Human Thread Foundation

This June 20 is World Refugee Day. This year marks 75 years since the world made a promise: that people forced to flee have the right to seek safety.

That promise is being broken every day — not just at borders, but in the places refugees and migrants end up when official channels are closed to them. Migrant workers are three times more likely to end up in forced labour than local workers. The more dangerous and irregular the journey, the more that risk compounds.

Lisa has photographed people on those journeys — migrants riding freight trains, moving through the margins of the world with nothing to protect them. What her camera captures is what statistics cannot: the specific human cost of a system that forces people into invisibility, and what happens to people when they become invisible.

Displacement doesn't end exploitation. Too often, it's where exploitation begins.

Today is World Day Against Child Labour. 138 million children are still trapped in it.

In this CNN interview, Lisa talks about what she witnessed in brick kilns in Nepal, gold mines in Ghana, fishing boats on Lake Volta — children carrying loads heavier than their own bodies, working in water they don't know how to swim in, breathing dust that will damage their lungs for life. She talks about the moment a tear came down her face in a kiln and an abolitionist had to stop her — because showing emotion wasn't safe, not for her, not for them.

She also talks about what she wants people to take away from her work: that when we see a child in forced labour, we should recognise them as our own child. That all children are our children.

This is why the Human Thread Foundation exists. Not to raise awareness in the abstract, but to bring that human evidence — those faces, those eyes, those lives — to the people who have the power to change something.

Link in comments to read the full CNN interview.

The Human Thread Foundation – ever wondered what the name stands for?

The name The Human Thread Foundation symbolizes the interconnectedness of all people and the fundamental dignity of every human life. Just like a thread weaves through fabric to create something whole, our humanity is interwoven—we are all connected, and no one should be left behind.

This idea is particularly powerful in the context of the foundation’s mission: to end human trafficking and modern slavery. It highlights how the exploitation of one person affects the integrity of the whole, emphasizing that dignity, freedom, and justice should be upheld for every individual. At The Human Thread Foundation, we work to unravel injustice and weave hope, ensuring that everyone has the dignity, freedom, and opportunity they deserve.

Together, we can end human trafficking. Together, we form The Human Thread.

“Desperately poor people do desperate things.” Like working in illegal mines in search of diamonds, being well aware of the danger of it collapsing, or like in Buffelsfontein, South Africa, being sealed off from reemerging and fighting for survival without food and water.

Our founder, Lisa Kristine, shares her experiences of visiting the mine in February 2024, where 200 miners were trapped a mile and a quarter deep underground, deeper than the Grand Canyon. Ultimately, 78 of them did not survive.

If we want to eliminate modern slavery, we need to acknowledge the principal cause that drives people to take on exploitative jobs: poverty.

Read the whole piece on Substack via the link in the comments.

These images by Lisa Kristine were made possible by the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation in Partnership with Human Thread Foundation to eradicate slavery and human trafficking.