A Dutch brothel where women work for themselves

A new law seeks to protect vulnerable guest workers and unwary businesses from unscrupulous recruiters by requiring them to register with the state and meet certain requirements.

Human trafficking is a rampant problem throughout the world, but the signs can often be difficult to spot. A collaboration between Catholic churches and police officers to fight the issue together takes shape.

Equip is a business in Lebanon that is trying to prevent further abuse of domestic workers, by helping them communicate better with their employers. “Their business model relies on employers paying for the company’s services, which range from $10 to $550, and include English lessons, first-aid training, legal translation, and conflict mediation.”

When Emily Kennedy was a teenager traveling in Eastern Europe she saw street kids she learned were trafficked by the Russian mob and decided to tackle human trafficking in her college work. The company she launched, Marinus Analytics, created a software application that has been used by authorities to rescue hundreds of victims in the U.S. and Canada and is expanding. The data it gathers has also debunked assumptions about how and where trafficking takes place.

In San Francisco, a law that offers amnesty to sex workers who report violent crimes to police is designed to save lives and reduce crime overall in the city. It comes as the city’s police department faces a massive police sex scandal over officers abusing an underaged sex worker, something advocates say is all too common and leaves crimes women might report uninvestigated. Advocates applaud the new law, say it doesn’t go far enough and they worry new federal laws could undermine it.

Miami is home to a special type of child welfare program called CHANCE (Citrus Helping Adolescents Negatively Impacted by Commercial Exploitation) that is designed specifically for youth in foster care that have been trafficked. CHANCE has an intensive curriculum that educates foster parents and clinicians about child sex trafficking and child trauma, and families are only allowed to take in one child at a time so that they are prepared for the child's unique health needs. Studies done on the program have found that the youth have significant improvement in many emotional and mental categories.

Since its April 2018 founding in Malaysia, the Be My Protector app has enabled interventions in 120 cases of suspected human trafficking, sparked by anonymous reports that its app enables. In about a third of those cases, which mostly involved migrant workers in South and Southeast Asia, the victims were able to return to their homes, while others were offered counseling. But, like the more than 90 such apps available around the world, Be My Protector has struggled to make a big impact. Many such apps capitalize on a trendy subject without a clear focus on improving conditions and helping victims.

A growing number of governments, companies, and nonprofit organizations are working together with new technology and data to identify fishing vessels that are breaking laws and engaging in human rights violations. Using satellite imagery and tracking signals, for example, a philanthropic company and a nonprofit worked with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to help the Ghanian navy arrest four vessels for illegal fishing practices. Technology by itself won’t stop forced labor and unregulated ships, but it can be helpful for cash-strapped governments looking to increase oversight of their fisheries.

The Virginia Theological Seminary is giving cash to descendants of Black Americans forced to work there during slavery and Jim Crow. Annual payments, taken from a fund set to grow at a sustainable rate, will go to the closest direct descendant of each Black worker. Fifteen descendants have received payments so far, but that number will likely grow as genealogists continue to search through records. The payments, along with efforts to build relationships with the families, are the Seminary’s way of acknowledging their role in the exploitation and recognizing the contributions of those forced to work there.

The Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT) works to positively impact the quality of life for medically underserved communities — particularly people of color within the LGBTQ+ community. APAIT’s primary focus is helping those with behavioral health challenges, housing insecurity, and who are at risk for HIV/AIDS, but has recently expanded its services to include helping those who are victims of sex trafficking.