It is above all a brave piece of film-making. When director Anna Hall was granted access to the police investigation into child trafficking and sex abuse in the Telford area, she had no idea if the footage she was taking would ever be used. It was only after the conviction of seven men last October that the documentary team knew their work wasn’t in vain.

If you’re struggling to recall this case, it might jog your memory if I mention the ‘Asian grooming case’ or the ‘Asian gang’, as the traffickers have been referred to by various streams of media. The issue of race has overshadowed the alarming and serious issue that widespread child trafficking was going on for years in a UK community.

The media can be partly blamed for this. On one side there are papers that have latched onto the race issue to sell copies. A Google search for “Telford Asian gang” returns six times as many hits as “Telford trafficking case”.

The use of the word “Asian” is a dangerous misnomer, by the way, as the convicted men were British-born Pakistanis. Since when did these two mean the same thing?

On the other side, the more liberal media have studiously avoided the subject, preferring not to mention the R-word for fear of igniting controversy. In doing so, however, they offer no response to those who say that this crime was racially motivated. Channel 4 postponed the release of the second documentary in Hall’s series, “Britain’s Sex Gangs”, in case it caused race riots. When it was finally screened, no riots were forthcoming.

Well, here’s my response, and if you don’t mind I’m going to borrow a phrase from maths: correlation does not imply causation. In other words, just because the perpetrators were of one race, and the victims of another, it does not mean that the crime was racially motivated.

The crime was motivated, as all cases of human trafficking are, firstly by money, and secondly by power. By admission of the traffickers, the girls they targeted were chosen because they were believed to be the easiest to groom. It was purely a business decision based on maximising profit – that doesn’t sound much like a race crime to me.

If that line of reasoning isn’t enough, we could always turn to actual statistical evidence. The Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on Human Trafficking produced a report on trafficking in October 2012, which included a breakdown of Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) involved in human trafficking in the UK by nationality.

Out of the 92 identified in 2012, 1 was Pakistani. 11 were British. 19 were “Asian”, and 52 were European. With at least 19 different nationalities represented by the identified OCGs, you can’t get much clearer evidence that this is not a racial issue.

So what are the important lessons from this case? One key element of the trial stuck out for me. A piece of legislation adopted from the Palermo Protocol was used by the police to show that, because the girls were children who had been trafficked, they could not legally consent to any sexual activity. This allowed them to pin convictions on the traffickers, and should serve as a landmark case for future prosecutions.

Secondly, education is key. All young girls must be aware that grooming occurs, that under no circumstances should they be expected to perform sexual acts on strangers, and how to stay safe and keep their friends safe from these perils.

Human trafficking is a crime that transcends ethnicity, gender and class. It is a pervasive evil that exists anywhere where there is money to be made. We cannot let issues of race or religion cloud what is really important – communities must look within themselves, and must look out for each other, to eradicate this crime.

Ruth sat on two panel discussions, one on human trafficking and the other more specifically on sex trafficking, an area which attracts much attention in Germany. She joined among others an MP, directors of anti-human trafficking charities working in Germany, and the chair of the Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance – a man with three PhDs!

The discussion was very fruitful, and Ruth came back to the office today full of enthusiasm for the anti-trafficking movement in Germany and potential for expanding STOP THE TRAFFIK’s work over there.

With over 130,000 people passing through the Kirchentag, including 4,000 international visitors, it was a fantastic opportunity to meet others working to combat trafficking and strengthen our anti-trafficking network across the continent.

So if you’re in Germany and you’re passionate about fighting this global crime, like we are, then we are here to provide you with the tools to do so. We’re excited to start our anti-traffik fight in Germany, and if you are too, please get in touch with us on info@stopthetraffik.org, or via Facebook.

The trouble is, it’s often not that obvious who is losing out. Some factory worker in some third-world country. While browsing in Primark, if you were ever to stop and think about that faceless person, you’d probably be distracted by a £3 t-shirt and move on with your life.

Occasionally, but not occasionally enough, something happens which dumps that worker right into your life. 386 workers, to be precise, if you don’t count the 900 who are still unaccounted for. I’m talking, of course, about the horrific building collapse in Dhaka which has led to the death of hundreds of Bangladeshi garment-makers – but I could easily talk about the 289 who died in Karachi, Pakistan, or the 117 in Tazreen, all within the past year.

Corporate Responsibility

While Primark and Walmart are not the only corporations implicated in these disasters, I’ve singled them out because of their direct involvement in the two most recent accidents. Primark occupied a floor of the Dhaka factory, and for their part they have agreed to pay compensation to the people affected by this tragedy.

Walmart, however, claimed that their supplier had sub-contracted the work to the Tazreen factory, in the outskirts of Dhaka, without their knowledge and refused to pay compensation. So, men, women and children who worked all hours of the day to earn barely enough money to feed their families were left with traumatic injuries and no money to feed their families.

Both companies have also drawn the line at introducing better safety measures by signing the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement. Why? Because it’s too costly, according to Walmart. And yet: “We firmly believe factory owners must meet our standards for suppliers and we recognise the cost of meeting those standards will be part of the cost of the goods we buy,” said a Walmart spokesman.

By the way, let’s not forget that Michael Duke, Walmart’s CEO, awarded himself an $18.1 million salary last year. That would be enough to pay the families of the deceased 198 years’ wages each.

Denial

See, when a tragedy like this comes around, denial is the first defence. The issue is “complex”. If unsafe sweatshops didn’t exist, these people would have no jobs. Bangladesh’s cheap labour must go hand in hand with lax safety regulations if corporations are to keep their prices down.

Not true. The Worker’s Rights Consortium has put together a report that the cost of bringing 4,500 factories across Bangladesh up to Western safety standards would translate to around 6p per garment. Six pence.

Of course, this would only be true if every Western clothes shop were on board, and that isn’t going to happen while giants like Walmart and Primark believe that their “unique selling point” requires them to trample factory workers’ rights underfoot.

Forced Labour

One of the reasons for the high death toll in these accidents is that doors and windows were locked to prevent workers from escaping. This doesn’t sit well with the notion of workers’ rights, and brings up the question of how many people in the factory were there out of choice.

