The Freedom Story

July 21st, 2022 -  The latest in the news about human trafficking is a great illustration of the breadth of extremes this crime touches. Recent revelations about an Olympic athlete’s background as a child trafficking victim come concurrently with news reports about a large network of Rohingya girl victims trafficked from Bangladesh to India. As the former gains intense media attention, the ho...

July 14th, 2022 -  As people move from rural areas to cities in the hopes of escaping climate-related disasters and finding more stable jobs and income, it is expected that the influx of people can strain cities’ infrastructures and resources. If cities are unprepared to handle the influx, it can lead to strife, conflict, violence, and crime–a situation likely to be ripe for traffickers to ex...

July 7th, 2022 -  Thailand is starting to open up to tourism and larger, in-person events as the COVID situation improves. While there is still concern about community spread, the government has been able to relax border regulations and ease restrictions on public activities, thus allowing us to resume many of our in-person activities. We've got a lot going on in the evolving situation! Liste...

June 30th, 2022 - One of the most common questions people have about our programs is how we select our scholarship students. People wonder how we know that the students in our program are at risk of trafficking and exploitation. It’s a great question, and one of the most important and most difficult parts of what we do. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you...

June 23rd, 2022 - Anti-trafficking intervention and aftercare services tend to be almost exclusively centered on the victims, which seems natural, understandable, and correct. What this overlooks, however, is the impact on their families–the people whose father, mother, sister, brother, or child has gone missing, and who may not know where to turn for help. These people are often overlooked and si...

June 16th, 2022 - When anti-trafficking organizations first started thinking about what prevention might look like, the biggest component was awareness-raising. The idea was to reach as many people as possible and warn them about trafficking by telling them what it is, how it can happen, and how to report it. It's essential. But time and experience have shown that it isn’t enough. Listen to learn...

June 9th, 2022 - People from across the anti-trafficking field are finding multitudinous ways to study trafficking. While we still might not have a lot of very precise data, we are coming at the data problem from a variety of angles–and that might end up giving us a fuller understanding of the picture than we would if we rested on one or two more precise measures alone. Listen to learn more. Welco...

June 2nd, 2022 - For the most part, laws against trafficking, labor abuses, and child sexual exploitation exist. While it’s true that some legal frameworks could be strengthened, a large part of the problem has less to do with the existence or lack of laws and more to do with a breakdown in implementing them. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly...

May 26th, 2022 - The instability in the lives of migrant workers could put them at a greater risk of exploitation and trafficking. Partnerships with organizations like JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) help us provide more stability for them. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please...

May 19th, 2022 - We’ve talked about how COVID increases the risk of trafficking . We have also talked about the rise of online sexual exploitation . In the last six months or so, these two challenges coalesced into a new form of trafficking and exploitation. A growing number of Thai nationals are being trafficked to neighboring countries and forced to perform labor for places like call centers and...

May 12th, 2022 - When we think of child trafficking, we generally assume the trafficker is an older adult who preys on minors. That has typically been the case, with ages primarily ranging from traffickers in their 20s to in their 60s. However, our peers in the anti-trafficking field in South East Asia have reported that they are seeing an emerging trend of younger people becoming involved – as pe...

May 3rd, 2022 - Trafficking is already a horrific, damaging, and traumatizing experience. Unfortunately, there are dynamics in play now that are making it worse – not just in the sense that the amount of trafficking is increasing, but that new challenges contribute to the damage trafficking can cause. In the past two years, COVID measures like lockdowns, quarantines, and travel restrictions did no...

April 21st, 2022 - We're welcoming a new cohort and have created a composition story for you to listen to! Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

April 12th, 2022 - Friends, we’ve got some exciting things to share with you this month! Between April 18th-29th , we’ll be releasing a new video and more student stories – but expect them to be a little different from what we’ve shared in the past. We hope what we share here will really show you the impact you’re making as part of our community committed to preventing child trafficking! Listen to...

April 7th, 2022 - For the sake of ease, discussion about trafficking tends to revolve around categories: labor trafficking, child trafficking, sex trafficking, etc. Another way to think of trafficking is as part of a spectrum of abuse and exploitation (concept courtesy of a legal training hosted by The Remedy Project , USAID Asia CTIP , and  USAID Thailand CTIP ). On one end, there is decent...

March 31st, 2022 - For the sake of ease, discussion about trafficking tends to revolve around categories: labor trafficking, child trafficking, sex trafficking, etc. Another way to think of trafficking is as part of a spectrum of abuse and exploitation (concept courtesy of a legal training hosted by The Remedy Project , USAID Asia CTIP , and  USAID Thailand CTIP ). Listen to learn more. Welco...

March 24th, 2022 - A plethora of news sources are picking up on the alarm bells ringing in Europe about the particular risks women and children are facing as they flee conflict in Ukraine. Their focus is on the immediate and obvious risks of abuse, trafficking, and exploitation, but it is foreseeable that longer term risks can also arise. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast...

March 17th, 2022 - Highly educated, middle-class women have been turning online to social media to earn money in exchange for explicit photos and videos of themselves. Oftentimes, they cite being saddled with enormous debts from student loans and not enough income from “normal jobs” as the impetus behind jumping on a quick way to get out from under the mountain of debt. There is an element of glam...

March 10th, 2022 - In response to last year’s Trafficking in Persons Report , when Thailand was downgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List, the agenda has focused on intensifying efforts to move up towards Tier 1. The report offered recommendations to improve the country’s standing by: increasing law enforcement’s capacity to investigate and prosecute, investing in multi-disciplinary training, increasing...

March 3rd, 2022 - Tuesday, March 8 is International Women’s Day! This year, the theme is “Break the Bias” and the call is for us all to help create a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. This goal is especially important for us, as we continue in our mission to prevent child trafficking. In our experience, discrimination renders marginalized people even more vulnerable to trafficki...

February 24th, 2022 - As we shared last week, traffickers are capitalizing on opportunities the pandemic presents. Trafficking has not diminished, so we believe it is more important than ever to focus on prevention. We must address all the factors that push or lure people into risky situations or leave them unprotected if they are trafficked. Research shows that prevention programs are most effect...

February 17th, 2022 - It might be tempting to hope that lockdowns, social distancing measures, travel restrictions, and fear of illness would have curbed trafficker activity. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Traffickers have adapted to COVID challenges in a variety of ways. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version....

February 3rd, 2022 - At the beginning of the pandemic, you may remember, there were predictions that we would see an increase in trafficking , as well as instances of other kinds of abuse, like domestic violence . Meanwhile, service providers, like shelters, would be hampered in their ability to help their clients or respond to increased demand, especially in lockdown situations. As we’ve talked a...

February 3rd, 2022 - For nearly two decades, the use of child labor had been on a very promising downward trend. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis has reversed it. While child labor had been decreasing since the year 2000, a UNICEF report released last June states that the number of children engaged in child labor has now risen to 160 million worldwide. The report further warns that, “globally, 9...

January 27th, 2022 - After years of allegations and prolonged intense media attention, the Ghislaine Maxwell trial finally ended in conviction last month. Because it received so much public attention, it might be helpful to put this case in context, to shed light on sex trafficking–both in how it aligns with how most cases of trafficking happen and also in how it was strikingly different. Listen t...