A smokey sweet global news round
Smokey Activists in Africa are upset about the government’s decision to promote tobacco production but not just because smoking is predicted to be the leading cause of deaths worldwide by 2030 killing 8 million people a year. Tanzania has already seen an increase in trafficking onto tobacco plantations so if there is an increased … Read more
UN Advisor slams government’s new trafficking strategy
“The UK government is taking the country’s anti-trafficking efforts in a dangerous direction, if its new strategy on tackling human trafficking published today is anything to go by.” This is the view of Steve Chalke MBE, founder of the charity STOP THE TRAFFIK and UN.GIFT Special Advisor on Community Action against Human Trafficking. Steve said, “The … Read more
Breaking the trafficking stereotype
Yesterday, a man who was found guilty of trafficking women out of the UK, was sentenced to 20 years in jail. This was the first prosecution of its kind in the UK. Before an attempt was made to traffick two girls, 14 and 16, out of the country, the girls were imprisoned in the man’s UK … Read more
Northern Ireland – Police can’t do it alone!
This week, a BBC investigation in Northern Ireland uncovered that up to £500,000 is spent every week on prostitution and police estimate there are 88 brothels in operation. Read more here. Police said gangs can make millions of pounds a year by trafficking women in to the country and exploiting them. Northern Ireland has a higher … Read more
Stolen – new BBC drama addresses child trafficking
Sunday 3rd July, BBC1 will air it’s new 90-minute drama Stolen, from award-winning director Justin Chadwick. Stolen follows the story of one man, Anthony, and three children. Anthony works in the Human Trafficking Unit, battling to make a difference to the plight of exploited children being smuggled into the UK and from there, to anywhere and … Read more
Trafficking in your country – 2011 TIP Report
This week the U.S. Department of State released their 2011 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report. What can you use the TIP for? The TIP is a good resource for trafficking information in countries all over the world. The 2011 report there are 184 countries listed and ranked. If you want to know about trafficking in … Read more
Who works at the cannabis farm next door?
The Observer thinks the authorities are failing, but could communities also do more to identify potential cases of trafficking? Recently the Observer highlighted the case of Hien, a 14 year old from Vietnam who was trafficked into the UK. Hien was picked up at Heathrow by the British authorities and was put into care … Read more
ACT Sheffield on the telly!
A fantastic ACT group based at Sheffield Hallam University were asked to feature on the ITV news! The programme is called ITV fixers and helps people ages 18-25 achieve various projects. They were raising awareness of the internal trafficking of British nationals and the ITV were so impressed, they had little documentary made about what … Read more
Confused by the price of chocolate
Today dear readers, I am a little confused. For the last few months, we have been following news coming form the Ivory Coast very closely and something occurred to me over the weekend. When countries supplying the world with oil are a touch turbulent (e.g. Iraq / Libya ….) oil prices soar. Over a … Read more
GLOBAL newsround 11.03.2011
The Philippines An exciting announcement came today from Manilla. Beginning March 15th, a 24/7 hotline for victims of human trafficking will be running in the Philippines! By dialing 1343 victims will reach the Actionline in Manilla and receive the help they need. Read more… http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/03/11/11/victim-human-trafficking-call-1343 UK Some of the news I read when preparing the … Read more
mmmmMars bars in Australia!
Last week (Monday 28th February 2011) MARS in Australia announced their lovely MARS bars in Australia will carry the Rainforest Alliance logo as of June 2011. This followed a campaign where STOP THE TRAFFIK Australia sent 30,000 postcards to supporters who then urged MARS to roll out a product that uses cocoa certified as ‘traffik … Read more
Global Newsround 01.03.2011
Argentina In an attempt to curtail human trafficking within it’s borders, the Argentinean government is considering punishing anyone who pays for sex. The proposal has started a heated debate between women’s rights groups and sex workers. The Association of Women Prostitutes stress the difference between sex work where consent is given, and trafficking which they … Read more
Global News 08/02/2011
Zimbabwe “They put you on the phone and beat you up while your relatives are listening.” Established, organised criminal gangs specialising in human trafficking, known locally as Omalaitsha, have flourished under President Mugabe. Working in conjunction with the Guma Guma gang, which is described as “a brutal network of border control thugs”, the Omalaitsha traffik … Read more
Global News 28/01/2011
Indonesia The client looks through the photos and contacts the website administrator when they’ve decided which one they’d like to purchase. It’s the kind of online shopping that happens every second of every day across the internet. But this time it’s different. The website? A Facebook group. The site administrator? A human trafficker. The products … Read more
Press Statement – UK sex traffickers sentenced
Steve Chalke – founder of STOP THE TRAFFIK and UN.GIFT Special Advisor on Community Action against People Trafficking - reacts to the sentencing of father and son traffickers. Read the news report here. “The trafficking of people is a horrific crime. The level of violence inflicted on every victimised woman involved in this case, the fear and … Read more
