The U.S. Department of Labor’s 2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor reveals a troubling rise in global exploitation, with a record 204 goods identified as being produced through forced or child labor.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s 2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor shows that overall, the global rate of forced and child labor is rising – a sobering reminder that forced exploitation around the globe is moving in the wrong direction. The list, released every two years, is required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), and remains a critical tool for understanding labor conditions in global supply chains, informing government policy, and encouraging corporate due diligence. This year’s list highlights 204 goods – the largest amount ever included – from every region in the world.
At HU, we support the work of our partners who seek to build worker power and help transform unjust labor systems. We also know that governments and corporations must be held accountable in preventing and responding to forced labor in their supply chains. It is imperative that corporations end the practice of exploiting workers to drive down costs in pursuit of higher profits, conduct thorough due diligence, and take the steps required to build and maintain worker-driven social compliance. Governments, in turn, can assist corporations with understanding the indicators of forced labor, robustly enforce import bans, and implement procurement practices that ensure goods made with forced labor are not purchased with public funds.
Strong government regulation that promotes workers’ rights is key, and corporations must create conditions for workers to realize their rights by supporting the freedom of association and investing in worker-driven social compliance. Enforceable Brand Agreements such as the Dindigul Agreement and Fruit of the Loom Freedom of Association Agreement are models that can build worker power and provide frameworks for addressing labor violations. The Department of Labor highlighted the impact of legal reforms and increased government oversight in their determination to remove shrimp from Thailand from the list and the Executive Order 13126 List. The Thai shrimp industry, local advocacy partners, and shrimp farmers and suppliers, in particular, have worked hard to improve their practices and provide a better product, only to struggle to compete with the rest of the global shrimp market which has had far less scrutiny. Over the last 15 years, government reforms and their ratification of key ILO conventions have also had a significant impact on the improvements of the shrimp industry. We commend these government reforms throughout the years while acknowledging that there is still work to do.
The list demonstrates the importance of a broad group of stakeholders that call attention to labor abuses in supply chains, including workers, non-governmental organizations, journalists, advocates and researchers. Sustained reporting from Greenpeace informed the inclusion of fish from Taiwan on the list for a third time and revealed that Indonesian migrant workers continue to experience forced labor on distant water vessels. Corporate Accountability Lab’s research and analysis on labor conditions in Ghana’s cocoa sector and in India’s shrimp industry were key sources, as well.
Forced labor is not isolated to a specific supply chain, sector, or region, it is a global issue. The list adds to the growing body of research and evidence available to help us understand the scale of exploitation used to produce the goods we use daily. And with this data, we believe that corporations and governments must strengthen their efforts to protect workers and hold those accountable who profit from exploitation.