I guess we’ll never know how many of the dead had been trafficked into Dhaka, or lured in with the false promise of a good job. What we do know, from the US State Department’s Trafficking In Persons Report 2012, is that trafficking from rural areas to cities for forced labour is common in Bangladesh. We also know that at least one per cent of Pakistan’s population are currently in bonded labour.

Put these facts together, and we are facing the sickening situation that hundreds of people, after being forced to work in unbearable conditions for years, were crushed or burned to death because some corporation didn’t want to pay for fire escapes. And why is that? So that we could save 6p.

What can be done, then? As we always say here at STOP THE TRAFFIK, independent certification is a crucial first step. It is working for chocolate, and it can work for cotton. Add in consumer choice and you have a powerful combination. We mustn’t forget this terrible tragedy; we must use our voice and vote with our money to remind corporations that forced labour anywhere in the world is unacceptable. They cannot be allowed to forget this.

I did go once, to a law networking event, because my friend told me there was free cheese. I managed to embarrass myself in front of any prospective employers by displaying my ignorance of the law (I was a maths undergrad, to be fair). The cheese was delicious, though.

It turns out, though, that networking in the real world is an incredibly useful tool, and without it, a charity’s work would be so much harder. Networking is not about free cheese, it’s about making links with like-minded people and spreading your word without spending lots of money.

STOP THE TRAFFIK is lucky enough to work with many partners who allow us to focus on what we do best: enabling and empowering communities to stop trafficking. This means we don’t have to spend time or money doing the things we’re not trained to do.

One organisation we work with is Advocates for International Development (A4ID), who draw on their extensive network of lawyers around the world to provide pro bono (literally meaning “for a good cause”) legal advice to those who need it. Their main focus is the UN Millennium Development goals, and they support charities who work in any of the areas covered by them.

A4ID have worked with us a number of times, including advising us on legal issues surrounding our website and campaigns, and drawing up a joint venture agreement when working on a project with multiple partners.

Legal advice can be costly, but the cost of not taking legal advice can be even higher. That we have access to these services for free – pro bono work is done without compensation – is a great support for us.

Another such organisation is Leagas Delaney, a creative agency who do lots of creative stuff and have genius ideas to engage people in our work. Again, this is something that can be expensive for small charities, and our partnership has led to some of our best campaigns.

We’d like to give a big STOP THE TRAFFIK “thank you!” to A4ID and Leagas Delaney, and to all organisations who work with charities like they do. By providing their brilliant expertise, large organisations can make such a difference, not only to us, but to people suffering from injustice across the world.

If you want to learn more about these organisations, visit their websites at www.a4id.org and http://www.leagasdelaney.co.uk/.

SPOT THE TRAFFIK: A tool to equip community members and frontline professionals to identify and help victims of trafficking.

A local authority employee may be the only person to enter a house and see someone who is trapped and being exploited. STOP THE TRAFFIK has always believed that community members, in particular frontline professionals, are critical agents of change in the fight to disrupt trafficking routes and uncover hidden victims.

Funded by the Home Office and developed with Sea Communications, STOP THE TRAFFIK is excited to announce the launch of SPOT THE TRAFFIK, a pioneering multimedia tool. This new resource includes free online materials and the opportunity for face-to-face training.

This innovative project provides a clear, accessible route for frontline professionals to get informed and equipped about what to look for so they are alert for indicators that are cause for concern.

“In recent years it has been encouraging to read the columns written and reports presented raising the issue of people trafficking within the UK. However, our thinking and our talking is not enough. STOP THE TRAFFIK exists to find ways to make it possible for anyone, in this case frontline professionals, to act wisely and effectively to stop it. We believe that SPOT THE TRAFFIK will set people free.”

Ruth Dearnley, CEO STOP THE TRAFFIK

I want to tell you a story. It involves one man who was inspired by the fight against trafficking to cross continents and bring our vision back with him. It’s a story about why STOP THE TRAFFIK deals in deeds, rather than retreating into rhetoric.

As you may remember, during the London Olympics we carried out GIFT Box, a project delivered in partnership with the UN. We placed a number of installations around the capital, which contained information about various forms of human trafficking inside. They were manned by volunteers, and attracted the attention from residents as well as tourists from the UK and around the world. This resulted in uncovering over 80 suspicious incidents and inspired people to join the movement.

One man’s attention was attracted by our STOP THE TRAFFIK emails, and signed up to be a volunteer. He travelled to London from his native Brazil, and spent the Olympics manning boxes in the capital, educating people about this global crime.

That’s a nice story, isn’t it? Global coordination meets inspired volunteer. Oh, but there’s more. Here’s where it gets good.

We get a phone call a while later from this man, who is a government official in Rio de Janeiro, and he’d like to bring our GIFT Box project to his city. This is big. As sports fans probably know, Rio is hosting the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

After a lot of hard work, with a lot more still to come, STOP THE TRAFFIK is proud to announce GIFT Box Brasil – a collaboration with the government, security and various UN agencies to take the GIFT box to the streets of Rio.

There are some big events coming up this year; a pilot scheme is being run during the Confederations Cup in June. It’s the start of a huge, exciting project and will hopefully mark a new direction for a country which has serious human trafficking problems, notably in forced labour and child sex tourism.

If you would like to learn more about the GIFT Box project in London, check out the website at http://www.stopthetraffik.org/campaign/giftbox. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for more updates!

IT DOESN’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The short response to this is: it does.

Unsurprisingly, this approach doesn’t lead to a balanced, constructive exchange of views, so let’s look at the long response.

Certification provides an independent seal of approval, which says something like: “Conditions on this farm are better than on other farms. There is no trafficked, forced or child labour here. Farmers have a voice; the means to support their families; hope for the future.”

The nagging feeling might still remain, though, that you as an individual cannot make a difference, so why bother? Your personal shopping habits are a mere drop in the ocean compared to the thousands, millions of people who don’t buy Certified products, right?

Wrong. Buying Certified products sends a message to corporations that customers want change. We live in an exciting time – a time when consumers can choose to influence the decisions of companies. This would have been unthinkable a decade ago, and laughable when the Fairtrade Foundation was set up in 1992.

In Australia, Nestlé have become the first major chocolate company to source all their cocoa from Certified farms. Hershey’s have committed to Raise the Bar by going 100% Certified by 2020. These significant actions were achieved through campaigning efforts, and through consumers choosing to change their shopping habits.

