Welcome to our latest impact report.
In 2020, we learned that human trafficking does not stop for a pandemic. Luckily, neither do we. Here in our 2020 Impact Report you’ll see how we’ve moved, pivoted, and changed with the times. Challenging as they are.
Even before Coronavirus changed everything, 2019 & 2020 were game-changing years for STOP THE TRAFFIK. In 2019, we invited external evaluators to look at our work and ask us the difficult questions: Are we making a tangible impact on human trafficking? How do we measure what we do? How can we be doing more to have a systemic impact on the global business of trafficking?
We continue to learn, and we believe that the way we see trafficking is the right one. The criminal business of trafficking relies on: the recruitment of vulnerable people, the ability to move the proceeds of crime; and to maintain a global demand for exploited labour and services. We are making progress.
Keep reading to see our global impact, across a period where we learned that it’s never been more important to shine a light on this hidden crime.
And join with us as we drive our work forward as we convene together to converge our resources, so that we can scale the change.
Thank you for being part of our journey: together, we can STOP THE TRAFFIK.
Ruth Dearnley OBE, CEO at STOP THE TRAFFIK
This report is more than a summary of our actions: it is a review of our efforts to change the environment.
Our aim is clear: we work to shine a light on the hidden crime of human trafficking so that we can increase the risk to the trafficker and the safety of the vulnerable. To achieve this, we need to make an impact, and that is what this report focuses on. Because at STOP THE TRAFFIK no measure is more important than the people reached, the awareness raised, the resilience built, and the change measured.
Read on to discover what our fight consisted of between January 2019 and August 2020.
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1,971,352People reached
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9Campaigns
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4Countries
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3Continents
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6Languages
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1,300People trained
Message from our CEO, Ruth Dearnley
Contents
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Projects & awareness campaigns
Human trafficking is a global business that annually recruits ≃ 8 million people. With our awareness projects and campaigns, we aim to tackle RECRUITMENT through delivering geo-located social media campaigns to targeted hot spots of vulnerability.
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Work with business & financial institutions
Traffickers are making in excess of $240 billion in profit per year. We reduce the DEMAND by our engagement with business to eradicate exploitation from their supply chains. We disrupt the ability for MONEY to flow by delivering critical information to financial institutions to enable them to identify and tackle trafficking activity.
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Powered by data
Our data driven engine enables us to target, to build evidence of change and measure impact in order to share learning.
Our projects & awareness campaigns
– Tackling Recruitment
Data from partners in the MSE Group in the Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, revealed a trend of Filipino women exploited in domestic servitude.
With Kalayaan, Kanlungan, Filipino Domestic Workers Association and the Voice of Domestic Workers, we developed an intelligence report and a geo-targeted social media campaign.
Campaign aims
- Filipino domestic workers to know their rights and where to find support.
- The wider Filipino community in London to know the signs of domestic servitude and signpost exploited workers to specialist organisations.
Campaign achievements
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66,928 people reached in our target audience
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9,309 clicked through to learn more
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Over 90% of the post-campaign survey respondents found the campaign helpful
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42% said they contacted an organisation for advice or support
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37% added support organisations to their phones
We don’t realise when someone proposes a job offer, we just go for it, but sometimes it’s too late. No choice. You have to stay and work for peanuts. So, friends, never judge a book by it’s cover.
Comment on Facebook campaign post
During 2019, together with key Lithuanian partners KOPŽI and Missing Persons Families Support Centre, we developed and implemented a geo-targeted social media campaign to address two main audiences: the Lithuanian community living in the UK, and people living in Lithuania that might be considering accepting job offers in the UK. The goal was to inform them about trafficking, ensuring they knew their rights and where to find support, signposting to local organisations.
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500,000+ people reached in Lincolnshire, UK and in Lithuania
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16,616 people visited the website to learn more
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Having watched the video, 21% in the UK and 31% in Lithuania said they would behave differently in a potential trafficking situation
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25,453 video plays at 95%
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1,171 reactions
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KOPŽI estimated a 50% increase of calls in the month of the campaign, as well as in emails and letters
In response to the videos, people asked:
How can I be sure about a certain company because I want to go abroad and work for them?
Can anyone help me translate my English contract?
