A Sunday Times investigation can reveal that the modern-day slaves were forced to work for little or no money. Some of the victims had the task of picking and packing spring onions for a Worcestershire farm. It is part of a fresh-produce group that has customers including Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda.
The gang, members of which were finally jailed last week, controlled the victims’ bank accounts and was able to seize more than £2m of their wages. This meant some of the victims earned as little as 50p an hour.
The trafficking gang recruited vulnerable people in Poland — among them the homeless and alcoholics — with the promise of well-paid jobs and accommodation in the UK. But when they arrived they were crammed on filthy mattresses four to a room in vermin-infested properties…
Within a week of the Sunday Times’ article, Siobhan McGrath, a researcher with Britain’s Durham University, responded to the investigation with a clear, unequivocal message: The Fair Food Program is a proven solution to just this problem.
Ms. McGrath called on the supermarkets named in the article to go beyond lip service to the idea of protecting human rights in their supply chains, and to use their market power to address – and end – human trafficking:
Buyers beware
Criminal prosecution alone will not change the market dynamics driving the abuse of migrant agricultural labour. We have researched initiatives to address this and found one example that works: the Fair Food Programme in Florida. It harnesses the purchasing power of buyers through legally binding agreements that hold buyers accountable, and it has eradicated slavery and sexual abuse in the fields.
So let us be clear: the big retailers can change this. In the UK, that is you, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda.
Assistant Professor Siobhan McGrath, Durham University
To be sure, the need for the Fair Food Program – both on farms within the UK and on farms across Spain and Italy, the agricultural capitals of the Continent – has never felt more urgent...
