Overview

Findings

Our desk-based review (see Methodology) revealed a general awareness that communities are more vulnerable to human trafficking as a result of climate change impacts, particularly rapid-onset events, such as typhoons and tropical cyclones. A large number of the sources discuss human trafficking (risk or cases) resulting from climate change, including in the context of climate-induced migration. Only limited attention, however, is given to other forms of modern slavery (see Gaps). When discussing vulnerability to human trafficking, the evidence mostly focuses on specific population groups, often women and girls. This limits our understanding of the issue and contributes to individuals largely remaining vulnerable to it.

Sources share a clear common thread of factors that increase vulnerability to modern slavery in the context of climate change. The degree of vulnerability in each context depends on a range of individual and structural factors. However, there are often common factors:

• limited or no economic resources to withstand climate change impacts,
• lack of resources to invest in earning a living,
• absence of or exclusion from social protection mechanisms,
• and a lack of safe migration pathways that protect migrants’ rights, even when migration is internal, i.e. within a country’s border.

Some sources recognise that migration that takes place under distressed circumstances in response to climate change impacts, and that this can increase vulnerability to modern slavery. The greatest risks are identified in slow-onset contexts, such as of prolonged droughts. The communities to which people migrate may also experience pressure by the arrival of migrants. Competition for access to resources, which are becoming scarcer because of climate change, may also increase vulnerability to modern slavery in these host communities. The sources highlight a tendency to migrate in response to livelihood scarcity. In this scenario, men often migrate alone, while women and children in the family stay back. However, this is not always the case. Women and children also sometimes migrate alone or with their families.

Government inaction was found to exacerbate vulnerability to modern slavery. This inaction can take the form of:

• weak enforcement of reforms and barriers to access to social protection,
• weak regulations and accountability of businesses and recruitment agents,
• an absence of functioning socio-economic systems and weak governance,
• lack of safe migration pathways and strict immigration policies.

These factors help create an environment where modern slavery thrives. To reduce vulnerability to modern slavery in the context of climate change, it is therefore necessary to address a number of interconnected issues and to root solutions in the protection and respect of human rights. 

Some sources recognise that climate change can act as a threat multiplier, increasing vulnerability to modern slavery. When households are already struggling to make ends meet or when communities are cut off from the natural resources on which they depend, climate change can make it more difficult to survive. Individuals then resort to risky alternatives, for example facilitating traffickers, or accepting exploitative job offers to provide for themselves and their families.

People often migrate internally in response to the added pressure of climate change impacts, particularly from rural to urban areas. However, migration across borders takes place as well.

Some of the sources explore the role of environmental degradation and certain business operations in creating an enabling environment for modern slavery. One source, in particular, points to the role of capitalism: capitalist systems cause large-scale environmental damage, which fuels climate change and increases vulnerability to modern slavery in exploitative business operations. The interconnectedness of structural factors that worsen climate change and increase vulnerability to modern slavery merits further exploration.

The brick kiln industry, the construction sector and domestic work are the sectors most referred to as areas of work where people who have moved in the context of climate change are severely exploited. In the brick kiln sector specifically, exploitation mostly affects farmers from rural areas. As inability to earn a living from agriculture grows, they are pushed into debt and eventually into debt bondage with brick kiln owners. While other sectors are affected, these sectors are a particular focus of existing research.

Gaps

The many forms of modern slavery and their links with climate change and climate change-induced migration are complex and diverse. Our desk research and analysis reveal gaps in our understanding of this complexity. While there is increased recognition of the links with human trafficking, how climate change events and related migration increase the vulnerability to other forms of modern slavery, such as forced marriage and child slavery, are still underexplored in research.

The sources recognise that certain population groups – including indigenous peoples, LGBTQI+ people, children, people with disabilities and immobile communities – are more vulnerable to modern slavery. However, this has not yet been explored in detail and little attention is paid to the specific features and needs of these different groups. They are consequently invisible to policy makers, leaving them at increased risk of modern slavery.

Governments are not sufficiently aware of how climate change worsens vulnerability to severe exploitation, especially when it forces people to move in search of alternative livelihoods. This lack of awareness is demonstrated by insufficient actions to effectively address climate change and put in place adequate support mechanisms for those affected by its negative impacts, in the short and long term. Similarly, a lack of preventive efforts to build resilience and adaptability of at-risk communities shows limited knowledge of the push factors that increase vulnerability to modern slavery in the context of climate change.

There are still gaps in our understanding of the specific climate impacts and vulnerabilities at play in different contexts. For example, some sources highlight the need for more research on slow-onset settings, such as those affected by droughts. These slow-onset contexts are often overlooked in favour of rapid-onset scenarios, which attract more funding to mitigate impacts because they are associated with a sense of urgency. More research is needed to understand how context influences vulnerability to modern slavery. This is all the more so when climate change impacts are combined with other factors such as environmental degradation, socio-economic pressures, or conflict.

