Rallying businesses against trafficking

LAST November, Singapore's parliament passed the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act. While it contains provisions for the prosecution of traffickers and the protection of trafficked people, all those who have worked on this problem would agree that the best response to trafficking would be to prevent it from happening in the first place.

One potentially productive approach to this is to enlist the co-operation of businesses. Human trafficking is itself a big business, estimated by Interpol last year to have a value of US$39 billion annually, but much of this illicit trade depends on finding buyers who are or who partner legitimate businesses.

It is only profitable for two reasons.