Global corporations know that the consumer is a key stakeholder in their products. If she is not happy, they have no choice but to do something different. Last December, after campaigning from Greenpeace, Waitrose bowed to public pressure and halted plans to roll out a partnership with Shell due to their plans to drill for oil in the Arctic.

So you, as a consumer, have the opportunity to be part of this change. However insignificant you think that part might play, by making that choice you are making a statement. And it’s a powerful statement.

If that doesn’t satisfy you, we at STOP THE TRAFFIK recommend a more active role as ethical consumer – “Buy Certified chocolate and campaign for change”. Tell your friends, your families, your colleagues. Write to your local supermarkets and village shops. Suddenly, you’re not an individual any more doing their shopping quietly.

You’re part of a global movement that is crying out for products that are sustainably-sourced, fairly-traded, and free of human trafficking.

“I’m quickly learning that if I thought I knew about human trafficking before, I was in for a rude awakening about the depths and unfathomable truths of this modern day epidemic.”

Sometimes it’s not enough to read about these stories on the internet or in the news. Sometimes, as Suzanne discovered, you have to come face to face with a survivor to feel the full force of the torment they have suffered.

Suzanne Kim is a documentary maker working with STOP THE TRAFFIK and Amor Ministries on our Women of Strength programme. She heard the story of ‘Z’, an Indian woman who found refuge at Nirmal Bhavan, a home in a Mumbai slum for women who have escaped from the sex trade.

“That’s the thing about human trafficking: Z’s story isn’t just her story, it’s the story of so many… mistreatment, slavery, no pay, electrocution to keep them awake at night, hormone injections given to girls to control their menstrual cycles, sexual, verbal and physical abuse… the list goes on.”

As Suzanne points out, Z’s story is not isolated. Kamathipura, Mumbai’s red light district, is Asia’s second-largest and attracts sex tourists from all over the world. As such, demand is high and opposition is low.

The abuses suffered by sex workers in Mumbai are often shocking – both from their “employers” and from their clients. Many are infected with HIV. Many turn to self-harm as a way of getting control of their bodies.

STOP THE TRAFFIK and Amor Ministries have partnered on Women of Strength, an opportunity for 21 women to go on a journey to witness and prevent human trafficking around the world. The focus of the trip will be to become STOP THE TRAFFIK advocates, learning about and contributing to the model of community action STOP THE TRAFFIK is developing to resource, equip and mobilise people to take action where they live.

Suzanne has just returned from Mumbai, having met with the key project partners. You can read her blog here: http://www.wosindia2013.blogspot.in/

There are limited places still available – for more details, costs and how to apply please visit https://www.amor.org/wos. Closing date is end of April. 

One such head is domestic servitude, which will be the focus of my blog post today.

What is domestic servitude?

Domestic servitude is a type of forced labour, where a person is trafficked into someone’s home and forced to work as a helper. They are expected to perform household tasks, such as daily chores, looking after children and doing the shopping.

Often, the working conditions include: receiving little or no pay for long hours with no days off, rarely getting their own space, being forced to sleep on a sofa or the floor and being threatened if they think of leaving the house without the families’ permission. In some cases they are beaten and sexually abused.

Where does it happen?

A quick look through the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report of 2011 shows that people are trafficked in or out of almost every country in the world for the purpose of domestic servitude. As well as across borders, trafficking also goes on internally, most commonly from poor rural areas to cities.

Surely not in the UK?

Actually yes, it happens here in the UK. The first prosecution for such a case was in 2011, but the accused was eventually acquitted. The fact that this is the first case to come to court highlights the difficulty in identifying domestic servitude – often the family involved will be the only ones to see the trafficking victim, so there is little opportunity for others to spot it and report it.

How do people end up in this situation?

In cases of domestic servitude, those who become victims often apply for a “job” through an agency, get called for an interview and believe that they are accepting a bona fide position which will pay a fair wage, enabling them to support their family back home.

It’s only when they get to their destination country or city that their passport is taken away, and threats are made if they try to escape. A culture of fear is created, in which the victim has no one to trust and nowhere to run.

What can we do to prevent it?

A victim of trafficking could be living on your street, and if you are wise to the signs you could help – especially if your profession involves going into people’s homes. In the case mentioned above, the alarm was raised by a nurse who treated the victim – she became concerned that the lady spoke no English after five years living in the UK, and looked to her captor before answering any questions.

STOP THE TRAFFIK is launching a new website to assist frontline professionals and members of the community in spotting indicators of trafficking, which will be launched imminently.

You can also download our resource SPOT THE TRAFFIK which has the indicators of different types of trafficking, as well as where to report any suspicions.

But does it actually cost more?

If you’ve come across STOP THE TRAFFIK before you have probably encountered our chocolate campaign (if not read about it here). We want large chocolate companies to change the way they source their cocoa and take responsibility to eradicate the child trafficking that’s in their supply chain.

To succeed we know the first step is encouraging you, and every other person that buys chocolate to change their shopping habits. Look for the Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance or UTZ certified logos, they are certification marks and their stamp on a chocolate product means the cocoa has not been harvested by trafficked children. If we vote with what we buy companies will listen.

Many of the conversations I have with people about the campaign involve the same counter-arguments, so I thought I would run through a few of them and see how to get around the perceived barriers to consuming with anti-trafficking in mind. I have lots to say about it, so this will take a few posts!

It’s too expensive.

This is often the first cry that I hear, and in some cases it’s understandable.

But here’s the key: certified goods are no longer luxury goods. Ethical living has moved on from the days when it was solely confined to upmarket chocolates and a selection of fruit and vegetables. The spread of certification into mainstream groceries has been incredible.

All of Sainsbury’s tea, coffee and sugar are Fairtrade. Same goes for the Co-op, along with their chocolate. Even Tesco have Rainforest Alliance certified milk chocolate. The demand for certified goods is increasing in range and volume.

Now, that’s all very well, but in some instances there is still a small price difference. So here’s an argument I use to justify it to myself.

Many of us have spent money unnecessarily at some point- and some more than others. As a student, I (and many of my friends) drank more than we should have done on several occasions. There are clothes I don’t need, food that’s gone rotten in my fridge and bus journeys I’ve taken when I could have walked.