Where can I get more information about help in the UK if I experience human trafficking?
In partnership with Edelman, we identified that Bali is a popular source and destination for women and children sex trafficking. Together, we ran two campaigns between October 2019 and May 2020 to increase the awareness and knowledge of this risk and to shift levels of denial and fear of talking about a traditionally taboo topic. We ran targeted campaigns in Bahasa across Facebook and Instagram to reach these vulnerable audiences, with the following outcomes:
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177% increase in searches for more information on Human Trafficking in Bali compared to the same period last year.
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75% increase in audience online conversations around the topic of Human Trafficking in Bali
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179% increase in the audience believing that there are victims being exploited in their local business
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11.84% increase in confidence that they themselves could identify the signs of a potential human trafficking victim
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638% increase in news articles published about Child Trafficking
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506% increase in news articles published about Human Trafficking
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3,449% increase in news articles published about Slavery
Latin American Cleaners Campaign
Based on our data and research conducted by our partners, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) and the Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS), we identified that Latin American women in the cleaning sector in the UK have been at an increased risk of labour exploitation and labour rights violations since COVID-19.
We provided them with information in Spanish and Portuguese about their workers’ rights in the UK and where to seek advice and support, including healthcare information.
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119,088 people reached / 72% of potential audience
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12,964 unique link clicks
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+2,700 reactions
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28,698 video plays at 95%
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11% Click Through Rate
This just showed up on my timeline. If I knew this before I would have sought help and not suffered for five years in the horrible situation being exploited.
Comment on Facebook campaign post
COVID response
In April 2020, we ran a workers’ rights campaign in the UK sharing the message that legal rights were not impacted during coronavirus.
We were able to get the content out quickly at a time where information about living through a pandemic was scarce on the ground.
The locations were chosen based on where we anticipated the biggest economic impacts of the pandemic would be: Kent, Hereford, Scotland, London, Milton Keynes, Manchester.
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87,784people reached
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5,895clicks
Central West London Project
With the support of City Bridge Trust, we coordinate the partnership response to trafficking in the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and City of Westminster.
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Developed Referral Pathways
Developed Adult Referral Pathways for the local authorities, which resulted in an increase in adult referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (4 referrals 2016-2018 vs. 19 referrals 2019-2020).
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Delivered Training
Trained 918 people over 54 hours. Prior to the training, 49% said they felt confident responding to an incident of modern slavery vs 95% after the training. 98% were satisfied with the training they received.
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10 Partners Shared Data
10 multi-agency partners are sharing anonymous data about trafficking cases, providing a richer understanding of exploitation in the borough and enabling a proactive response such as the domestic servitude campaign above.
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Published Modern Slavery Statements
Supported Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham to publish their inaugural Modern Slavery Statements to mitigate the risk of modern slavery in the business and supply chain.
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Published a Report
Worked with partners to publish a report: ‘Our Response to Modern Slavery & Exploitation: Supporting Chinese Women’ which was downloaded over 1000 times.
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Legacy
Developed a Theory of Change and a modern slavery strategy to provide direction for the partnership over the next five years.
East Sussex Project
Data showed that Hastings was a high-risk area for trafficking. With the support of Esmée Fairbarn, we undertook a three-year project to work alongside local communities to prevent, identify and disrupt people trafficking.
The project started in 2017, and in its most recent phase, we have focused on training frontline staff, promoting community action and coordinating collaboration between organisations, including sharing data to inform our responses to trafficking. This year, we:
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Trained 200 people
We have provided training across different sectors, including community and voluntary organisations, housing, adult social care, and NHS. Following this, we have seen additional referrals into Discovery, a multiagency response focussed on disrupting criminal activity and safeguarding victims.
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Developed a toolkit and pathway
Partnering with Adult Social Care, we have developed a toolkit and pathway for all operational and frontline staff, to highlight what an employee should do when a case of Modern Slavery is identified within their service.
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Collaborated with local organisations to share insights
Following on from previous NGO forums, steering group meetings and partner collaboration, we have worked to share knowledge of human trafficking between organisations. This has so far culminated in a visualised dashboard, providing partners with more insights in which to inform our responses to Modern Slavery in the coming year.
