Britain on Friday pledged £4 million to support global anti-slavery projects. Six organisations, such as charity Anti-Slavery International and the United Nations University, a research institution, will share the aid money from The Modern Slavery Innovation Fund.
The funding will also be used to run workshops on modern slavery in South Africa, improve support for survivors in India, and develop an online data hub to boost anti-slavery policies, according to Britain’s Home Office.
The Modern Slavery Innovation Fund was announced in 2016 and previously gave £6 million to schemes such as awareness-raising campaigns in Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) - a coalition of trade unions, firms and charities promoting workers’ rights and one of the recipients of the latest funding - said it would help inform migrant workers in Malaysia about their rights and remediation.
“ETI will also work with global businesses in their supply chains worldwide so that they are able to improve working conditions for migrant workers and provide remedy for workers where they have suffered abuse,” said ETI’s Owain Johnstone.
The British government has committed a total of 200 million pounds in aid funding to combat modern-day slavery overseas, and given several million pounds to nations from Albania to Vietnam.