Fears over MET Human Trafficking Team closure 7 October 2009 Blog 7 October 2009 In response to today’s reports that the Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking team may be disbanded, Aidan McQuade, Director of Anti-Slavery International, said: “Any decision to cut the team, even if there are serious financial pressures, is very…
Nepal backs UN attempts to make caste discrimination a human rights abuse 17 September 2009 Blog 17 September 2009 The former Hindu kingdom of Nepal has backed a draft UN guideline to recognise caste discrimination as a human rights violation. The guideline also received backing from the EU presidency and the UN High Commissioner for Human…
Global extent of forced labour in everyday products revealed by US 11 September 2009 Blog 11 September 2009 People are being forced against their will to produce everything from Christmas decorations in China to pornography in Russia and shrimp in Thailand, according to a major new report by the US Department ofLabor. The report, The…
Roma children trafficked into life of crime across Europe 3 September 2009 Blog 3 September 2009 Romanian Roma children are being trafficked across Europe to become beggars and thieves, according to the BBC’s One World (shown 2 September 2009). The programme revealed Children as young as 10 years old forced by their parents…
Malawi’s child tobacco pickers poisoned by nicotine 24 August 2009 Blog 24 August 2009 Child tobacco pickers in Malawi forced to work without protective clothing are being exposed to poisonous amounts of nicotine equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day, says Plan International in a new report. The children, some as…
Jail for DVD pirates who used Chinese ‘slave labour’ 28 July 2009 Blog 28 July 2009 A father and his two sons have been jailed for a total of eighteen years for running a criminal multi-million pound film piracy industry in London that used ‘a slave labour force’ of Chinese workers (28 July…
Child labour found in cosmetics industry 24 July 2009 Blog 24 July 2009 The link between child labour in rural India and the global cosmetics industry has been uncovered in an investigation by the Sunday Times. Accompanying campaigners from Indian child rights group Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the newspaper discovered…
Leading UK charitable organisations come together to set up Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group 16 July 2009 News 16 July 2009 Anti-Slavery International is one of the leading UK non-governmental organisations to set up a new Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, which aims to ensure that presumed trafficked persons in the UK can access their rights. The group seeks to…
Zimbabwe Army using forced labour in diamond fields 26 June 2009 Blog 26 June 2009 A new report by Human Right Watch has accused the Zimbabwean military of using forced labour in the Marange diamond fields in the east of the country. The report accuses Zanu-PF controlled soldiers of forcing hundreds of…
Awarded for exposing the African country where 1 in 5 are slaves 22 May 2009 News 22 May 2009 SOS Esclaves have been awarded the 2009 Anti-Slavery Award for nearly 15 years of fighting slavery in Mauritania, a country where an estimated 18 per cent of the population, or 600,000 people, are born and continue to…