London,
30
July
2019
|
11:42
Europe/London

MAG becomes the first airport operator in the UK to sign up to the Slave-Free Alliance

MAG, the owner of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, has today announced that it is the first airport operator in the UK to become a member of the Slave-Free Alliance.

Slave-Free Alliance is part of Hope for Justice, a charity which works to end modern slavery by preventing exploitation, rescuing victims of modern slavery and restoring their lives.

MAG’s membership will allow the Slave-Free Alliance to help identify areas across all MAG’s supply chains, from construction to retail, manufacturing to facilities management. The expertise of the Slave-Free Alliance allows them to independently review, benchmark and develop processes to help combat modern slavery.

To complement its membership of the Slave-Free Alliance, MAG is working to create its own internal processes to identify and combat the risk of modern slavery within its airports, which includes the education and training of its own staff about possible signs that someone maybe a victim of exploitation.

Tricia Williams, Chief Customer Officer, MAG said: “By becoming a member of the Slave-Free Alliance we’re taking a proactive approach to ensure that there is transparency in our business and throughout our supply chain, to make sure that nobody is exploited, and we expect our suppliers to share this commitment.

“We’re engaging with all suppliers to eliminate any practices that might compromise the basic human rights of workers in our supply chain, and we will refuse to do business with any organisation which does not consistently uphold standards.

“Our membership of the Alliance is another step in our journey to protect those working for our airports and their suppliers, and to educate ourselves through staff education so that we are able to effectively identify instances of modern slavery.

“We’re proud to be the first UK airport operator to become a member, and hope our work encourages others within our industry to do the same. There is no reason for modern slavery to exist in our society, and we will work hard to ensure it doesn’t happen in connection with our business.”

Slave-Free Alliance Director Marc Stanton said: “It is fantastic that MAG has chosen to take this positive step and publicly show its commitment to a slave-free supply chain through its membership of Slave-Free Alliance. We are particularly pleased to see MAG’s expectation that its suppliers take their own steps to protect human rights and prevent exploitation. We look forward to working closely with MAG and helping them become a world-leader in their sector on the issue of modern slavery prevention.”