A little maths then, if you don’t mind. Let’s imagine I bought a pint last night which I really didn’t need, and it set me back £3.00. With a little thought, I could have kept that in my pocket and spent two months buying Fairtrade bananas over uncertified bananas.

There’s the crux of the argument. It’s not impossible to adjust your budget in order to keep trafficking in mind when you shop. In fact, it’s very possible.

If you’re gearing up for Easter, check out our list of certified chocolate Easter eggs available in the UK

If this has caught your attention and you want to know how you can respond in your area of work then read on…
If you’re a frontline worker of professional:
We have always championed a community centred approach. Our ethos is to equip people to know what trafficking is, how it affects them and what they can do about it. We are using this approach to address the knowledge gap through training, effective resources and collaborative working with key stakeholders. We are passionate about engaging the whole community to take responsibility for preventing human trafficking where they live. Two of our current projects are working specifically to educate those who are most likely to be in the right place to identify a potential victim of trafficking, see a situation of exploitation and respond.  

It is not only those with a mandate to work with individuals and families who might be the ones to spot something suspicious or concerning. Many frontline workers enter properties for reasons such as Health & Safety teams, Trade and Licensing, Environmental Health. Although it’s not the core area of their work, they may be one of the few people to see someone who has been trafficked, and therefore one of the few people who could respond. Sense it. Spot it. Stop it. is a new project, made possible by support from the UK Home Office and developed through consultation with professionals. The online and offline resources equip people to identify potential victims of trafficking and make the right referrals leading to the best possible outcome for the vulnerable person.

1). Sense it. Spot it. Stop it – new online resource launching early April at www.stopthetraffik.org

2).  Sense it. Spot it. Stop it .  2-hour interactive workshops for frontline workers which cover:
•      Human trafficking: the definition and distinctions, UK scale and stories, forms of exploitation and signs
•      Tackling trafficking: international obligations and national responses, prosecution, protection, and prevention
•      How to support and refer potential victims: your role is in preventing it
•      Resources: resources and an online tool that you can use to raise awareness within your team and department
 
Current dates are; Liverpool 18th March; Hove 20th March; Worthing 21st March; London 25th March
 
For more information of if you’re interested in booking a place please email Heather Graber on info@stopthetraffik.org Or email to enquire about booking training sessions for your team / workplace.  
 
If you’re in the business or finance sector:
Read about Finance Against Trafficking our initiative “Run by business for business”. This project engages businesses in how they can effectively address the risk of human trafficking in their work, including in their supply chain. Our Chain Checker tool and expert advisers will take you on a step-by-step approach to making real effective change. Contact info@financeagainsttrafficking.com for more info.

This year, the Fairtrade Foundation is calling on the public, business and government to go further in making trade work better for farmers and workers from around the world. The statistics make for pretty grim reading. Many of the world’s hungry are farmers growing crops that end up on our own tables. Whilst we consumers benefit from this food, the producers are unable to make a decent living from it.

The Fairtrade Foundation are petitioning David Cameron to endorse a sustainable food system that improves the lives of smallholder farmers. Such as, cocoa producer Justino Peck in Belize, whose association with the Fairtrade certified company Green & Blacks means he and his wife “can save for the future and educate our children“.

We support the work of certification bodies, such as Fairtrade, whose auditing processes on cocoa supply chains includes decent working conditions. We see certification as a key step in eradicating human trafficking from chocolate supply chains.  Along with Fairtrade, we support Rainforest Alliance and UTZ certification who also also certify chocolate bars. So look for their logos when you’re buying your next sweet treat.

Whilst the Fairtrade Foundation’s petition to David Cameron is a great move, at STOP THE TRAFFIK we believe in the power of communities to affect change too. Chocolate companies recognise this power. While we have been campaigning over the past five year, five big chocolate companies have rolled out certified products in the UK and around the world

You too, can be part of ending human trafficking in the cocoa supply chain simply by choosing certified products and campaigning for change! Read more about our campaign here.

Following our campaign for a traffik-free Toblerone last year, the global chocolate giant behind Cadbury and Toblerone announced $400m plans to work against human trafficking and other abuses rife in their cocoa supply chains. This big promise sat alongside huge revenues for the company: $9.5bn at the end of 2012.

Despite the fanfare on announcing their big-budget Cocoa Life sustainability plans in 2012, Mondeléz seem to be a bit stuck on the specifics. No targets, no deadlines. Perhaps they’re not familiar with the old saying: ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail’.

Perhaps with a little help they can set themselves some targets, starting with a clear deadline for traffik-free Toblerone. We would like to know when they plan to certify their entire chocolate range starting with Toblerone; the plans should be realistic but ambitious, so we know they mean business!

Why not join us in showing Mondeléz what a timeline looks like? Just take a picture of a timeline you use – a work project plan, the calendar on your fridge, your diary, a study timetable, a Gantt chart or your social schedule… and send it to Mondeléz with the message, “Hey #Mondelez, this is what a timeline looks like…“

Tweet it, email it to us to share on our website and social media, or spread the word by ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ our posts with your friends on Facebook!

• Tweet Mondelez now
• Email us your picture
• Like and share our post on Facebook  

Let’s Help Mondeléz back up their big talk with big targets!

Find out more about our campaign, including what we’re asking chocolate companies to do and why.

Whether you swoon with satisfaction or retch with repulsion at the thought of Valentine’s Day, it’s hard to deny that these days, it’s taken on a life of its own. According to some polls, an estimated 17.6 billion dollars will be spent on gifts in this Valentines Day in the USA alone; meanwhile 200 million roses will be sold and 220,000 people will propose to their partner!

Oddly enough, the origins of Valentines Day begin with a man in chains. Locked up for performing marriage ceremonies under the Emperor Claudius II, legend has it that Saint Valentine – a 3^rd century Roman Bishop – initiated the custom having left a final affectionate note to his jailer’s daughter before being taken to execution: “From Your Valentine”.  How strange that this tragic moment should have inspired such a happy holiday!

With all this love in the air it’s easy to forget that it’s not all rose-tinted. Not least for those producing the chocolate which will make up the majority of our Valentine’s Day gifts. Like Valentine himself, many of those producing our chocolate for February 14^th are prisoners – young children, forced to work as slaves on the same West African cocoa plantations which supply our high streets.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. As consumers we can vote with our wallets by choosing gifts which carry the marks of ethical certification (Fairtrade, UTZ or Rainforest Alliance).

