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

Modern slavery fears: Nearly 100 held in nail bar crackdown
BBC News, 28 December 2016
Nearly 100 people working in nail bars in the UK have been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences as part of a clampdown on illegal working. Immigration minister Robert Goodwill vowed to tackle the “barbaric crime” of modern slavery by targeting businesses that abuse immigration laws.

Maids, brick makers, children: The faces of slavery in 2016 driving change
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 27 December 2016
An estimated 45.8 million people live in some form of slavery around the world, either trafficked into forced labour, sold for sex, trapped in debt bondage or born into servitude. The Thomson Reuters Foundation reviews some of the good, bad and ugly stories on human trafficking from 2016.

Andy Hall: ‘Myanmar does not have a long-term migration policy’
Frontier Myanmar, 26 December 2016
Human rights activist Andy Hall, who was persecuted by Thai companies for exposing migrant labour abuses, discusses the deteriorating conditions for activists in Thailand, the failings of Myanmar’s migrant policy and his recent trials. “In some circumstances the situation for migrant works in Thailand has improved,” Hall said.

Traffickers get life in prison in India for chopping off labourers’ hands
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 25 December 2016
Eight human traffickers in India found guilty of torturing and chopping off the hands of two labourers have received life prison sentences. A prosecutor hopes that the severity of the punishment will deter others. News of the torture three years ago triggered widespread outrage and made national headlines in India.

State Department signals interest in how tech companies address abuses in cobalt supply
The Washington Post, 23 December 2016
The U.S. government is taking an increased interest in how American technology companies plan to address human rights abuses in Congo’s cobalt mines, according to a senior State Department official. The attention from State comes as industry groups have recently launched initiatives aimed at curbing child labour in their supply chains.

Photo credit: UN Photo/Logan Abassi

Learn more

For more news and updates about the Freedom Fund, visit our Newsroom. You can also view issues of our monthly slavery research bulletin here.