Fearing loan sharks and slavery, Indian workers ask government for cash aid
Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Informal workers in India urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a petition on Tuesday to grant emergency financial aid to protect them from loan sharks and labour traffickers as the pandemic erodes their incomes. India is one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus, and a strict lockdown earlier this year […]
Indian couple gets jail in Singapore’s first labour trafficking conviction
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation An Indian couple was sentenced to more than five years in jail in Singapore on Tuesday for exploiting migrant women, the first labour trafficking conviction in the affluent nation that is home to many foreign workers. The two Indian nationals were given a prison term of five years and six […]
Singapore vows “strong” action on labour trafficking after first conviction
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation Singapore warned on Tuesday that it would take “strong” action against labour trafficking after an Indian couple was found guilty of exploiting migrant women, the first such conviction in the affluent city-state. The two Indian nationals were convicted for exploiting three Bangladeshi women they recruited to dance at nightclubs they […]
UN raps nations for ignoring victims trafficked at home
Thomson Reuters Foundation Countries are ignoring the growing number of people trafficked within their own borders, focusing instead on the international trade in human beings, a top United Nations official said. UN special rapporteur Maria Grazia Giammarinaro said children were also increasingly vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers, be it for sex, begging or even their […]
Labour trafficking rises across Europe as laws fall short – watchdog
Thomson Reuters Foundation Labour trafficking is on the rise across Europe and has overtaken sexual exploitation as the predominant form of modern-day slavery in several countries including Britain, Belgium and Portugal, a leading European human rights body said on Tuesday. But a lack of prosecutions and convictions, limited labour laws and inspections, and fear among […]