Welcome to the Slavery Research Bulletin, the Freedom Fund’s monthly brief designed to bring you new & compelling research from the global anti-slavery movement.

Targeting the demand side of exploitation

What are the most effective ways to change the behaviour of those who perpetrate or benefit from human trafficking? A literature review published by the Freedom Fund outlines lessons learned from 26 behaviour change campaigns that targeted the demand side of exploitative behaviour.

Fashion industry’s exploitation of female homeworkers in India

A report by the University of California, Berkeley, funded by the C&A Foundation, reveals that brands have been failing to regulate the exploitation of women and girls in India’s home-based garment sector. Interviewees stated that fear of not being paid and lack of other employment options are among the reasons why they remain in exploitative work.

Can the world end forced labour by 2030?

Almost 25 million people were caught in the grip of forced labour on any given day in 2016. The International Labour Organization issued a review of policies and programs around prevention, protection, remedies and enforcement aimed at achieving Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals to end forced labour by 2030.

Combatting modern slavery with data and technology

Liberty Shared’s Information and Data Collaboration program published a new paper that explores the uses and limitations of different types of data to understand human trafficking activities. The paper discusses the value of integrating disparate data sources, which can lead to insights that were not possible when relying on a single source type.

Half of surveyed Ethiopian returnees have been trafficked

An article in BMC Public Health measured the magnitude of human trafficking among 1,342 Ethiopian migrants returning from abroad. Over half (51 percent) of surveyed migrants were trafficked, and the odds of being trafficked were positively associated with being female, low household wealth and a strong desire for a successful overseas life.

Read on…

• A report by the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics and Liberty Shared examines forced labour in Singapore’s domestic work sector.
• A study by Verité assesses the risk of forced labour in the cocoa sector of Côte d’Ivoire.
• A paper by GoodElectronics describes the problem of deception in the electronics industry where workers are not provided information about the toxic substances to which they are exposed.

News & updates

For more news and updates about the Freedom Fund, visit our Newsroom. You can also view archived issues of our bulletin here. You can also subscribe to our bulletin here, and read archived issues here.

Contact us

Our team would love to hear from you. Please email:
[email protected].

Photo credit: Andrik Langfield/Unsplash