Enslaved In Chelsea
Something terrible happened to me this weekend. I watched Made in Chelsea, and against all my better judgment, I enjoyed it. This (somehow) Bafta-winning structured reality show follows the lives of “real”, seemingly unemployed high-fliers in South West London as they go for endless cocktails and talk about love and, er… that’s it. First impressions: … Read more
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
STOP THE TRAFFIK in Germany
Last week our CEO Ruth had the honour of travelling to Hamburg to speak at the 34th Kirchentag. This is a five-day gathering of Christians of all ages and backgrounds to discuss burning and important topics of the day. Ruth sat on two panel discussions, one on human trafficking and the other more specifically on … Read more
Women of Strength
“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 … Read more
So You Think You Will Dance?
As walkers glance at the women looking like highly sophisticated and sensual dolls in the window shop (we’ll let you guess where that is), they are suddenly bemused to see these ladies dancing away to a rhythmic heavy drum and base sound. Why music is playing or sex workers are dancing is off little worry … Read more
Human Trafficking and Witchcraft: What are The Ties?
Superstitious beliefs can be used as an instrument of good or evil. But in the hands of human traffickers, you can probably guess what it’s being used for. I don’t know about you, but here at STOP THE TRAFFIK, staff found themselves rather disturbed by recent news story narrating the witchcraft murder of 15 year … Read more
Anya17, first Opera about human trafficking premiers in Liverpool.
The exiting opera Anya 17 is about to premier in Liverpool this Wednesday with an encore performance on 9th March in Manchester. Read our interview with Ben Kaye, the creator of the first Opera about human trafficking. Anya17 is not your average kind of opera. It blends together beautifully the medium of music with the … 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
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
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
GLOBAL News Round 18.4.2011
Trinidad and Tobago Three Indian men, who are victims of a human trafficking ring in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), are pleading to go home. The men were lured to T&T by a job advert in India offering work in granite and marble fabrication. When they arrived in T&T their passports were confiscated and they were … 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
Will Super Bowl 2011 be the only game in town?
The connection between human trafficking and major sporting events has proved to be a rather moot point over recent years. Unfortunately, much of the heat around the debate has been caused by arguments over statistics, rather than arguments about how best to ensure that there isn’t a connection. Joseph Stalin may not be someone … 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
STOP THE TRAFFIK Global Freedom Summit
STOP THE TRAFFIK invites you to the first Global Freedom Summit, which will take place in London on 11th April 2011. Next year, people from across the world will descend on London, as it hosts the 2012 Olympics. Meet two of them: He’s a world-class sprinter. She’s a normal young girl. He’s lured … 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
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
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
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
STOP THE TRAFFIK walking like Egyptians!
STOP THE TRAFFIK have just returned from a trip to Egypt. We were invited to take part in a conference in Luxor called End Trafficking Now. The conference lasted 3 days and included: – a live debate in Luxor temple recorded for BBC World Service (which was incidentally frustrating and left me grinding my teeth) … 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
Sex in the city – red light freedom run finish line
Red light freedom run statistics 140 miles 1.1 million steps 5.5 days 3,500 calories a day 5 hours sleep a night 5 pairs of trainers between 2 men 1.5 stone lost during training (and that was just Duncan) The pennies and pounds are still to be counted and we’ll let you know the total … Read more
Traffik-free Christmas
The whiff of Christmas is certainly hovering in the air: the faint scent of nostalgia, the aroma of kindliness and generosity… and the stench of every company in the land insisting that you spend your hard-earned money on their wares. Fortunately, STOP THE TRAFFIK is here to provide some retail assistance, with some beautiful gift … Read more
Red Light Freedom Run
Someone wise once said that if you want to win something, run 100 metres, but if you want to experience something, to really achieve something, run a marathon… Every minute of every day, vulnerable women and girls are trafficked into the sex industry across the world - unseen, unheard, unnoticed. For one group of anti-trafficking activists, … 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
Freedom means escape and an education
I’ve just visited one of the projects your money supports through Freedom Ticket for Life; Children on the Edge’s project in Mae Sot in Thailand on the border with Burma. Burma has been under military rule for many years and different ethnic groups have been under attack ever since (the military is literally trying to … 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
