( Stop the Traffik by Susie Carter) - Human Trafficking has many faces. Every day people become trapped into situations of exploitation akin to slavery. They arrive there through deception or force; taken against their will and sold into any and every industry you can think of.
Perhaps you have become a bit lost in a swirl of statistics. We can bandy around figures to make you gasp in horror at the scale of the atrocity but if, like me, you're not a stats person, it might be helpful to bring it back to the real people and real lives behind the numbers.
Below you will find some resources which may be of use; whether for your own interest and understanding, or if you are thinking of raising awareness and profiling the issue of Human Trafficking in your local community. These are just some of the broadcast news reports, investigative articles, documentaries and dramas from the last couple of years which examine Human Trafficking and help us put a human face back on to the issue if the stats have left us confounded or, simply, a little fatigued.
Britain 's Child Beggars, BBC One Panorama - 19/10/11
John Sweeney
Reporter John Sweeney tracks down the begging gangs to luxury homes in Romania, where he confronts the adults forcing the children to beg.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0169lg6
Honduras ' Lost girls, Channel Four - Unreported World, 08/06/2012
Ramita Navai, Talya Tibbon
Unreported World investigates the mysterious disappearance of hundreds of young Honduran women. They discover that many of them have been enticed to travel to Mexico with the promise of jobs but end up trafficked to brothels and forced to work in the sex industry.
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/episode-guide/series-2012/episode-8
The Fishing Industry's Cruellest Catch, Businessweek, 02/12
E. Benjamin Skinner
On March 25, 2011, Yusril became a slave. That afternoon he went to the East Jakarta offices of Indah Megah Sari (IMS), an agency that hires crews to work on foreign fishing vessels.
https://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-23/the-fishing-industrys-cruelest-catch#p1
The Witch Doctor's Children, Our World, BBC World News, 12/10/2011
Chris Rogers
Over the last four years, at least 400 African children have been abducted and trafficked to the UK and rescued by the British authorities, according to figures obtained by the BBC. It is unclear how they are smuggled into the country but a sinister picture is emerging of why.
Trafficked: Sex slaves seduced and sold (4 parts), BBC
Laura Trevelyan, David Botti, Ignacio de los Reyes, Chuck Tayman, Nada Tawfik, Mark Bryson, Claire Shannon, Luke Ward
Every year thousands of women are forced into prostitution and traded from Mexico to the United States. The BBC investigates the sex trafficking business, which makes some men very wealthy at the expense of vulnerable young women.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18144333
Trafficking in Britain: 'For five months I asked when I would get a job, but all I did was clean their home' Observer 06/11/11
Jamie Doward
Men from Eastern Europe are the latest victims of gangs who are promising jobs in Britain but delivering a life of virtual slavery
https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/06/trafficking-britain-eastern-europe
Romania and India, BBC radio, 7/2011
Becky Milligan
Becky Milligan goes on the trail of the pimps who entice Romanian girls into the sex trade
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00jc520/From_Our_Own_Correspondent_Romania_and_India/
Lover Boys, Al-Jazeera English, 5/2012
Julia Rooke and Caroline Pare
This is the story of Ibrahim, a Dutch-Moroccan man tackling the taboo problem of sex-trafficking within his community
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2012/05/201251115345899123.html
The long path to freedom, CNN - 03/2012
John D Sutter, Edythe McNeme .
Mauritania 's endless sea of sand dunes hides an open secret: An estimated 10% to 20% of the population lives in slavery.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html
British men forced into 'modern slavery' abroad, BBC Radio 5, 01/02/2012
Alison Holt and Owen Phillips
Criminal elements of the British and Irish travelling community have been transporting
vulnerable British men abroad to work as virtual slaves.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16836065
The price of cheap clothes?, BBC Today Programme, 01/06/2012
Mike Thomson
Correspondent Mike Thomson has travelled to Tamil Nadu in Southern India to investigate claims that Indian textile firms, which supply some of Britain's biggest high street retailers, are operating near slave labour conditions .
https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9725000/9725455.stm
To find out how you can join the fight to combat trafficking check outhttps://www.stopthetraffik.org
