Free the Slaves

Applications are still open, and the deadline has been extended to June 15.

The Summer School on Human Trafficking, hosted by Free the Slaves and the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull, offers a rare opportunity to engage deeply with one of the most complex global challenges.

Taking place online from June 29 – July 3, 2026, the five-day program brings together leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to explore trafficking from multiple perspectives, including migration, supply chains, climate change, conflict, technology, and survivor engagement.

Through 30 hours of interactive lectures, case studies, and workshops, participants will gain both the analytical frameworks and practical tools needed to respond to trafficking in real-world contexts.

Open to graduate students, researchers, civil servants, journalists, and practitioners globally.

Fee: $350, with scholarships available for eligible participants.

Apply by June 15: https://freetheslaves.net/school/

What does it take to strengthen a country’s response to human trafficking?

In Kenya, that work is happening through policy reform, human rights processes, and collaboration across government, civil society, and survivor communities.

Free the Slaves recently contributed to national discussions on updating anti-trafficking laws and advancing human rights commitments. The focus was not only on what needs to change, but how systems can better protect people in practice, from improving survivor support to addressing risks like online exploitation and deceptive recruitment.

These kinds of processes are not always visible. But they shape how protection, accountability, and justice actually work on the ground.

Read the blog to see how Kenya is working to strengthen its response and what it means for preventing exploitation: https://freetheslaves.net/advancing-kenyas-response-to-human-trafficking-and-human-rights-protection/

Free the Slaves’ Senior Program Manager for Research and the partners from CWISH Nepal are in Kathmandu and Lalitpur to expand the dissemination of their joint research on child domestic workers among local schools.

They met with +60 children aged 11-15 (grades 6 through 9) and presented the research findings and recommendations to the students and their teachers. Presentations were followed by interesting exchanges with the children, who were invited to reflect on what they learned about child labor, how they felt about the research, and what solutions they think should be implemented to protect children in Nepal from exploitation.

In each school, the team distributed copies of the child-friendly version of the research report in Nepali. The report will be accessible to students in the schools’ own libraries and teachers will be using the report as part of their awareness-raising sessions on child labor and children’s rights throughout the academic year.

Child labor persists across the Caribbean not as an isolated problem, but as the result of systemic conditions: poverty, exclusion, weak protections, and limited access to education. On the eve of World Day Against Child Labor, Free the Slaves (FTS) and the Caribbean Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons (CCATIP) are coming together to examine what is driving vulnerability for children in four CARICOM member states and what must change.

Join us on June 11, 2026, for a webinar that moves from analysis to action: identifying the gaps that leave children at risk and exploring concrete solutions to close them.

📅 June 11, 2026 🌍 https://freetheslaves-net.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xkgTyI6KQMa52NLpT4el6Q

Together, we can build the protections children in the Caribbean deserve.

Climate change is often framed as an environmental or economic crisis. But there is a dimension that rarely makes it into the conversation: how environmental disruption can push people into situations of trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation.

In the latest episode of Conversations on Modern Slavery, our team explores that connection through the lens of Antigua and Barbuda, a small island developing state that sits on the front lines of climate change and its consequences.

We are joined by Marver Woodley, Senior Operations and Policy Manager in Antigua and Barbuda's Department of Blue Economy, bringing local knowledge and lived reality to a global conversation, Dr. Bethany Jackson (University of Nottingham), whose research maps climate hazards to exploitation risk across regions, and Dr. Marta Furlan, Senior Program Manager for Research at Free the Slaves who conducted the research.

Our research identified six interconnected pathways through which climate change deepens vulnerability: loss of livelihood, health impacts, housing insecurity, forced mobility, disrupted education, and food and water insecurity. These do not operate in isolation. They create a cycle of vulnerability, and that cycle demands a people-centered response.

🎙️ Listen now to learn more → https://links.freetheslaves.net/Podcast

In Guatemala, survivors of child labor are shaping the policies meant to end it.