Manchester Project
With the support of The Clothworkers Foundation and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, since January 2020 our team has been working to prevent the exploitation of people who are homeless and with no fixed address in Greater Manchester (GM).
Together, we:
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Published a research report on The Greater Manchester Homelessness and Exploitation Survey
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Conducted 12 interviews with frontline homelessness support organisations - which recorded 42 incidents of exploitation in the region
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Delivered Online training sessions & learning resources on exploitation risks for hotels housing people with no fixed address through the pandemic* - downloaded 1198 times
*As part of the ‘Everyone In’ scheme.
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Connected 5 partner organisations to financial inclusion schemes to increase accessibility of banking and financial support
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Developed the capacity of 2 partner organisations to record and share information about trafficking
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Provided briefing notes of exploitation risks to the office of the GM Mayor, Andy Burnham
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Coordinated 7 emergency Covid drop-ins + 2 Anti-Slavery Partnership meetings for anti-trafficking services to support their transition to online during the early stages of the pandemic
Aman Safety Project
Launched in June 2020 and spanning the next three years, Aman Safety seeks to ensure Asylum Seekers and Refugees find vital information about human trafficking as they flee conflict, on route from the Middle East to Greece.
Funded by Comic Relief, much of the work we have been doing so far has been foundational: growing the team, collecting data to have a strong basis of research and building partnerships with organisations operating on the ground.
We do this with 4 clear goals:
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Increasing perception of risk
Raising awareness about specific risks they may face
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Generating knowledge
Providing information about signs and ways to respond
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Magnifying awareness of support organisations
Sharing contact details of local organisations
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Adopting a preventative behaviour
Asking the right questions, e.g. about a job offer
Our work with business & financial institutions
– Tackling Demand & Money
We offer bespoke solutions that enable businesses to assess and manage the risk of modern slavery – thus protecting both their direct employees and throughout the supply chain. By partnering with us, businesses benefit from specialist advisors and practical solutions, while also contributing to the broader work of disrupting human trafficking globally; enabling organisations to become true ethical market leaders.
For more information about our services, please see our brochure.
During the period between January 2019 and August 2020, we:
- Worked with 5 major clients from hospitality, food-service, and manufacturing, as well as other key clients from across the sector.
- Supply chain risk mapping projects for 4 companies, covering £2 billion annual spend across 14,600 suppliers.
- Designed 1 company’s supplier due diligence procedure and wrote 3 best practice modern slavery statements for companies.
- 3 training sessions to 130 business professionals – participants worked in procurement, human resources, legal and compliance, and operations functions.
- 5 awareness presentations to 116 participants. 3 of these sessions focused on SMEs and their role in modern slavery prevention, with 70 participants.
CASE STUDY: COSTA COFFEE
We conducted risk mapping of Costa Coffee supply chain in July 2019, both inherent risk mapping (determined by sector and country) and actual risk mapping (determined by suppliers’ mitigation steps).
The project also included a gap analysis of Costa’s existing supplier due diligence procedures – which included the tender process, supplier on-boarding, and supplier monitoring. Reviewing policies and supplier contracts, and interviewing key staff from procurement and sustainability, we identified the procedures’ shortcomings and recommended actions to enhance it.
Following on from this project we were commissioned to support Costa in redesigning its due diligence by adopting the gap analysis’ recommendations. This involved redesigning the ethical questionnaire suppliers are required to complete, embedding the questionnaire into the tender and on-boarding processes, and designing a monitoring programme which was targeted.
We were also commissioned to write Costa’s modern slavery statement, which was published in May 2020.
Impact on financial institutions
We have partnered with the following financial institutions -amongst others- to address the risk of modern slavery in their operations, supply chains, and customers, highlighting the unique position banks are in to disrupt human trafficking.
As part of the Lithuanian communities campaign, in partnership with Santander’s Financial Crime Team, we trained staff at Santander’s Boston branch (Lincolnshire) to raise awareness of the local risk and to increase reporting.
Neil Giles ran 5 sessions across the UK, reaching approximately 450 Santander team members, helping promote a culture of awareness across the company.
He also co-delivered a podcast for Santander staff with Samantha Margiotta (Santander FIU) detailing how Banks have a role to play in spotting and reporting trafficking as it their work intersects with the issue.
