“I wanted a better life,
and had nothing to lose.”
Our intelligence shows that Lithuanian people working in Lincolnshire can be vulnerable to labour exploitation.
So, in July 2019 we delivered a targeted awareness campaign on Facebook and Instagram to inform people of what can happen, and where they can get help. Watch the video above, which focuses on a man who is falsely promised a factory job in the UK, and tells his story of modern slavery.
Intelligence-led campaigns
For each of our awareness campaigns, we are directly informed by the data on human trafficking trends that we collect from all over the world. We chose Lithuania for this project because our research shows that it currently a hotspot. We then collaborated closely with local organisations and delivered focus groups with research partners in the area to make sure our approach was appropriate for the audience.
A typical story of deception
The story of the campaign narrative in the video was inspired by our research and intelligence. The script was based on a typical story of deception, vulnerability and powerlessness associated with human trafficking. We told the story in Lithuanian, geo-targeted at communities in both England and Lithuania to ensure that the people who need our help would see it.
Looking ahead
The video has been seen by 350,000 people and shared over 550 times.
It’s still early days, but we do know that as a result of the reach from our campaign, we are already getting reports that the organisations we partnered with in Lithuania have had an increase in calls from those looking for support.
A huge thanks to our partners in both the UK and in Lithuania to help make this possible.