With support from Free the Slaves, survivor representatives stood before the national child labor commission and presented eight concrete recommendations grounded in lived experience.

Their message was clear. Ending child labor requires more than policy commitments. It requires survivor participation, stronger implementation of laws, access to justice, and sustained dialogue between communities and government.

These recommendations reflect what survivors know from experience: prevention must include education, community awareness, and systems that truly support recovery and accountability.

This is what inclusive policymaking looks like, when those most affected are recognized as essential partners in building solutions.

Read the blog to learn how survivor leadership is shaping national action in Guatemala: https://freetheslaves.net/survivors-of-child-labor-shape-national-policy-discussions-in-guatemala/

Real progress is happening. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, Fiji, and Samoa have made serious commitments to ending child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking, and the results are beginning to show.

But our new analysis also reveals what's holding the next phase of progress back: data gaps, hard-to-reach informal economies, donor-dependent funding, and limited survivor participation in program design.

Read the full white paper to see what it will take to move from frameworks to field-level change:

🔗 https://freetheslaves.net/alliance-8-7-pathfinder-countries-in-asia-pacific-progress-persistent-gaps-and-what-it-will-take-to-accelerate-change/

Free the Slaves (FTS) and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) recently published a research report on a case study conducted of Antigua and Barbuda since the devastation of Hurricane Irma in 2017. The report is titled "From Climate Crisis to Human Exploitation: Examining Multi-Dimensional Vulnerability in Small Island Developing States - Focus on Antigua & Barbuda".

Dr Cherisse Francis and Adrian Alexander co-hosted an episode of Caribbean Connections to interview Drs Marta Furlan (FTS) and Sneh Aurora (CHRI) about the report, its intended audience, and key findings.

Listen to the podcast here -

Caribbean Connections - Episode 7 (From Climate Crisis to Human Exploitation) CCATIP's Dr. Cherisse Francis and Adrian Alexander speak with Drs. Sneh Aurora (from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative) and Marta Furlan (from Free th...

Sustainable change happens when communities lead.

Free the Slaves, in collaboration with MSEMVS, recently trained partner organizations in India and Nepal on the Community Maturity Toolkit, a participatory approach that helps communities assess their own progress, identify risks, and build locally owned solutions to prevent trafficking and modern slavery.

The toolkit focuses on more than measurement. It supports communities in moving from early stages of awareness to becoming well-established, where they can sustain community prevention and protection efforts independently. Through practical exercises and real-world scenarios, participants explored how to facilitate inclusive discussions, build consensus, and turn community insights into action.

This approach is about shifting ownership. When communities have the tools to understand their own vulnerabilities and strengths, they are better equipped to respond, adapt, and protect themselves over the long term.

It also creates a pathway for scale. As communities reach maturity, support can shift to more vulnerable areas, expanding impact without creating dependency.

Read the blog to learn how community-led approaches are strengthening the fight against modern slavery:
https://freetheslaves.net/empowering-partners-through-community-maturity-toolkit-training/

When crisis strikes, migrant workers often face risks that go far beyond the emergency itself. Withheld documents, restricted mobility, limited information, and dependence on employers can turn uncertainty into a serious threat.

"Without our documents, we were completely dependent. Leaving became very difficult."

These vulnerabilities are not random. They reflect structural gaps in migration governance, recruitment practices, and access to information.
That is why protection must start before a crisis begins.

Free the Slaves works with communities to strengthen safer migration pathways through locally led Migrant Vigilance Committees and the SAFE TIPS Guide.

These approaches help workers prepare, ask informed questions, and stay connected to support networks, so they are better positioned to act when conditions change.

When workers leave home with knowledge, preparation, and trusted guidance, they carry something no crisis can easily take away.

Read more on our blog: https://freetheslaves.net/when-crisis-strikes-migrant-workers-need-more-than-emergency-response/