If you’ve planned to ‘say it with chocolates’ this year, why not go one better and say it with certified? Find out more at www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolate

Making this decision feels a little bit like leaving the best job in the world. So, this is an exciting opportunity for my successor as UK National Leader of STOP THE TRAFFIK.  I hope they thrive in this position as much as I have.

In light of this news, we are now looking for a new National Leader to build on the successes of our work throughout the UK.

STOP THE TRAFFIK’s global movement has developed extensively over the last six years. The National Leader’s role will involve building our UK work through ongoing delivery of community projects and development of new preventative work, engaging those who are most vulnerable to being trafficked. The successful candidate will lead and manage with determination to build a grassroots movement, which tackles a global issue at a local level.

If you think you fit the bill and want to join our friendly, dedicated team to play a pivotal role in the fight against human trafficking, find out more and apply at www.stopthetraffik.org/jobs.

Applications close on Monday 18^th March (noon).

Along with our partners at Sea Communications, we’ve been selected by the UK government to develop new victim-centred training tools for frontline professionals to better identify and report human trafficking. Congratulations to NSPCC, Eaves, Thames Reach and the Counter Trafficking Bureau who have also received funding.

Frontline professionals are often well placed to identify human trafficking. Indeed, it’s plain to many that a police officer, doctor or social worker  might have suspicions of trafficking from time to time: domestic reports, sketchy personal records, poor physical health, overzealous “relatives” (etc.). It is not surprising then that existing trafficking-awareness training tends to be targeted at such groups.

However, there are many other frontline professions where tell-tale signs of trafficking might emerge in common interaction and visits, including Health and Safety, Trading & Licensing and Environmental Health. What might appear to the untrained eye as a mere code violation – an overcrowded property, unlicensed business, or undocumented workforce for example – might also point to something more sinister.

With our new “victim-centred” training initiative, we will be seeking to equip frontline professionals and works to identify and report potential cases of trafficking in their communities. In turn, we anticipate that this will result in an increase in the quantity and quality of trafficking referrals to support services and the NRM (National Referrals Mechanism).

We look forward to sharing more with you as the project progresses! More details are available on the UK Home Office website.

A great boost to public awareness, right?

Well, not exactly. With all this buzz about the past, it’s dangerously easy to forget that slavery is the stuff of present headlines as well as history books. That’s certainly the case in the UK, where according to Crimestoppers UK, a recent poll has found that 75% of the population do not consider human trafficking a ‘widespread problem’ at all.

Meanwhile, the trial of a nine-man ring of suspected sex-traffickers from Oxford paints a bleaker picture. In this case alone, several children were exploited in a manner not unlike historic slaves. Beaten, raped, drugged and even branded by their “owners”, it was eight years before Police came to the aid of these children; prisoners in an outwardly “normal” neighbourhood.

Would you have spotted the signs of trafficking? Polling results suggest that over 65% of us wouldn’t have.

Today, Crimestoppers UK has set out to change that, with the launch of Read The Signs - an informative campaign to raise public awareness and reporting of forced labour and human trafficking in the UK. To learn more, visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org. You can also check out Spot the Traffik – a free pocket-sized info-sheet to help you identify trafficking in your community.

STOP THE TRAFFIK’s 2013 intern programme is now open for applications!

We are looking for two talented interns to join the team at our London headquarters. The four-month internship begins in February (specific dates are negotiable), and is an exceptional opportunity to take on real responsibility, develop valuable skills and build momentum on STOP THE TRAFFIK’s global campaign.

STOP THE TRAFFIK interns are:

• Passionate Advocates
• Engaging Communicators
• Happy to Try New Things
• Team Players (and Self-Motivators)
• Aware of Global Human Rights Issues
• Competent at Computing (MS Office, etc.)
• Dazzling Tea-Makers (just kidding…)

Do you fit the bill? If you’d like to join our team you can find out more by emailing info@stopthetraffik.org and requesting an application pack.

I believed the latter for quite a while actually. After all, there are a lot of people in China. About 1,344,130,000 in fact- according to the World Bank (and Google).

So great is the population that for many years, the Chinese state has enforced a ‘one child’ policy to restrict population growth. Gone are the days when Chinese parents could aspire to have children. At least, without incurring some severe penalties.  

One sinister repercussion of this dwindling supply is the soaring demand for babies. Indeed, for many would-be parents, the preoccupation with having a male heir spells a lucrative business opportunity for child traffickers.

‘Baby trafficking’ has gained plenty of headlines lately after a series of high-profile sting operations against traffickers, with state reports claiming that 54,000 trafficked children have been rescued in recent years. All this action to curb supply certainly sounds impressive. But it begs the question, in a country of vast population, who’s curbing the demand?

There are plenty of scandalous case studies telling of the everyday-ness’ of such trafficking: everyone from government officials to bogus orphanages have been accused of getting in on the action. As with all trafficking, the seductive myth is to blame it on a few bad apples, falling on a few innocent heads.

China’s scourge of trafficking in babies demonstrates a harsh reality. The demand for trafficking often falls within ordinary communities and ordinary desires. Whether parents pining for an heir, bachelors desperate for a bride, or commuters craving cheap coffee, all too many of us will turn a blind eye to injustice if the price is right.

As consumers and communities, we have a very real say in curbing the demand for trafficking where we are. Perhaps you don’t feel equipped to put an end to child trafficking in China (you’re probably right). But what can you do with your own demand? Perhaps action for you means saying “No” to your favourite fashion brand or chocolate bar (or losing a few minutes to write to the manufacturer). A few pennies here, and a few minutes there … this everyday heroism will go further than you think.

What’s the one thing you can change today?

In India, the term has darker associations – a common euphemism for public sexual harassment of women; a theme which has made headlines recently with the trial of five men in Delhi, accused with the rape and murder of a female student Jyoti Singh Pandey on a public bus.

Cases of harassment are hardly exceptional in India. Indeed, they are all-too common, reflected in the large number of ‘fast-track courts’ springing up throughout the country to deal with hundreds of thousands of sexual harassment trials.

