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Activists
Friday January 8, 2021

Urge California to protect all temporary migrant workers

Campaign Summary: Thousands of temporary workers are being trafficked into forced labor in California under threat of violence, deportation, and harm to their families. The vast majority of temporary workers are recruited via third-party foreign labor contractors, some of whom act neither lawfully nor ethically. That is why we are working with the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking and calling on the California State Legislature to support legislation that would help protect temporary workers from modern slavery. My name is Kanti and I am a survivor of human trafficking and

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palm oil Forced Labor
Wednesday December 16, 2020

Enforcement of U.S. prohibition of forced labor palm oil imports examined

On December 15, 2020, 25 members of the oldest committee of the U.S. Congress – the House Ways and Means Committee – sent a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to seek more information on the administration's enforcement of the prohibition of forced labor palm oil imports. The Ways and Means Committee has jurisdiction over taxation and tariffs, including Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1307), which prohibits the importation of merchandise mined, produced or manufactured, wholly or in part, in any foreign country by forced or indentured labor – including

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Joanna speaking Anti-slavery activists
Friday November 20, 2020

INTERVIEW: Why does Freedom United use the term ‘modern slavery’?

This interview with Freedom United's Executive Director, Joanna Ewart James, was originally published in openDemocracy. Joanna Ewart-James is the executive director at Freedom United, an international organisation working to end modern slavery. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery spoke with her on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the UN Trafficking Protocol to discuss whether or not it is better to be on the ‘inside’ of the anti-trafficking and anti-modern slavery project, or to defend a more radical viewpoint centred on labour rights from the fringe. Neil Howard (BTS):

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Banner that reads "sex workers' rights are human rights" Law & Policy
Thursday November 26, 2020

Freedom United responds to Scottish Government’s ‘Equally Safe: challenging men’s demand for prostitution’ consultation

Below are Freedom United's responses to the consultation's questions most relevant to our work regarding the Scottish Government's approach to sex work and preventing violence against women and girls. You can read the full consultation here and we invite you to leave your thoughts in the comments below!   Question 1. Do you agree or disagree that the Scottish Government's approach to tackling prostitution, as outlined in this section, is sufficient to prevent violence against women and girls? As an anti-modern slavery organization, Freedom United’s experience from the sector makes

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A migrant workers' shanty town in Apulia, southern Italy Law & Policy
Friday November 6, 2020

Forced labor in Italy cannot be tackled without international law

Carlo Ladd

This article by our Advocacy Officer Carlo Ladd was originally published in Italian in Affari Italiani. The world’s most important international law against forced labor has yet to be ratified by Italy.  And according to the academics and activists monitoring labor conditions in our country, it is urgently needed. Protocol no. 29 (2014), which supplements the Forced Labor Convention (1930) of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO), makes important changes to its source document and adapts it to a world that has changed considerably in 90 years. The Protocol focuses in

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