Riots lift lid on slavery of migrant workers in southern Italy 11 January 2010 Blog 11 January 2010 The two days of rioting in Rosarno, in the Calabria region of southern Italy, have revealed fruit pickers in conditions of slavery, according to the International Organisation for Migration. The rioting by dozens of migrant workers followed…
Call for H&M and Zara to stop using Uzbek cotton 23 December 2009 Blog 23 December 2009 Anti-Slavery International and the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) are demanding that high-street giants H&M and Zara stop selling clothes made with cotton from Uzbekistan, a country where around half of all cotton is picked by forced child…
Over a hundred people freed from slavery in Mexico 4 December 2009 Blog 4 December 2009 Mexican police have rescued 107 indigenous people held in forced labour at a factory in Mexico City disguised as a drugs rehabilitation centre. Twenty three suspects were arrested following a raid by police on Thursday 3 December.…
Prison for man who trafficked girlfriend into prostitution 4 November 2009 Blog 4 November 2009 A Hungarian man, who forced his girlfriend into prostitution in London, has been jailed for five years for trafficking offences. Bertalan Lakatos, 27, first travelled to Austria and Netherlands with his 35-year-old girlfriend and forced her to…
UN confirms slavery in Mauritania 3 November 2009 Blog 3 November 2009 Slavery persists in Mauritania despite the criminalisation of the practice in 2007, according to a UN independent expert. Speaking at the end of her fact-finding mission to the North African country, Gulnara Shahinian, the UN Special Rapporteur…
US blueberry farms accused of using child labour 2 November 2009 Blog 2 November 2009 An ABC News investigation has discovered children as young as five years old working on blueberry farms in Michigan, USA. The farms were supplying blueberries to Wal-Mart, the biggest US retailer, as well as top grocery chains…
UK Government backs new slavery law 28 October 2009 Blog 28 October 2009 The British Government has backed new laws to crackdown on modern day slavery. Ministers have conceded that existing legislation fails to protect people from modern day slavery and have agreed to criminalise forced labour and servitude in…
Closing trafficking team is madness, says Emma Thompson 23 October 2009 Blog 23 October 2009 The Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson described plans to close the UK’s only dedicated human trafficking team as ‘madness’. Speaking in London at the Metropolitan Police’s Trafficking Conference, she said: “The decision to dismantle the only team…
Lords vote on new UK slavery law 23 October 2009 Blog 23 October 2009 The House of Lords has the historic opportunity to protect more than a thousand people estimated to be in slavery in the UK when they vote to make forced labour a crime. The adoption of the new…
Response to the Guardian article on Prostitution and Trafficking 22 October 2009 Blog 22 October 2009 Response to the article ‘Prostitution and Trafficking – The Anatomy of a Moral Panic’, by Nick Davies, published in The Guardian on 20 October 2009. The article suggests that the country’s low conviction rate for trafficking offences…