Too often however, it is these same institutions which stand accused of fuelling such crime through inaction and “widespread misogyny”. One recent case saw several Punjabi Police officers suspended amid accusations of ignoring the appeals of a female rape victim, who subsequently committed suicide. Alongside persistent problems of sex trafficking, female infanticide and abductions throughout the country, such cases plainly demonstrate the vital urgency of curbing gender discrimination.

With the court-case in Delhi gaining global attention, there has been much discussion in India on the wider problem of entrenched sexism which Jyoti’s death so tragically illustrates. As her father Bandri remarked:

“Society cannot any longer turn a blind eye to these sorts of incidents which are happening every day. We have to change ourselves. If there are no changes then these horrible things won’t stop.”

Bandri Singh Pandey is not alone. It seems that in the wake of these sad events, many share his resolve to ‘change themselves’ and their institutions, reflected in a forceful and growing outcry for reform. In this sense at least, Jyoti’s death will not have been entirely in vain. As such root problems of gender inequality are increasingly articulated and addressed in the public eye; hopefully harassment is not the only crime that will begin to wither.

If you’re anything like me, New Year’s Resolutions are heavy-handed and short-lived. Determined as a drunk uncle’s dancing on New Year’s Eve, but as stale as a leftover vol-au-vents when the celebrations are over.

It’s fitting that January takes its name from the two-faced Roman God, Janus. It’s a time when most of us aspire to great things, and yet, for every fitness fanatic born on New Year’s Eve, there are a dozen disillusioned couch potatoes come February.

After all, talk is cheap, and treadmills are tiresome.

In the fight against human trafficking, Barack Obama has made his own resolution of sorts recently. Declaring January National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in the USA, he invited his fellow citizens to join the effort:

“I call on businesses, organizations, faith-based groups, families, and all Americans to recognize the vital role we can play in ending all forms of slavery and observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.”

In similar fashion, December saw billionaire businessman and philanthropist Andrew Forrest step up a similar challenge to the business community through his anti-slavery organisation, Walk Free, which has called on global industry to sign a pledge to combat slave labour in their supply chains.

These are brilliant resolutions, so let’s hope they’re light on the talk and heavy on the treadmill! Whether as governments, businesses, communities or individuals, let’s resolve to make 2013 a year when we keep our promises in the fight against human trafficking.

If you’d like to know more about tangible steps your business can take to combat and prevent human trafficking in 2013, visit www.financeagainsttrafficking.com or email info@financeagainsttrafficking.com.

Happy New Year!

Even Santa can’t escape the yuletide flak. This poster-boy of Coca-Cola and consumerism, red and green. A murky, judgmental character who waltzed onto the scene two centuries ago and stole the show.  A man of many aliases: St Nick, Sinter Klaas, Pere Noel, Chris Cringle; a Bishop here, an elf there. No known address. Some say he chooses to live way up in the Arctic circle, far beyond Police jurisdiction.

It might appear that Santa has a lot to answer for. Perhaps his most pressing concern would be the multitude of young elves toiling in his workshop, where a world’s supply of toys are churned out every year.

Of course, such concerns never occurred to me as a kid. I always pictured Santa’s workshop as a joyous, magical place. How, after all, could a child not have fun in a Christmas factory?

A recent article tells of how police have raided just such a factory in India. Of course, there was no magical aura surrounding this workshop: a place where dozens of trafficked child labourers worked 19-hour days in tiny rooms, all to produce Christmas decorations for Western markets. Gordon Brown, now UN special envoy for Global Education, reflected on the discovery:

The suffering of these young children, cruelly trafficked into slave labour, is the real Christmas story of 2012. Their plight must become a wake-up call for all concerned about the treatment of vulnerable children around the world.

Gordon’s got a point. It’s seductive to think of Christmas as a time without questions, when we can put the troubles of the world on “mute”. And yet, at this time of year – often responsible for some 40% of retail profits – the naughty list won’t stop multitudes from making a dishonest buck at the expense of others’ freedom.

This Christmas, we invite you to enjoy the season of generosity without closing your ears. Buy responsibly, and check out our latest free resource – Traffik-Free Tags – a fun way to raise awareness while you give.

And of course, have a very Merry Christmas!

Dear friends

A GIFT BOX ISN’T JUST FOR CHRISTMAS

There’s so much to tell you and thank you for what you have helped us achieve through your words, actions and donations.

GIFT box

The past year has been full of many surprises for STOP THE TRAFFIK. What started with an idea over coffee amongst a group of STOP THE TRAFFIK friends has grown over the past 2 years into the GIFT box project. Since the 2012 London Games we have completed the official GIFT box Report and a few weeks ago Steve Chalke (Founder of STOP THE TRAFFIK) and I took the report to the United Nations as part of our strategic planning meeting for our future work.

So many great achievements emerged from placing 5 different GIFT boxes at street level across London. The report is available online on the STOP THE TRAFFIK website but here are some headlines of what happened:

• Over half a million people interacted with a box 
• We trained nearly 400 GIFT box volunteers who stood in rain and shine talking with thousands of people as they walked in and out of the box.
• The STOP THE TRAFFIK team moved the boxes around the 20 venues driving Luton vans around London and building muscles we never knew we had.
• Our boxes were spotted near the Olympic stadiums, out at the mountain bike event, in Chinatown, on Islington High Street as the torch relay went past, by Borough market, outside the front door of Westminster Abbey and inside St Paul’s Cathedral, just to name a few.
  

Yet with all these months of organisation, planning and sheer hard work, the most important part was that people talked!

Some of those people were survivors of trafficking who found the box a safe place to tell a trusted GIFT box volunteer that the story being told inside the box was not just someone else’s story; it was their story. Some visitors used the Metropolitan Police helpline number to report concerns about things they had seen in their community and many more people became aware of an issue that they had not heard of until they walked into the GIFT box.

We gathered 10,000 signatories from every continent across 98 countries and those conversations have been carried back home to be continued.

All of this happened because we put a GIFT box on the street.. 

We are now delivering a 10 year strategy for the GIFT box project with our partners, the United Nations and London Metropolitan Police. We welcomed the Qatari Ambassador and a delegation from the Qatar Foundation in Combating Human Trafficking to the launch of the GIFT box event in London this July who are keen to work with us.  We have learnt so much from 2012 and we want to take that learning around the world with people who are committed to taking action.  We will keep you updated on our exciting plans.

