Free the Slaves

Tboung Khmum Province is one of Cambodia's highest-risk areas for trafficking. Between 2023 and 2025, our partner Chab Dai Coalition documented 246 cases of trafficking and exploitation there, nearly half involving young women trafficked to China for forced marriage. A recent border conflict with Thailand has added pressure, sending thousands of migrant workers home without income and at greater risk of exploitation.

Chab Dai's Community Hero model trains local government officials, teachers, religious leaders, and residents to spot early warning signs, support at-risk families, and refer cases to services. Two district Hero Teams went dormant in 2025 after their funding ran out. This year, Free the Slaves provided seed funding to help Chab Dai bring them back and expand them, from 15 to 17 members up to 25 per district.

Restarting meant asking who was missing. Recruitment now includes youth leaders, school principals, and environmental officers, roles that had never been part of the model before. A Deputy District Governor personally requested new members join, and provincial and national officials attended the official Hero Team formation in July.

Eighteen workers in Uttar Pradesh have received wages they were owed. The survivor leader who made it happen identified the problem, worked directly with the affected workers, and took the case to the Labour Department, recovering roughly ₹154,328 (about $1,600) and prompting a formal warning to the employer.

No FTS staff or partner organization intervened directly. The survivor leader acted on the knowledge, confidence, and government contacts built through three Community Liberation Initiative trainings that Free the Slaves and Azad Shakti Abhiyan (ASA) delivered to 16 survivor leaders in Jaunpur and Bhadohi districts between August and December 2025.

A second ASA leader has since recovered wages independently for 10 more workers, using the same skills without any FTS or ASA staff involvement.

This is the outcome the Community Liberation Initiative is designed to produce: survivors who no longer need FTS to step in, because they already know how to navigate the system themselves.

This is just one of 5 upcoming webinar sessions on human trafficking and forced labor in the Caribbean context next week including speakers from Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

Register Now to Attend

Ministry of Labour Small and Micro Enterprise Development Free the Slaves - Caribbean Region The Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security Organization of American States (OAS)UNODC Regional Office for Central America and the Caribbean Employers Consultative Association of Trinidad and Tobago International Labour Organization - Caribbean Office Jamaica Constabulary Force Child Protection and Family Services Agency - CPFSA

We are pleased to announce that the Forum will take place at the Argyle Grand Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, on October 5–6, 2026.

The venue includes a large conference room for the main program, as well as five additional rooms for concurrent sessions, specialized discussions, workshops, and side events.

We are currently finalizing the Forum’s speakers and sessions. There is still time to express your interest in presenting or organizing a side event.

🏨 Argyle Grand Hotel, Nairobi
📅 October 5–6, 2026

✅ Confirm your participation and indicate in the same form whether you are interested in presenting or organizing a side event:
https://freedomfromslaveryforum.org/freedom-from-slavery-global-forum-2026/

We look forward to seeing you in Nairobi!

Free the Slaves is pleased to collaborate with the International Labour Organization, Batang Malaya PH, and the IACAT on a stocktaking session reviewing the Philippines' progress under the PPACL and the National Strategic Action Plan Against Trafficking in Persons. The findings will help shape a roadmap as the Philippines pursues Alliance 8.7 Pathfinder Country status, in support of Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Free the Slaves - Asia Region

Join Free the Slaves and the Caribbean Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons (CCATIP) for a five-day virtual webinar series marking the 2026 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. From July 20 to 24, government officials, civil society leaders, survivors, youth, private sector representatives, and researchers from across the Caribbean will come together to confront the region's most pressing trafficking challenges, from emerging threats in cyber-scamming and sport trafficking to reducing demand for exploitative labor and commercial sexual exploitation.

Building on momentum from the 2025 Caribbean Anti-Trafficking Conference, each session will turn dialogue into action: strengthening cross-border coalitions, centering survivor leadership, engaging youth as partners rather than bystanders, and supporting the wellbeing of the practitioners doing this work every day.

This is a chance to help shape what comes next for the region. Over five days of interactive sessions, panel discussions, and Q&A, you will hear directly from survivors and frontline experts, exchange strategies with peers across sectors, and help identify concrete steps for collaboration ahead of 2030. Register now to be part of a growing regional movement working toward a Caribbean where all people are free from exploitation.

https://shorturl.at/tA0ry