Modern Day Slavery: Pakistan

Ruth Jones Excerpts

Thursday 13th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Ruth Jones (Newport West and Islwyn) (Lab)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger—without you filling in, we could not have held this important debate, so thank you for your time. I also thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for opening this debate with such clarity and compassion. His tireless advocacy for persecuted communities, particularly Christians and other minorities in Pakistan, is both admirable and necessary. I also pay tribute to the all-party parliamentary group for the Pakistani minorities for its report, published in May last year, which brought essential evidence to the House.

As someone who has consistently stood up for justice, equality and the protection of all faith communities, I rise today with deep concern, but also determination, because we are confronting what is, in all but name, modern-day slavery. Across Pakistan, particularly in Punjab and Sindh, more than 4 million people, many of whom are from religious minority backgrounds, are trapped in bonded labour in the brick kiln industry. Entire families—mothers, fathers and children as young as five—work long hours under scorching heat, breathing in toxic fumes, and still cannot repay debts that often began with a small loan taken out of desperation.

Let me be clear: there has been progress, and it is right that we acknowledge that. Pakistan’s Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992, as the hon. Member for Strangford outlined earlier, outlawed debt bondage. Provincial measures, such as the Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kilns Act 2016, have banned the employment of children under 14.

We have also seen the launch of the Khidmat cards to support brick kiln families and encourage schooling, alongside efforts to register workers and enforce minimum wage. The introduction of zig-zag kiln technology supported by international partners, including the International Labour Organisation, has not only reduced air pollution, but offered a platform for improving labour monitoring and worker safety.

However, laws mean little without enforcement. A recent report by Pakistan’s own National Commission for Human Rights confirmed what activists have long said: enforcement remains weak, inspections are rare and many of the district-level vigilance committees meant to oversee bonded labour cases are either inactive or non-existent.

Behind every statistic is a human life. Yasmin, a mother of four from rural Punjab, took a small loan to pay her husband’s medical bills. That debt chained her family to a brick kiln. Each day, she and her children work from sunrise to sunset. The smoke makes it hard to breathe. They mould bricks with their hands in temperatures higher than 40°C, and still her debt grows. “Even when we sleep,” she says, “we dream of mud.”

Then there is Qaiser, who is just 11 years old. He wanted to be a doctor, but when his father fell ill he was pulled from school and put to work. He now spends 14 hours a day mixing clay instead of holding books. These stories of crushed dreams and invisible chains are not exceptions; they are the reality for thousands of families across Pakistan’s brick kilns. As a proud Labour MP, I have always believed that every worker deserves fair pay, dignity and safety, but that belief must extend beyond our borders, especially when British aid, diplomacy or trade may touch the same industries that sustain injustice.

This is also a women’s issue, as the hon. Member for Strangford outlined. More than one third of women working in Pakistan’s brick kilns experience harassment or abuse. It is also a child protection issue. The International Labour Organisation estimates that more than 1 million children in Pakistan are involved in brick making, some starting work before the age of 10. They should be in classrooms, not kiln yards.

In my work in the APPG on safeguarding in faith communities, I have seen how easily systems fail the most vulnerable, especially when poverty, gender and faith intersect. We must not allow these women and children to continue falling through the cracks of international policy.

We cannot call ourselves champions of freedom and justice abroad if we stay silent about slavery when it is right in front of us. That is why I am calling for a number of things. I want stronger scrutiny of UK aid to Pakistan to ensure it directly supports the elimination of bonded labour, strengthens independent labour inspections and funds legal aid and education for freed families. Programmes such as Aawaz II and the Asia regional child labour programme must not just exist, but deliver measurable change for those trapped in modern slavery.

I also want mandatory supply chain accountability for UK businesses. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 must go further.

[Martin Rhodes]

Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the most effective ways the UK can combat modern slavery worldwide is by introducing due diligence legislation for imports? In that way, we can ensure that products brought in from Pakistan, China or wherever else are produced in ways that do not include slavery.

[Ruth Jones]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I hope the Minister will touch on that in her winding-up remarks. British firms sourcing bricks, construction materials or kiln-fired products from Pakistan must prove that they are not profiting from coercion. Ethical trade should be a condition, not a courtesy.

Certification and procurement reform is another area that I want to look at. I urge the Minister to support a credible slave-free kiln certificate scheme so that we can distinguish between law-abiding employers and exploitative operators. I ask the Minister to work with her colleagues to commit to excluding slave-made bricks from public procurement, both here in the UK and in projects we support overseas. I appreciate that the Minister is standing in, but it would be great if she could touch on those points when she is winding up.

My final ask is for diplomatic leadership. The UK must raise this issue consistently in dialogue with Pakistan, not as interference but as partnership. If Pakistan is to maintain its enhanced trade access through the European Union’s generalised scheme of preferences plus, it must show tangible progress in implementing the ILO conventions it has already ratified, including those prohibiting forced child labour.

I do not believe in hopeless causes; I believe in the power of collective action, international partnership and moral leadership to transform lives. Earlier this year, 20 bonded labourers, including six children, were freed from a brick kiln in Sindh after a successful court intervention supported by local non-governmental organisations. That is what happens when laws are enforced, when civil society is empowered and when justice is made real. Let us support the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and countless grassroots organisations that work every day to free families, educate children and restore dignity.

No brick made through suffering should ever be laid in silence. As parliamentarians, we must not only speak of human rights; we must act to uphold them. If we do not stand with the poor, the exploited and the voiceless—especially those from persecuted faith communities—we will fall short of the values we claim to represent. Let this be the moment when Britain chooses to stand not only as a trading partner, but as a partner for freedom, dignity and change.