Chocolate box

I imagine that in nearly every home this Christmas you will find a chocolate box.

We hope that the box is full of traffik-free chocolates.  Our chocolate campaign is leading global change. We are demanding that the industry delivers chocolate to its customers that are free from the use of trafficked children. This year we have seen more announcements and changes from chocolate producers and retailers but our job is not done. Our new chocolate box has been launched on the web site to give activists more information about what a company announcement really means when you read through the small print.

As other grassroots STOP THE TRAFFIK campaigns emerge and start making an impact, we are committed that our chocolate campaign will continue to be at the forefront of our activism; delivered locally and coordinated globally

Two boxes, a GIFT box and a chocolate box show the unique way STOP THE TRAFFIK works. Both offering you, me and my neighbour something to do on the street where we live and yet working alongside hundreds of thousands of neighbours whose addresses we will never know. Whether it is through STOP THE TRAFFIK national coordinators as in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Holland and UK, the growing number of ACT groups in places such as UK, America, Iceland and a new one launched this week in Singapore alongside thousands of people who are taking a step to be part of us through our new web site www.stopthetraffik.org.

In a year when the headlines tell us there is a recession and the purchasing power of a consumer is reduced, the profits for people traffickers are increasing and the purchase of human beings is growing.

Our work is challenging and our plans for 2013 are ambitious but we believe that it is our role to lead preventative work, gather intelligence and continue to provide creative resources and empower communities to think outside of the box and take action.

So as we unwrap our Christmas boxes and smile at the generosity and care of others for us, please remember our deep gratitude for your continuing support for us.  

And together we will remember the words on the inside of the GIFT box that people read as they walk out……

“There is a way out of the box.” 

Together we will STOP THE TRAFFIK

Happy Christmas

Ruth

Ruth Dearnley, CEO STOP THE TRAFFIK

On one particularly snowy Christmas day, my Dad had prepared a fancy lunch for a multitude of guests who never arrived. To my seven-year-old delight, the neglected spread included a foot-high pyramid of my favourite chocolates, dazzling like gold in their shiny wrappers. In the absence of guests, I wolfed down almost all of them. Needless to say, my stomach had its revenge a few hours later.

Apparently I’m not the only one who acquires a Santa belly at this time of year. It’s said that the average person will gain up to half a stone of extra weight this Christmas thanks to a steady diet of chocolate, mince pies and other festive treats!

Of course, as many an advert, parable or soppy Christmas single reminds us, Christmas doesn’t have to be all about stuffing our faces (or stockings). From the people sharing your turkey to the people harvesting your cocoa, giving can be the most exciting thing of all.

So what can you give besides your wonderfully calorific Christmas goodies this year? You can give the gift of knowledge.

If you’re giving chocolate that is Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance or UTZ certified* this year, attach one of our gloriously festive traffik-free tags. This is a great way to share the reasons behind your choice with your loved ones.

As they munch merrily on their chocolate they can consider how they might choose differently next time they’re stocking up on chocolate.

We’d love to see your #traffikfreetags in action – send us the pictures of your perfectly wrapped presents via Twitter, Facebook or email, and we’ll be giving our own gift of a STOP THE TRAFFIK book for the picture that wows us the most.

Grab a bar of traffik-free and get wrapping!

Download: Traffik-free Christmas tags (standard)

Download: Traffik-free Christmas tags (print-friendly)

*Certification of cocoa beans is leading on the prevention of trafficked child labour in the cocoa supply chain and changing an industry

Women of the world! STOP THE TRAFFIK invites you on a journey to help prevent human trafficking internationally. 

We are offering 8 – 12 days in India with the unique opportunity:

• To experience and contribute to STOP THE TRAFFIK’s preventative work in India
• To learn about human trafficking
• To put your experience into action on returning home

STOP THE TRAFFIK is partnering with Amor Ministries’ ‘Women of Strength’ program to provide this unique opportunity for 21 women.

Amid the chaos and charm of the streets of Mumbai and the contradictory calm of rural villages surrounding Bangalore you will meet people whose lives have been directly affected by trafficking. You will spend time and hear the stories of those working on the ground to protect those who are vulnerable.

The focus of the trip will be to witness and contribute to projects, whilst seeing the model of community action STOP THE TRAFFIK is developing to resource, equip and mobilise people to take action where they live. As appropriate, we will join groups in the actions and programs they are running: anything from educational workshops to awareness-raising flash-mobs!

We will break in to smaller groups – each accompanied by two staff — to meet with these people and projects. Most of those we meet will be women, and for cultural reasons it is most appropriate that the group be a women only group.

The trip is open to all women over the age of 18 (some exceptions may be made if accompanied by a parent) who complete the application process and are accepted. As Amor is a Christian-based organisation there will be a Christian faith component to the trip, including visiting faith groups and churches, bible discussions, worship and prayer. If taking part, you will need to be comfortable with participating in these aspects of the trip.

To register your interest in the trip please visit www.amor.org/wos. Please note that places are limited; applications close on 28 March 2013, or earlier if sufficient applications are accepted before this date.

Whether or not you buy into the cliché, there’s one area in which it holds true…

Human trafficking.

According to UN estimates, human trafficking is the second most lucrative source of illegal income in the world today, worth some $31.6 billion. In contrast to notions of slavery as a blight confined to ‘the developing world’, it is in fact the most ‘industrialised’ economies which generate 49% of this vast sum. Meanwhile, convictions for trafficking remain the rare exception rather than the rule.

Trafficking is a tragic bargain these days. So great is the return on modern-day slavery, criminal entrepreneurs have often “re-tooled” to cash in; after all, human trafficking tends to pose fewer risks than drug trafficking. Once, it would have cost you around $40,000 to traffick a human being. Now, it’s about the same price as an iPod shuffle.

At the Finance Against Trafficking (FAT) conference last week, Steve Chalke reflected on the crux of the problem:

People trafficking is about money. To the trafficker, it’s a lucrative way to make a huge profit, with minimal risks. So how do we combat this? We need to reverse things. We need to increase the risks of trafficking for traffickers, and diminish their profits.

The reality is, until global businesses are vigilant to the trafficking behind their own supply chains and clients – from money-laundering investors to exploitative cleaning contractors – their ignorance will continue to play into the hands of this dark industry.

