KnowTheChain, a benchmark that helps companies calculate their approach to address forced labor, has issued a new report marking out that forced labor risks within the supply chains of 43 international apparel and footwear brands found discouraging performances, with two-thirds of the companies ranked with an overall score below 50 out of 100, and nearly a quarter scoring under 10 out of 100.

This year’s apparel and footwear benchmarks report stated that luxury apparel brands such as LVMH, Prada and Salvatore Ferragamo fetched a rating of under 15 out of 100. While Adidas, Lululemon and Gap secured rankings of 92, 89 and 75 respectively. Notably, the overall report gave apparel and footwear industry an average rating of 37 out of 100 with leading footwear brands like Skechers and Foot Locker scoring as low as 7 and 12 respectively.

Reportedly, the apparel and footwear sector significantly relies on migrant labor. For example, in Jordan’s total apparel workforce, migrant workers account for 70 per cent and 44 per cent of the Mauritius apparel workforce.

Additionally, migrant employees are at particular risk of exploitation, as employers often hold their passports to stop them from travelling freely and enable recruitment agencies to charge hefty fees. In Taiwan, recruitment agents were reported to charge such employees up to US $ 7,000, for jobs in fabric mills.