Each week the Freedom Fund compiles the most insightful and timely news stories about modern slavery. Check out what we’re reading among this week’s top slavery articles.

UK targets gangs who use child drug mules with tough anti-slavery laws
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 28 November 2017
By using Britain’s landmark Modern Slavery Act for the first time to charge alleged drug dealers who groom children to carry drugs, UK authorities hope to tackle the use of children as drug runners with the threat of harsher sentences.

UN to try to empty Libyan migrant detention centers
ABC News, 28 November 2017
The United Nations plans to empty government-controlled detention centers in Libya holding about 15,000 people as part of a stepped up effort to tackle the smuggling and slavery of migrants.

Why climate change is creating a new generation of child brides
BBC News, 26 November 2017
As global warming exacerbates drought and floods in Africa, farmers’ incomes plunge, and girls as young as 13 are given away by parents desperate to stave off poverty. In Malawi, experts estimate that up to 40 percent of child marriages are due to floods and droughts caused by climate change.

Forty human traffickers arrested, 500 people rescued in West Africa
Reuters, 23 November 2017
Forty people were arrested and 500 people rescued after a swoop on human trafficking across West Africa. The Interpol-led action comes amid a global outcry sparked by footage of Africans being solved as slaves in Libya, often the final transit for migrants wanting to reach Europe.

Game on: in Indian online adventure, players decide fate of trafficked child
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 17 November 2017
The mission is to save a teenage girl’s life. The weapons are informed choices and taking a stand, while at the end the player is asked to take a pledge to help children in real life. In “(UN)TRAFFICKED”, a new Indian online game, the aim is to prevent a 13-year-old girl from being trafficked into child slavery.

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