In response to this challenge, last week’s ‘FAT’ conference saw a step in the right direction, with representatives from global banks, multinational corporations, police authorities and charities in attendance – all eager to take tangible steps to stamp out trafficking in business.

Reflecting on his own success story in shifting the company to Fairtrade certification, former Starbucks CEO Darcy Willson-Rymer was quick to stress that business leaders – no less than councillors or constables – must be proactive in stamping out the market for trafficking within their own spheres of influence:

As a CEO, I’m not going to stop turning a profit. But the question is, what am I going to do?

If people really are the greatest asset – and not just as a commodity – then it is the job of businesses big and small to get proactive in traffik-proofing their future business. And as Darcy observes, this need not equate to sacrificing business success.

With the forthcoming launch of Finance Against Trafficking’s “ChainChecker” tool, we are putting the tools of customised prevention firmly in the hands of whoever will take them. Not merely to bandage a glaring wound, but to stop people from getting hurt in the first place.

If you would like to lower the risk of human trafficking in your business whilst preserving your profits, find out more at financeagainsttrafficking.org or email us at info@financeagainsttrafficking.com .

One of my favourite comics is a series of sketches called ‘The British Character’, produced in the satirical magazine Punch during the 1930s. As the name suggests, it’s a brilliant send-up of the oddities of “British” personalities. In one particular sketch, captioned “Political Apathy”, a scruffy political enthusiast tries in vain to provoke some passion in a reserved, disinterested gent in a tweed jacket. Needless to say, we all know which one is the true Brit!

Seventy years on, the stereotype is still going strong. In November, the UK’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections registered a record low in voting . In one Welsh polling station, no votes were cast at all, while all over the country, several voters turned up only to spoil their ballot papers in protest at the elections’ apparent pointlessness or the “politicising of policing”.

Whether you voted or not, the aftermath of the elections presents a real opportunity for the activists among us. For the first time in many years, much of the UK can now put a face to policing strategy in their region. After all, PCCs hardly reflect the shadowy, remote enforcement of Big Brother in 1984. They can usually be reached by a direct phone or email address, and can often be found in the tech-savvy world of Twitter!

If ever you bemoaned the bureaucracy of policing in the past, this news should arrive as a breath of fresh air. Here at STOP THE TRAFFIK, we’re certainly encouraged by it. In the fight against human trafficking in our communities, PCCs offer a great new avenue for Joe Public to challenge, berate or congratulate key decision-makers with as little as a few clicks of a button.

So go on, Let’s break the old stereotypes and put the pressure on! Let’s make sure our PCCs – and our communities – are awake and active in the fight against human trafficking on our doorsteps. Why not take a moment to contact your PCC today ?

 With assets of around $932 billion – enough to buy a Nintendo Wii for everyone on earth –  it seems Goldman Sachs can weather the storms of bad publicity. Still, the firm clearly shares the stark sentiments of Warren Buffett (aka World’s Richest Person 2008) when investments and reputation go sour:

 “Rule number one: Never lose money. Rule number two: Never forget rule number one.” 

According to one article, a recent investment in ‘Village Voice’ media proved particularly lucrative for Goldman Sachs. The jewel in the crown of the investment? A sixteen per cent stake in ‘Backpage.com’ – a controversial website providing “online prostitution advertising” in the USA. 

 Of course, contrary to Buffett’s golden rules, such gains did not exist in a vacuum. The human cost of the company’s vast return was increasingly questioned, with one US legislator remarking that:

“In every case of sex trafficking [the District Attorney's office investigated] the girl was involved with Backpage.com at some point or another.” (source)

On learning of an imminent investigation into Backpage, bolstered by a convincing argument that it was ‘facilitating the trafficking of underage prostitutes and sex slaves’, Goldman Sachs moved ‘with record speed’ to sell their stake in the business.

Perhaps investors were horrified at the prospect of financing slavery. Then again, perhaps not. Perhaps they were horrified only at the thought of committing Buffett’s cardinal sin: losing money when the damning article hit the news stands.

Whatever your interpretation, the Backpage episode is a stark reminder of the power wielded by the likes of Goldman Sachs. One more demonstration that it is often at the polished tables of stockholders that the shackles of modern-day slavery are serviced. Or broken.

The question is, which Golden Rule will take precedence in the minds of investors?

Through our Finance Against Trafficking initiative, we want to equip businesses big and small to say a proactive ‘No’ to injustice in their spheres of influence, with tailored support to identify and prevent trafficking risks in their operations. If you want to get your business on board, check out www.financeagainsttrafficking.org or email us at info@financeagainsttrafficking.org .

Whilst welcoming such an ambitious plan, more details on transparency throughout the supply chain from source to consumer is required. The announcement from Mondelēz does not mention the certification of cocoa beans. Therefore, we are interested to review the full details of their plan once published to find out how they propose to audit and monitor human trafficking on the cocoa plantations in their supply chain. We are also interested in how Mondelēz plans to spend the $400 million in question; i.e. work on the ground vs. project overheads.

This seems like a strong step and an ambitious plan from the world’s biggest buyer of cocoa. However, the proof is in the chocolate bar and the plan will depend on the detail.

In particular, Mondelēz have yet to mention the certification of their most well-known chocolate bar and focal point of our recent campaign, Toblerone. Our question to Mondelēz: is Traffik-Free Toblerone part of your plans, and if so, when can we expect to see it on our shelves?

The name Kraft that you know so well from being stamped on all kinds of popular foodstuffs, from Dairylea cheese to Dairy Milk chocolate, has decided to do some shape shifting.

The artist formerly known as Kraft, who seem reluctant to clean up their trafficking-friendly cocoa supply chains in the Ivory Coast, have recently announced a decision to split their burgeoning snack empire from their grocery range, with a new company by the name of Mondelēz- a hybrid of Latin and Spanish words ‘monde’ and ‘delez’ (‘world-delicious?’).

In the words of a recent cologne commercial, “times change and we change with them”, and in this instance that means we have a few more syllables to remember as we continue to campaign against ill-gotten chocolate: mon-de-leez.

So, Mondelēz please tell us when Toblerone and the rest of your chocolate range will be Traffik-Free?

Join the campaign for Traffik-Free Toblerone