Climate change puts pressure on rural communities to take on unsustainable levels of debt to meet basic needs. This debt can then force them into situations of debt bondage. Further research is needed on the role of microfinancing to understand how extortionate interest rates and unethical lending increase vulnerability to modern slavery.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are based on the information collected from the sources. They are directed at governments and seek to reduce vulnerability to modern slavery in the context of climate change and migration:

1. Recognise the link between climate change, migration, and modern slavery. Address modern slavery in climate change responses and migration frameworks, considering the specific needs of different population groups.
2. Improve access to financing, resources and training for communities affected by climate change to increase their resilience and adaptability.
3. Work with communities to dismantle their acceptance of harmful practices, such as exploitative labour, so everyone can enjoy their human rights.
4. Protect natural resources and access to them, especially for local communities and indigenous peoples that rely on them for survival.
5. Expand locally-led research to determine the needs of those communities most affected by climate change and engage communities in decision making about solutions.
6. Improve social protection mechanisms and increase access to them, particularly for the most marginalised and economically insecure households.
7. Make sure safe migration pathways exist, simplify cross-border migration and make social protection portable.
8. Invest in developing local economies, create new work opportunities and improve the integration of migrants into local job markets.
9. Regulate microfinancing to make borrowing fairer to households in need.
10. Make businesses and recruitment agents accountable for the harm they cause by enforcing relevant legislation and regulating their operations more strictly.

Methodology 

The information presented on this website results from a desk-based review of published material that provides direct or indirect evidence of the links between climate change, migration and modern slavery. It summarises relevant points from the sources analysed. It does not describe their content in full.

The desk-based review covered academic literature – i.e. journal articles and research reports – and grey literature, such as non-governmental organisation (NGO) reports, country submissions to the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and policy briefs. A total of 61 potentially relevant sources were identified by the research team via keyword searches on search engines, including Google Scholar, and academic repositories. The sources were sifted through and 35 of them were selected for upload based on their relevance.

The team then systematically reviewed each source in full to capture specific information according to pre-defined criteria. The sources provided, among other information, details on types of migration, who is moving, links with climate change and recommendations. The content available on the website is just a starting point. We will continue to add to it for the duration of the funding that made this project possible.

For this initial phase, we considered sources published between 2015 and May 2023; however, most of the information was made available in 2022.

Limitations

The number of resources addressing the links between climate change, migration and modern slavery is very limited. Most of the existing documents exploring this intersection are produced by NGOs. A few of the resources analysed were produced by governments, which points to a risk of bias in their recommendations. Where authors do recognise these links, they do not always do so directly. Similarly, they do not always present their recommendations in a dedicated section, but embed them in the text, which requires further analysis of the content.

The terminology on the different forms of modern slavery adopted on this site is mostly based on the language used in the sources analysed. The language refers to the understanding of the terminology by the authors and may not correspond with the definitions adopted by Anti-Slavery International and under this project. Similarly, the climate change terminology differs in each document, the analysis reflects the one used in the source document analysed to avoid confusion.

The information presented offers insights into specific realities. While we can identify overarching patterns from the sources (see Findings), evidence on a specific context cannot be generalised to all situations. Rather, local analysis is essential if we are to understand local specificities and design effective solutions to reduce vulnerability to modern slavery.

Among the sources identified as relevant, most focus on situations in South Asia. Evidence on situations in Latin America and the Caribbean was limited, and no evidence was found on the Middle East and North Africa, North America, Europe or Central Asia regions as origin regions, although some of these regions (for example, the Gulf) were identified as destination regions for people pushed to migrate in the context of climate change. More research on regions other than South Asia would help provide a more comprehensive understanding of these issues in different contexts. With regard to climate change, the information on a country is not intended to provide an exhaustive description of all climate phenomena experienced there, or the general level of climate and environmental vulnerability of a specific country. We only highlight those climate events referenced in the sources analysed when they are relevant to our understanding of vulnerability to modern slavery in the context of climate change.

While we have sought to include sources in languages other than English, we have had limited access to such sources. Efforts to address this will be made as our work progresses.

Assumptions and considerations

Whether the link between climate change, migration and modern slavery is direct or indirect is determined based on the research team’s judgement, taking into consideration how people’s ability to survive was impacted by a climate change event.

We have used the World Bank’s categorisation of regions.

The language and terminology used on this website is based on:

• most up to date United Nations standard terminology and relevant recommendations,
• the International Organization for Migration Glossary on Migration,
• definitions of types of modern slavery – e.g. forced labour and human trafficking – adopted by the International Labour Organization and the United Nations,
• Oxfam’s Inclusive Language Guide.

In particular, climate and environmental terminology across the website refers to the terminology adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and within the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, with the exclusion of the specific documents analysis.