The Week in Trafficking

Our weekly links roundup of human trafficking in the news.

U.S. News

• In the lead up to the Super Bowl there continues to be public statements, advertising campaigns, media attention, a House panel, and even an app about sex trafficking surrounding the event. However, as we previously discussed and others are reporting, there is little systematic evidence to support this, and perpetuating a Super Bowl sex trafficking myth is harmful because it increases the probability of bad policy.

• Three Malian men are bringing a child slavery case against Nestle, Cargill, and Archer Daniels Midland in California courts under the Alien Tort Statue. In related AFP article about the West African cocoa industry, children in Côte d'Ivoire continue to be exploited on illegal cocoa farms.

• The National Human Trafficking Resource Center released 2013 data on the use of their trafficking hotline on Monday, the same day that the hotline received its 100,000th phone call. The most calls came from California, while Texas maintained its second place position. 

• Florida takes a new step in the fight against trafficking, and in South Florida Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials give a trafficking prevention presentation to adult entertainment industry representatives.

• Advocacy organizations urge U.S. lawmakers to adopt legislation increasing the transparency of corporate supply chains in an effort to prevent forced labor.

International News

• Updating a story that received substantial coverage in the last few months, official records released this weak reveal that 185 Nepalese workers in Qatar died during 2013 building the 2022 World Cup's infrastructure.

• Thai police rescue hundreds of Rohingya Muslims from suspected traffickers. This comes following a Reuters report last month exposing Thai complicity in the trafficking of Rohingya refugees.

• 11 recommendations for the United Kingdom in the fight against trafficking, including closer cooperation with European Union organizations.

• Police in the UK and Spain dismantled a trafficking network that used Heathrow Airport as a transit point for Nigerian women and girls into Europe.

• A redraft of prostitution laws in Canada raises concerns that legalization could increase sex trafficking.

• New evidence suggests that Indian children are being trafficked for adoption to Australia. Children are also being used in India to mine mica, a mineral component in many cosmetic products.

• 74 migrant workers were freed from what is alleged to be forced labor conditions in Scotland's fishing industry in 2012, as pressure grows to protect migrant workers in the industry. 

• Human trafficking convictions in the Philippines increased over 300% from 2005 to 2013, however, the number of convictions remains low and regionally concentrated.