News From The Frontlines

Conversations about human trafficking often use the language of war. We’re fighting slavery. Combatting human trafficking. And anti-trafficking movements – like anti-war movements – abound. If the fight against trafficking really is like a war, it is a war without...

The headline figures are pretty exciting. Over 1,000 people rescued from slavery. That means: children who were in sweatshops; women and girls who were forced into prostitution or sold into marriages; young men sold onto fishing boats or into gold mines. Almost 6,000...

The rescue operation went exactly to plan. We located Sẻng in China, about 500km from the border from Vietnam. A team was able to get her back to an official checkpoint within 24 hours. Shortly after, she was safely back in Vietnam. Sẻng’s terrifying 4 months in...

The call for help reached Not For Sale Vietnam's partner Blue Dragon early last year. It was gut-wrenching. In the remote hills of Bac Kan province in northern Vietnam, a sexual assault had been reported to the police. The victim, Xi, was a 7 year-old girl and the...

I met Vi on the streets of the city in a chance encounter one Sunday afternoon. He was walking along an alley, shoe-shine kit in hand, as I walked in the other direction. I could see the anticipation in his eyes as he plucked up the courage to practice on me the only...

Mảy didn’t fit the typical profile of a victim of human trafficking. Happily married and with an infant son, Mảy was excited about the future. She and her husband, Sinh, lived in a small town high up in the spectacular mountains of northern Vietnam. Many families...

Phuong had to pretend that she was sleeping. Every second was more terrifying than the last. She had a chance to call for help, but everything depended on the family being asleep. She had to act in complete secrecy. The risk of being caught was high. The consequences...