Global News 19/01/2011
By Simon Butcher Argentina / Holland One of the largest agri-industry companies in the world – the Dutch grain merchant Nidera – has been accused of human trafficking. Argentinean authorities raided a Nidera plantation near Buenos Aires, where 133 seasonal workers, beleived to be trafficking victims, were found to be working in shocking conditions. The company are … Read more
Father and Son Trafficking Team Convicted
Marius Nejloveanu and his father, Bogdan, have been convicted of trafficking 5 women from Romania to Manchester, UK. The victims were originally told that they could earn up to £1000 a month working in a bar. But after arriving in the country, the father and son team forced them into prostitution, making them see up to … Read more
Global News 13/01/2011
Ohio, US The manager of Starbucks in Cleveland, Ohio said he was unaware of what was going on. Staff swiping a few dollars from the till for themselves? Giving their favourite customers and extra marshmallow? Customers writing graffiti on the toilet door? No – on all three counts. He was unaware that when a man, … Read more
Global News 06/01/2011
France “It feels like we have broken up a completely medieval gang structure.” Those were the words of a clearly quite taken-aback Parisian police chief. A Bosnian man, Fehmi Hamidovic, is believed to be behind this operation which trafficked young girls from the Balkans to the French capital for the purposes of forced begging and … Read more
Global News 20/12/2010
China In the shadows of the skyscrapers and shopping malls that mark China’s economic transformation, homelessness is increasingly rife. You’d think that homeless shelters would be integral to tackling this growing problem – but reports from Beijing suggest that one such shelter has been exploiting the very people it claimed to be supporting. 11 residents … Read more
Global News 15/12/2010
Iceland A lot of people have pointed out that the recent publication by WikiLeaks of US Embassy cables doesn’t seem to have told us much we didn’t already know about the world. But there’s no doubting it will give rise to a few rather awkward conversations and several red faces in diplomatic circles. It appears … Read more
Global News 25/11/2010
Thailand / US If you want a ‘happy ending’, it depends, of course, on where you stop your story. This article from the LA Times is a perfect example. A Thai victim of human trafficking who has just been reunited with his family at LA International Airport after 6 years describes it as the most … Read more
Global News 18/11/2010
US Last week in New York, the UN launched a fund which will provide legal, humanitarian and financial aid to victims of human trafficking. Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon summed up the plight faced by trafficking victims quite neatly: “Many victims end up stranded, friendless… and may not ask for help because they … Read more
Trafficking & The Sex Industry: Where do you stand?
The Economist’s ‘Where do you stand?’ advertising campaign, which consists of a series of juxtaposed posters with opposing arguments on contentious issues, has delved into the sex industry, asking “Prostitution: Crime or Business?”. One of the arguments on the poster, which can be found sprawled across the walls of London underground stations, reads as follows: … Read more
Global News 04/11/2010
US Baseball is not a thing that I know much about, or have ever really paid much attention to. I remember playing it a few times in PE lessons at school and recall the teacher instructing me to “swing really hard in case I hit it”. I feel that this teacher may have failed to … Read more
Global News
South East Asia: A series of successful arrests has hopefully brought to an end a human trafficking operation that spanned Thailand and Laos. A police raid on a bar led to the discovery of 12 Laotian girls being held in a Holiday Inn hotel in Muang Lop Buri. This raises the question yet again of … Read more
Children found enslaved on Worcester farm
Earlier this week I got home quite late. It was dark; I was feeling rather cold, hungry and was generally struggling to come to terms with the fact that winter seemed to be looming heavily. Anyway, I foraged around the kitchen on the hunt for comfort food and managed to uncover a rather limp cucumber … Read more
Breaking News: East London Big Child Trafficking Racquet – 7 arrests
Great news -the Police have broken an East London Romanian-based Trafficking ring that targeted Roma Children between 3 and 17 years of age and forced them to beg and steal . Lets just hope that the victims now receive the proper care and the ‘victim-centered’ approach that is said to be a policing priority. The problem … Read more
Bitter Sweet update on Chocolate…
Hey Everyone! Here’s an update on what’s currently happening in Europe around the chocolate industry, thanks to Antoinie, STOP THE TRAFFIK Netherlands: Last week Thursday, Tulane University published their latest report on trafficking and the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa industry of West Africa. The findings were shocking, to say the least. … Read more
Exploitation of labor rights in Chocolate production is ongoing
The worst forms of child labor, forced labor and trafficking of children have not been eradicated yet, on the contrary, a newly released study gives real evidence about the widespread practices and the ineffectiveness of the industry’s efforts. Nine years ago, a voluntary agreement called the Harkin-Engel Protocol was signed by the cocoa and chocolate … Read more
