Telford child trafficking: Why are we letting the issue of race distract us from the real crime?
On Friday evening, four members of the STOP THE TRAFFIK team in London attended a preview screening of a documentary made for Channel 4 entitled “The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Gangs”. In short, it was powerful, enthralling and absolutely vital viewing. It’s out on Channel 4 next Thursday 23rd May at 9 p.m.: don’t miss … Read more
Slavery: Can You Spot It Outside the Cinema?
Have you been to the cinema lately? If so, there are a few syllables that won’t have escaped your attention. Lincoln and Django – two big budget films on slavery, from some of the biggest names in Hollywood (Spielberg and Tarantino). A great boost to public awareness, right? Well, not exactly. With all this buzz about the … Read more
Mondelēz announces $400m investment in sustainable cocoa
STOP THE TRAFFIK welcomes yesterday’s announcement from Mondelēz that they will be investing $400 million over ten years to help people in cocoa farming communities. This has the potential to change the lives of children being exploited, and to prevent children being trafficked onto cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast in future. Whilst welcoming such … Read more
Dr Kraft and Mr Mondelēz?
ATTENTION SHOPPERS… 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 … Read more
THE LIGHTER WAY TO ENJOY CHOCOLATE
Our CEO, Ruth Dearnley, has been demonstrating how to enjoy chocolate with a lighter conscience in the STOP THE TRAFFIK office, now that the first packets of Fair trade Maltesers have hit the shelves. 1. Can you spot the Malteser? 2. Notice how little attention the CEO gets from her team 3. Leave a comment … Read more
Ferrero’s commitment- Traffik free by 2020
STOP THE TRAFFIK welcomes Ferrero’s statement of April 12th, where the chocolate company clearly and unequivocally states that they will eliminate all cases of the trafficking children, forced adult labour and other worst forms of child labour from their cocoa supply chain by 2020. In doing so, Ferrero is the first global chocolate company to … Read more
Have yourself a Traffik-free Christmas!
Well… the month of December is finally upon us so it’s time to officially start getting excited for all things festive! Here at STOP THE TRAFFIK we want you to have a wonderful Traffik-free Christmas so we’ve come up with a stocking-full of suggestions for festive fundraising and more. Take a look… Host a festive … Read more
British sex gangs documentry on tonight
Dispatches documentry tonight at 10.30, channel 4 investigating British gangs grooming young girls for sex. The programme highlights the grooming of young girls for sexual exploitation, an issue linked closely to internal trafficking. True Vision describe the film on their website; Later this month the Minister for Children and Families will launch an action plan … Read more
Don’t Be Oblivious makes it to the top 20!
The people have voted, the results are in and my faith in humanity has been restored! Don’t Be Oblivious (School) has made it into the top 20 viewed ads! YouTube is not just a place where zillions of viewers around the globe are united in their love of light hearted home-spun entertainment, plugging-in to watch … 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
Nestlé, Wish you were here!
Where are you headed on holiday over the next few months? If you are headed to Australia you’re in chocolaty luck because you’ll be able to find traffik-free 4 finger Kit Kat bars and by the end of 2011, Nestlé has committed to making their entire Australian Kit Kat range traffik-free and UTZ certified! Read more… Not … Read more
Traffik-free chocolate where you live
Today is World Day Against Child Labour, sponsored by the International Labour Organization. For a couple of years now activists around the world have been campaigning hard to get the chocolate companies to get on board with using cocoa in their products that isn’t grown and picked using trafficked child labour. From sending postcards, letters, … Read more
Traffickers no longer ‘sleep tight’ at Travelodge
Staff at the Wyndham Travelodge San Diego, California were recently in the news for being complicit in human trafficking activity operating from within the hotel. One activist heard about it on the news and started a campaign through Change.org It can be hard to imagine that the slightly run down B&B around the corner from … 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
Global News Round 13.05.2011
Czech Republic As immigration policy gets stricter, human trafficking increases in the Czech Republic. The country has a history of being associated with trafficking but its association is changing form. Where it once was a transit point and trafficking to the Czech Republic was mostly for sexual exploitation, the country is now becoming a destination … Read more
What are your favourite trafficking films?
A team of New York University (NYU) postgraduate students are getting ready to film Brave Girl, which will tell the story of Bumika, a 13-year old Nepali girl, who is trying to “change the heart of a kidnapper before her fate is out of her control.” We are really excited about this film! With each … 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
Bloody cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire
People have been asking me what our take is on what’s going on in Cote d’Ivoire at the moment. Is the unrest there affecting the trafficking of kids onto the plantations? What is our response? I want to take some time explaining it, but in a way that is short and simple to understand … Read more
GLOBAL News Round 25.3.2011
Trinidad and Tobago The Slave Trade Act was passed 204 years ago today. In T&T they are commemorating the day with the inaugural celebration of Human Trafficking Awareness Day. In recognition of the day, the Caribbean Umbrella Body for Restorative Behaviour (Curb) has launched an online network which they hope will help end human trafficking and … Read more
Exploiting loopholes to exploit children
We are all very busy here getting ready to launch the Global Travel Alert! at our Global Freedom Summit on April 11! Earlier this week, I read an article in the Evening Standard which reaffirmed the need for us to issue the Global Travel Alert! and to not only enable people to create communities hostile … Read more
Chocolatey Friday treat!
In response to our hunt for an Easter campaign slogan, one of our activist sent us a great story she wrote and it was just to good to keep to ourselves! It was After Eight on CaramacDonald’s Farm and The Little Red Hen was making Easter Eggs, but she was getting tired of doing all the work. She called a … 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
Child sex abuse images: A linguistic revolution
Right, here goes. Let’s cause linguistic mayhem. I am sure most people reading this (hi mum!) are familiar with and may have used, terms like ‘child pornography’, ‘child prostitution’ and ‘underage prostitute’ (erhem Silvio Berlusconi). Well, I reckon it’s time we stopped. The words prostitution, prostitute and pornography are normalised and common in most societies … Read more
‘Have a Heart Nestlé’ Twitter Awards
In the run up to Valentine’s day, people from all over the world used love poems and Valentine’s messages on Twitter to tell Nestlé to ‘Have A Heart’ and put an end to trafficked labour in their supply chains. We thought we’d give some public recognition to the literary genius of STOP THE TRAFFIK supporters … 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
UK Sex Gangs – It’s about cash not culture
The British media could never be accused of shying away from a race row. But if there was ever an instance where bringing race into the equation was entirely unnecessary, unhelpful and unproductive, it’s here. Last week, The Times newspaper featured a leading article examining the increasing number of cases of internal trafficking in parts … Read more
Football World Cup in Qatar: the trafficking problem
Last month FIFA, the world’s football governing body, announced Qatar as the host country for the 2022 Football World Cup. Across the world the decision was greeted with, at best, a collective raised eyebrow. Qatar’s unique socio-economic makeup makes it a particularly interesting case study for human trafficking. Some quick Qatari facts: – It ranks … 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
