Warsaw - In collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Samsung Electronics successfully hosted an online workshop entitled “Workshop for Samsung Electronics Business Partners, on Promoting Ethical Recruitment and Fair Labour Practices in Electronics Supply Chains” on 20-21 May 2021 to raise awareness of its stakeholders in Poland on reducing the business risks associated with modern slavery. The workshop was attended by 50 participants from Samsung Poland and local suppliers and other business partners in the country.

Globally, around 40 million people are the victims of modern slavery. According to the recent estimates by IOM, the Walk Free Foundation, and the International Labour Organization (ILO), of these 40 million, 25 million people find themselves the victims of forced labor, often hidden in plain sight yet working across all kinds of industries and geographies.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, approximately 3.6 million are modern slavery victims, translating into a prevalence of 3.9 per 1,000 persons, highest of any region in the world.

The Global Slavery Index also estimates that 91 per cent of those in modern slavery in the region are victims of forced labour. Among Samsung Electronics global branches, Samsung Electronics Poland is one of a few factories that hires migrant workers due to labour shortage in Poland.

Samsung’s commitment to prevent, identify and mitigate unethical recruitment practices is laid out in its Migrant Worker Policy renewed in 2020. This is the third workshop held by Samsung Electronics and IOM as an ongoing effort to address modern slavery in the electronics industry. Last June and November in 2019, Samsung Electronics and IOM held trainings on the same topic in Malaysia and Hungary. The workshops aimed to raise awareness within the company and its business partners of the protection of the labor rights of migrant workers active in its supply chains.

The workshop was composed of five sessions: Samsung Electronics presented Samsung Migrant Worker  Policy and the basic workers’ rights; IOM covered the key characteristics and industry specific risks of modern slavery, business cases for taking action to counter modern slavery, legal frameworks in Poland to prevent modern slavery as well as strategies of ethical recruitment.

Mitigating risk of modern slavery in the supply chain is highly context specific. Based on the strong presence around the world, IOM is positioning itself as a reliable partner to promote ethical recruitment for effective human rights management. Together with IOM, Samsung Electronics will continue to seek ways to tackle modern slavery and promote workers’ rights in its global supply chain.

For more information please contact Youlan NO, IOM ROK, Tel.: +82 70 4820 2750, Email: yno@iom.int.