Matt Friedman | CEO, The Mekong Club; an international human trafficking expert
- Matt is the CEO of The Mekong Club.
- He is an international expert on human trafficking.
Podcast
Overview
Human trafficking is the social menace that still grips the modern world with tight clutches. We might not see it around with our naked eyes, but when monitored the situations closely, its impact can be felt in the immediate surroundings in one way or the other. In our today’s discussion, we try to understand the meaning of modern slavery, along with its causes and possible solutions.
[00:31] – About Matt Friedman
- Matt is the CEO of The Mekong Club.
- He is an international expert on human trafficking
- He is working to eliminate all forms of modern slavery.
- Matt is also an author of 12 books, with the latest one titled, “Dancing in the Light of the Moon.”
[00:51] – Tell me about The Mekong Club, and what was your motivation to start it?
- It is an organisation that works with the private sector in a positive, supporting, non naming and shaming way, to help them to understand the issue of modern slavery.
- We work with the banks because the profits generated from modern slavery is around 150 billion dollars. If any of that money gets into a legitimate bank, it is money.
- We work with the manufacturers and retailers because they have supply chains. They can have sweatshops. We work with the hotel industries because sex trafficking can play out in hotels.
- We do this by raising awareness, helping them to understand the issue and if they run into problems, we help them to sort it out.
[03:03] – Is this something that is there all over the world, or is it specific to some regions? Is it an economic summative factor?
- Basically, it is in every country in the world. India has the largest number of people in this situation.
- It often includes forced prostitution and situations in construction site, sweatshops or domestic places where helpers are exploited.
[04:16] – What is being done by the government of India to significantly reduce a challenge like this?
- The global number is very miniscule, given the seriousness of the situation in hand. The part of the reason for this is the amount of generated profits. The amount of money spent to overcome this problem is 0.2% of the generated profits.
- General awareness is very low. If you don’t know about the issue, you are not going to care about it. If you don’t care, you are not going to do anything about it.
- The Indian government has tried to raise awareness and help people understand the issues. But the biggest problem is that when the migrants come in such issue and come back to India, they lie about their experiences. This encourages other people to migrate a well.
[07:02] – How does The Mekong group step in and provide support?
- The legislation says, if you are a big company, you have to put on tour website about what you are doing to address modern slavery. You have to fill out a report that describes your actions and that has to be signed by the board of directors.
- As a result, companies are incentivised in order to understand the issue. Because if the investigative journalist finds this in their supply chain or in their bank, it can have a devastating impact.
- For example, there was a bank in Australia, that was fined 1.3 billion Australian dollars because it allowed online sexual exploitation of children.
- If a larger band finds that they are named and shamed in a newspaper, it has a negative impact on that particular organisation.
RESOURCES:
You can connect with Matt Friedman – LinkedIn
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Profile
- Matt is the CEO of The Mekong Club.
- He is an international expert on human trafficking.
- He is working to eliminate all forms of modern slavery.
- Matt is also an author of 12 books, with the latest one titled, “Dancing in the Light of the Moon.”
