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Global pandemic, local devastation: Frontline efforts to support the most vulnerable The Freedom Fund is a leader in the global movement to end modern slavery. We identify and invest in the most effective frontline efforts to eradicate modern slavery in the countries and sectors where it is most prevalent. Partnering with visionary investors, governments, anti-slavery organisations and those at risk of exploitation, we tackle the systems that allow slavery to persist and thrive. Working together, we protect vulnerable populations, liberate and reintegrate those enslaved and prosecute those responsible. Contents 2 Executive summary 4 The impact of covid-19 8 Our emergency response at a glance 11 Updates by country 11 India 20 Nepal 23 Myanmar 26 Thailand 29 Ethiopia 31 Brazil 34 Conclusion 36 List of partners providing emergency assistance Cover image: Ginny Baumann, © Freedom Fund The Freedom Fund 1 Executive summary Covid-19 has had a devastating Across our program areas, we have witnessed the ‘clocks being turned back’ on many hard-won impact on those most vulnerable to improvements for labour rights, gender rights and child modern slavery. protection. In this life-or-death situation for millions of the most vulnerable people, governments and Around the world, communities already suffering businesses are diverting crucial resources away from from poverty and exploitation have borne the brunt social and ethical priorities. In some cases, this is the of the virus and its accompanying economic fallout. result of genuine limits on resources and bandwidth Lockdowns and the shuttering of factories have amidst the pandemic. In others, powerholders are pushed millions of families to the brink of starvation. deliberately using the crisis to renege on prior Remittances have dried up as borders have closed commitments. Meanwhile, the global recession is and migrant workers have returned home. To cover driving down demand for labour, shifting bargaining emergency medical bills or other basic needs, many power away from workers and paving the way for are resorting to taking out high interest loans despite further exploitation. the risk of falling into debt bondage. More children are being sent to work or married off. Vulnerability to There are silver linings among the clouds. The crisis traffickers is rising. has shone a light on previously hidden problems and triggered local and national responses. Cancelled In April 2020, the Freedom Fund set up an Emergency purchasing contracts by international brands have Response Fund (ERF) to help mitigate some of the worst exposed the unacceptable power imbalance at effects of the crisis. We raised $2m and, by early August, opposing ends of global supply chains, generating had disbursed over $1.4m in 144 small, flexible grants public scrutiny, and thereby bringing hope for to our frontline civil society partners and community change. And we are seeing many inspiring examples groups in Thailand, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Ethiopia of community structures and grassroots civil society and Brazil. The grants have been used to provide small coming together to fill gaps in the response and lead cash payments and relief supplies – food, soap, PPE – calls for more assistance to those in need. as well as supporting NGO staff to advocate to their local and national authorities on behalf of marginalised It is clear, however, that the socio-economic impact communities. In the course of administering the ERF for those most vulnerable to slavery will far outlast and in talking with our partners and staff on the ground, the current crisis. At a time when international donors a clear picture has emerged not only of the short-term are grappling with the virus at home and rethinking impact of the crisis but also the trends likely to persist overseas investments, and as governments in slavery into the long term. hotspots are proving inadequate or overstretched in their crisis response, the risk is that support will dry up to preserve the human rights and social protection gains of recent years. Now, more than ever, anti-slavery donors must step up to protect the rights of those we serve. 2 The Freedom Fund This report provides an update on It is also an opportunity to summarise the situation in each of our program our observations over the past months, locations, as well as summarising the which have powerfully reconfirmed activities undertaken so far by our our creed that frontline groups and partners with ERF funding, and the early community structures need to be at the impact we’re seeing. This is a mere heart of any sustainable and equitable snapshot, as response activities will path to recovery and development, both continue across all our program locations in terms of the essential services they for some time. provide, and as key drivers of community awareness, emancipation and joint advocacy. Image: Distribution of covid-19 relief kits in northern India, July 2020. © Freedom Fund The Freedom Fund 3 The impact of covid-19 The Freedom Fund’s frontline closed down production, workers – including trafficked child labourers – found themselves locked in shuttered partners have been uniquely workplaces or put out in the street with no means placed to provide lifesaving initial to support themselves or fund their return home. In assistance, identify the most source communities, where people were already at high risk of falling into the hands of traffickers or falling vulnerable and push authorities to into debt bondage as a result of loans they had to pay attention. take out to cover medical bills or other basic needs, meagre incomes plummeted further as vulnerability to Over the past six months, the covid crisis has rapidly exploitation and dependence on high interest loans spread across all continents, causing immense human rose dramatically. There is also evidence of increases in suffering and economic damage in rich and poor parts domestic violence and violence against children due to of the globe. While some countries – through often mass confinement of families and stresses associated drastic lockdown measures and intensive test and with the virus and its fallout, as well as an up-tick in trace efforts – were able to drive down infection rates child and forced marriage rates as desperate families and restart economic activities, others are yet to see struggle to feed their children. the worst of the crisis. In all countries, the pandemic brought socio-economic differences into sharp relief, The Freedom Fund’s frontline partners, deeply as the poorest populations were disproportionately embedded in the communities they serve, have been affected, both by the virus and the lockdown measures. uniquely placed, not only to monitor and report on the Often living in more densely populated areas and situation on the ground, but to provide lifesaving initial housing, unable to isolate or work remotely, highly assistance, identify the most vulnerable and push the dependent on daily earnings out of the house and relevant authorities to pay attention. with reduced access to medical care, the lower income groups and ethnic minorities have been at significantly Summary of key lessons and observations greater physical and economic risk. For communities already suffering extreme poverty and exploitation, the While subsequent sections provide more detailed fallout from the crisis has been devastating. accounts of the situation in each of our target countries (India, Nepal, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Brazil), it is worth The Freedom Fund and its partners are working with highlighting some lessons and observations that have some of the poorest, most disadvantaged and most emerged across all our programs, despite significant vulnerable communities on the planet. In addition to the differences in each country’s covid exposure and health emergency, government-mandated lockdowns handling of the crisis. have left huge numbers of people, especially migrant workers, women and children, in a heightened state of vulnerability. Lack of healthcare, food, shelter, and transport for migrant workers to their homes were critical immediate impacts. As factories and sweatshops 4 The Freedom Fund On the downside: large scale cancellations by international brands are used as a cover for factories cracking down on unions Disproportionality and speed of impact and worker rights (as documented in a new report by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre). In Although swift and strict lockdown measures have areas of traditionally high levels of labour migration, helped to manage the spread of the virus and saved the interests of vulnerable residents and vulnerable lives in many developed and less developed countries, migrants/returnees are often pitted against each other, the economic shock associated with lockdown creating tension and further opportunities for malign measures disproportionately affected the poorest profiteering by traffickers and employers. and most vulnerable groups. For labourers in the informal economy – or worse, in forced labour – who Direct harm to women and children are barely able to feed themselves at the best of times, with no access to social security, the lockdown often Spikes in domestic violence and child abuse during presented a more acute existential threat than the virus the crisis have been well documented, even in the itself. The devastating and immediate effects of these industrialised world, where shelter-in-place orders and government-issued closures on the most vulnerable was school closures removed vital protection mechanisms inadequately assessed and addressed by the authorities for vulnerable individuals. Among the world’s poorest in all our areas of operation. In Thailand, for instance, populations, the effects on women and children have we have seen migrant workers engaged in informal been even more devastating. In our Brazil and Nepal seafood processing lose their jobs or see their wages hotspots, for instance, we are receiving reports of drop significantly, leaving many of them penniless increases in early and forced marriage, child labour and when the wholesale seafood markets closed.

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