UK. Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has announced its membership of the Slave-Free Alliance, becoming the first airport operator in the UK to join the network.
The Slave-Free Alliance is part of Hope for Justice, a charity which aims to end modern slavery by preventing exploitation, rescuing victims of modern slavery and helping to restore their lives. The alliance’s services include investigation, crisis response, gap analysis, training and advocacy and remediation.
MAG, the owner of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, said the Slave-Free Alliance would be able to assess its supply chains, from construction to retail, and from manufacturing to facilities management. MAG underlined the charity’s expertise in independently reviewing, benchmarking and developing processes to help combat modern slavery.
“To complement its membership of the Slave-Free Alliance, MAG is working to create its own internal processes to identify and combat the risk of modern slavery within its airports, which includes the education and training of its own staff about possible signs that someone may be a victim of exploitation,” the airport operator stated.
MAG Chief Customer Officer Tricia Williams commented: “By becoming a member of the Slave-Free Alliance, we’re taking a proactive approach to ensure that there is transparency in our business and throughout our supply chain, to make sure that nobody is exploited, and we expect our suppliers to share this commitment.
“We’re engaging with all suppliers to eliminate any practices that might compromise the basic human rights of workers in our supply chain, and we will refuse to do business with any organisation which does not consistently uphold standards.”
| Slave-Free Alliance is a social enterprise launched in 2018 by anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice to support organisations in working towards a slave-free supply chain. Hope for Justice, headquartered in Manchester, was founded in 2008 and has active anti-trafficking programmes across four continents. “With surveys showing that 77% of organisations think there is a likelihood of finding modern slavery in their operations or supply chains, membership of Slave-Free Alliance is a simple way for employers to get the answers and support they need to combat this growing threat,” the alliance says. |
Williams said MAG’s membership of the alliance is “another step in our journey to protect those working for our airports and their suppliers and to educate ourselves through staff education so that we are able to effectively identify instances of modern slavery”.
She added: “We’re proud to be the first UK airport operator to become a member, and hope our work encourages others within our industry to do the same. There is no reason for modern slavery to exist in our society, and we will work hard to ensure it doesn’t happen in connection with our business.”
Slave-Free Alliance Director Marc Stanton said: “It is fantastic that MAG has chosen to take this positive step and publicly show its commitment to a slave-free supply chain through its membership of Slave-Free Alliance.
“We are particularly pleased to see MAG’s expectation that its suppliers take their own steps to protect human rights and prevent exploitation. We look forward to working closely with MAG and helping them become a world-leader in their sector on the issue of modern slavery prevention.”
