London — Short-term home rental company
Airbnb said on Monday it would invest in new technology to crack down on
modern slavery amid the concern that traffickers are turning its
properties into "pop-up brothels" to sexually exploit vulnerable women
and girls.
Airbnb exclusively told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
that it has teamed up with anti-trafficking charity Polaris to train its employees, develop new systems and work with the police to spot signs of slavery and prevent people from being trafficked.
The US-based company — valued at about $31bn — is part of a growing drive to root out modern slavery from the hospitality sector, mainly the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Founded in 2008, Airbnb now operates in nearly 200 countries and has facilitated more than 260-million home and room rentals.
"We’re taking a modern approach to combating modern slavery by leveraging the innovation of the sharing economy to better spot and stop potential exploitation ahead of time," said Nick Shapiro, global head of trust and risk management at Airbnb.
"Exploitation and trafficking are still all too common in today’s society, but we are eager to use our global reach to help assist in the effort to end it once and for all," Shapiro told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an exclusive interview.
Airbnb said it would combine its existing risk analysis — from screening every host and guest to trawling through photos to check for signs of exploitation — with data and insight from Polaris, which runs the US National Human Trafficking Hotline.
At least 2,680 slavery victims were identified by Polaris as having been trafficked at hotels and motels in the US — mostly for sex work — between January 2015 and September 2017.
British legislators in 2017 investigated the rise of "pop-up brothels" on rental websites such as Airbnb following reports of temporary brothels springing up across Britain. Sex traffickers in the US are reported to have used the same tactic.
Airbnb’s anti-slavery push follows similar action by another sharing economy company — the ride-hailing app Uber — which in January said it would teach its drivers across the US how to spot traffickers and their victims when they hailed a car.
"The sharing economy and companies like Airbnb offer new ways to scale up … the fight against trafficking," Brandon Bouchard, a spokesman for US-based Polaris, said by e-mail.
About 25-million people globally were estimated to be trapped in forced labour or sexual exploitation in 2016, according to the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) and human rights group Walk Free Foundation.
Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF)
Airbnb exclusively told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
that it has teamed up with anti-trafficking charity Polaris to train its employees, develop new systems and work with the police to spot signs of slavery and prevent people from being trafficked.
The US-based company — valued at about $31bn — is part of a growing drive to root out modern slavery from the hospitality sector, mainly the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Founded in 2008, Airbnb now operates in nearly 200 countries and has facilitated more than 260-million home and room rentals.
"We’re taking a modern approach to combating modern slavery by leveraging the innovation of the sharing economy to better spot and stop potential exploitation ahead of time," said Nick Shapiro, global head of trust and risk management at Airbnb.
"Exploitation and trafficking are still all too common in today’s society, but we are eager to use our global reach to help assist in the effort to end it once and for all," Shapiro told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an exclusive interview.
Airbnb said it would combine its existing risk analysis — from screening every host and guest to trawling through photos to check for signs of exploitation — with data and insight from Polaris, which runs the US National Human Trafficking Hotline.
At least 2,680 slavery victims were identified by Polaris as having been trafficked at hotels and motels in the US — mostly for sex work — between January 2015 and September 2017.
British legislators in 2017 investigated the rise of "pop-up brothels" on rental websites such as Airbnb following reports of temporary brothels springing up across Britain. Sex traffickers in the US are reported to have used the same tactic.
Airbnb’s anti-slavery push follows similar action by another sharing economy company — the ride-hailing app Uber — which in January said it would teach its drivers across the US how to spot traffickers and their victims when they hailed a car.
"The sharing economy and companies like Airbnb offer new ways to scale up … the fight against trafficking," Brandon Bouchard, a spokesman for US-based Polaris, said by e-mail.
About 25-million people globally were estimated to be trapped in forced labour or sexual exploitation in 2016, according to the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) and human rights group Walk Free Foundation.
Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF)
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