, helping them to understand the impact it could have on them, the areas of their business most vulnerable and to provide them with the tools and guidance necessary to minimise the risk.

To do this Finance Against Trafficking offer a number of different services to businesses, the most notable recent addition to which is ChainChecker.  An online, question-based tool, ChainChecker is designed to be used by anyone who works within a business and enables them to understand the areas of their business at risk.  It will highlight key areas of concern and provide practical guidance and actions you can take to minimise the risk that your organisation is unintentionally using forced, bonded or child labour and supporting human trafficking.

ChainChecker is intended to be the first step businesses can take to understand their risk, responsibility and the action they can take to prevent them being directly or indirectly involved with human trafficking.

To find out more about ChainChecker, how it works and to take advantage of the limited offer of £50 to sign up, click here to go straight to the website.