Working with STOP THE TRAFFIK has enabled a greater understanding of the numerous guises of human trafficking and the potential opportunities to detect, deter and disrupt, protecting the most vulnerable in our communities.
Sam Margiotta, Senior Manager, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)
Together with the Lincolnshire police, in the context of the Lithuanian Communities campaign, we delivered a modern slavery training session for staff from the Barclays Boston branch.
Afterwards, they ran a Community Awareness Day, and together we handed out leaflets in the street, spoke to community members, and went into local businesses to talk about modern slavery awareness.
Bank of Ireland is working with us to embed a culture of awareness across its business, so after our first training delivered to its Board of Directors and key anti-money laundering team members in 2018, in 2019 we gave two training sessions in Ireland.
Approximately 55 participants were trained on what modern slavery is, how banks are affected, and what they can do to prevent it.
In 2020, we conducted research on the positive impact of the survivor bank accounts scheme run by HSBC. Research interviews were conducted with HSBC staff and staff from the charities which could refer survivors into the scheme. This research is due to be published soon.
Powered by Data
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Together with IBM, we have created TA Hub, a data and knowledge sharing platform that ensures data security and powerful analytics to work effectively in the anti-trafficking field.
TA Hub was launched publicly at an event in Washington DC in November 2019. It then became an independent NGO and it is now registered as a charity in the UK.
By the end of August 2020, TA Hub attracted 40 organisations as participants drawn from Law Enforcement, Banking, Academia and anti-trafficking NGOs across the globe – and there are further 90 organisations in the pipeline*.
This is a key part of TA Hub’s work, as its program proposes an impactful collaboration across multiple sectors to build a global picture of human trafficking.
*Please note that this report covers the period between January 2019 and August 2020. For the most up-to-date information, visit the TA Hub website.
Research and Intelligence
By working towards the automation of our data collection processes, we are enhancing our ability to spot current trends and patterns in human trafficking, which we use to inform its prevention work.
We reached over 68,000 global records.
More than 500 of those records, obtained in this period, are unique incidents of human trafficking from across the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and City of Westminster. Over 10 multi-sector partners (including police, the local authority, NHS and NGOs) shared their anonymous data to build a rich intelligence picture of modern slavery in the three boroughs.
This has provided the local ‘MSE Group’ an opportunity to identify local trends, demographics of victims/survivors and traffickers operating in the area, along with recruitment methods and industries where forced labour is most present – all of this has been essential for our granular campaigns.
Our work is done in collaboration with:
The STOP APP
A dedicated team within Netcompany helped us redesign The STOP APP, a tool for helping us build a better picture of human trafficking activity around the world to inform our prevention work.
Between January 2019 and August 2020 we received more than a thousand reports and actioned 99 of them, sharing the intelligence with trusted, relevant authorities.
The STOP APP empowers people to report what they see in their communities. Some of these incidents were entered into our database and contribute to our global picture of human trafficking.
– More at STOP THE TRAFFIK
A culture of constant learning
In 2019 we invited two separate external evaluators to look at our work.
Humankind Research looked at our campaigns model to help us find out how effective our digital campaigns are at preventing human trafficking.
We also invited Robin Brady and Dr Ruth Van Dyke to look at the organisation as a whole. We learned so much from both evaluations, and we always consider our impact in everything we do.
Our ethos relies on our approach to monitoring, evaluating and learning, and our constant commitment to fighting human trafficking in the most effective way.
Financial summary
Message from Darcy Willson-Rymer, Chair of the Trustee Board at STOP THE TRAFFIK
As you have seen, at STOP THE TRAFFIK we have learnt, we have grown, and we are poised for the future.
In the last year and a half, as full of challenges as it was, we’ve reached almost 2 million people with our awareness campaigns to keep them safe from exploitation and to know how to spot the signs; we’ve delivered critical information to financial institutions; and we’ve engaged with businesses to eradicate exploitation from their supply chains.
This integral vision is what makes STOP THE TRAFFIK such unique and critical friend.
We are creating a new future with imagination.
Join us and help us build it.
Because only together can we shift the paradigm. Only together can we create a world where people aren’t bought and sold.