Structural indicators could flag forced labour risks for early intervention

A new report from The Remedy Project shows that exploitation in Malaysia’s electronics sector is not incidental but structurally produced, driven by factors such as procurement pressures, debt-financed recruitment, restricted worker voice and persistent governance gaps. The second case study in the organization’s forced labour series, the report examines how these conditions create risk, and questions whether prevailing forced labour risk assessment models are fit for purpose. Through its analysis, it concludes that the very structural factors that give rise to exploitation also offer a more effective basis for identifying and preventing it, shifting attention away from harm detection after the fact and towards earlier preventative intervention.

Malaysia’s electronics industry is highly globalized and reliant on complex, multi-tiered supply chains shaped by rapid production cycles and intense price competition. Production depends heavily on migrant workers, who are concentrated in precarious, low-paid shop-floor roles, and who frequently enter employment via informal recruitment networks through which they accrue substantial debt. Many face limited job security, weak access to grievance mechanisms, and minimal protection under local labour laws. These dynamics create environments in which structural vulnerability, rather than isolated misconduct, becomes the primary driver of coercive labour conditions.

Yet many existing assessment frameworks struggle to capture these systemic vulnerabilities because they focus primarily on visible violations – and only once those violations have already occurred. In practice, this makes them reactive, documenting forced labour as it emerges rather than identifying the early warning signals that could enable prevention and early intervention. Audit-based assessments in particular provide static, point-in-time snapshots that often miss risks that are structural, evolving or embedded upstream in recruitment and commercial arrangements. Similarly, the ILO’s forced labour indicators, while essential for identifying situations in which forced labour has already materialized, are less effective at anticipating where risk is likely to emerge, as their emphasis on basic labour standards captures only the most overt signs of exploitation and offers a partial picture of how harm develops and persists.

It is against this backdrop that the report asks whether structural indicators might provide more accurate early warning signals than conventional forced labour metrics. Using Malaysia’s electronics sector as a case study, the findings suggest that these systemic drivers do indeed reveal vulnerability before violations materialize. By focusing on the conditions that make exploitation likely or even inevitable, rather than waiting to document harm after it occurs, businesses and regulators are better positioned to shift from reactive risk management towards proactive prevention, embedding resilience within supply chains while strengthening both worker protection and commercial stability. Viewed through this lens, procurement practices themselves function as predictive risk indicators, signaling where and when suppliers are most likely to transfer financial pressure onto workers.

Addressing this requires remediation strategies that tackle root causes, including recalibrating purchasing practices to reflect labour costs and remediation needs, integrating minimum labour-cost benchmarks into pricing, stabilizing order volumes to reduce production pressure, and establishing cost-sharing mechanisms so corrective action does not fall solely on suppliers. The report also highlights the importance of co-financing ethical recruitment where supplier capacity is limited, alongside embedding worker voice and grievance mechanisms as continuous forms of risk monitoring rather than one-off compliance tools.

Finally, the report emphasizes that meaningful stakeholder engagement, including collaboration with trade unions, worker representatives and civil society organizations, is essential if prevention efforts are to be grounded in worker realities. These actors have built long-term trust with workers and are far better positioned than audits to understand lived experiences and surface risks that factory-led reporting often fails to capture. Promoting freedom of association, in particular, provides a pathway to remedy by enabling workers to access independent representation, raise complaints without fear of retaliation, and use grievance mechanisms that offer genuine protection. In practice, this approach strengthens risk identification, risk management and remediation alike, reinforcing the shift from documenting harm after it occurs to preventing exploitation before it takes hold.

Here’s a roundup of other noteworthy news and initiatives:

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An upcoming panel discussion hosted by The Stimson Center will examine efforts to crack down on scam compounds across Southeast Asia, where online fraud networks are increasingly linked to human trafficking and forced labour. The event, which takes place on Thursday, fits squarely with coverage of the Cambodia crisis, situating the country’s scam-compound economy within wider regional enforcement challenges and transnational crime dynamics involving Cambodia and its neighbors.

A new blog post from ReAct Asia highlights that NGOs are the primary source of the rigorous worker-rooted evidence that underpins corporate human-rights accountability yet, as civic space tightens across Southeast Asia and beyond, that knowledge infrastructure is under threat — risking a shift toward reliance on corporate self-reporting and audits that lack the depth and credibility of independent field documentation.

This new paper by Re:Structure Lab lays out an AI-driven method to pull together fragmented forced-labour evidence across sectors and firms, tackling a major bottleneck in accountability and policy design. It also puts forward a theory linking forced labour in global value chains to employer monopsony power, arguing that labour supply elasticities can help identify the point at which exploitation tips into coercion.

A new UN Human Rights Council report reviews global progress on tackling the sale and sexual exploitation of children, while highlighting persistent gaps in prevention, enforcement and data. It warns that digital technologies, conflict, displacement and weak regulatory environments are creating new risks that existing protection frameworks are struggling to address.

New Zealand is moving from years of discussion to concrete action on modern slavery legislation, with rare cross-party backing that makes passage genuinely likely. Unlike earlier proposals, it would place enforceable supply-chain transparency and reporting obligations on businesses, aligning New Zealand with leading international frameworks rather than leaving exploitation largely to voluntary commitments.

The UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking has opened a new global call for proposals to fund direct assistance for trafficking survivors, with applications due by 28 February. The small grants program prioritizes frontline and survivor-centered organizations delivering urgent humanitarian, legal and protection services.