Freedom United
@freedomunitedhq.bsky.social
Freedom United is a global anti-slavery community, using our collective power to demand change. Let’s end modern slavery together!
📌 Get your Freedom Footprint Guide: freedomunited.org/footprint
📌 Get your Freedom Footprint Guide: freedomunited.org/footprint
Pinned
The Audacity of Hope ✨
Join Freedom United this Giving Tuesday for an inspiring and fun event celebrating the hope that drives ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Storytelling • Trivia • Raffles • Lessons in change
Sign up here: donorbox.org/events/...
Join Freedom United this Giving Tuesday for an inspiring and fun event celebrating the hope that drives ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Storytelling • Trivia • Raffles • Lessons in change
Sign up here: donorbox.org/events/...
Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves—the core spices behind one of the world’s most popular holiday treats—carry a history of exploitation and violence, and are still linked to systems of slavery and exploitation in their supply chains today.
The violent origins of our favorite holiday spices - FreedomUnited.org
From the nutmeg plantations of the past to the cocoa farms of today, the lavish lifestyles and holiday comforts of the Global North are often subsidized by the exploitation of racialized and marginalized workers elsewhere.
www.freedomunited.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves—the core spices behind one of the world’s most popular holiday treats—carry a history of exploitation and violence, and are still linked to systems of slavery and exploitation in their supply chains today.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has unveiled “the most sweeping asylum reforms in modern times.” But anti-slavery campaigners warn the proposals will only increase vulnerability to trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation.
UK Home Secretary’s “sweeping asylum reforms” spark urgent trafficking concerns - FreedomUnited.org
UK's new asylum reforms spark concern that harsher rules will fuel modern slavery conditions instead of protecting those at risk.
www.freedomunited.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has unveiled “the most sweeping asylum reforms in modern times.” But anti-slavery campaigners warn the proposals will only increase vulnerability to trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation.
A US judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by four Indonesian fishermen who survived slavery at sea—proof that companies like Bumble Bee will be held to account for ignoring modern slavery. 👏
A historic moment in fight against slavery at sea - FreedomUnited.org
In a lawsuit brought by survivors of slavery at sea, the judge declined Bumble Bee’s request to dismiss the case and it can move forward toward trial.
www.freedomunited.org
November 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM
A US judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by four Indonesian fishermen who survived slavery at sea—proof that companies like Bumble Bee will be held to account for ignoring modern slavery. 👏
For all survivors—of Epstein, and of every form of sexual exploitation—the vote to release the Epstein files is a victory that affirms a truth long denied: your voices matter, and when we stand together, even the most powerful cannot evade justice. ✊
Epstein files vote marks a turning point for survivors - FreedomUnited.org
The US House’s vote to release the federal records related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes marks a historic turning point.
www.freedomunited.org
November 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
For all survivors—of Epstein, and of every form of sexual exploitation—the vote to release the Epstein files is a victory that affirms a truth long denied: your voices matter, and when we stand together, even the most powerful cannot evade justice. ✊
The Myanmar military raided an online scam compound, but traffickers remain free. Across Southeast Asia, victims are coerced into scamming under threat, while governments’ limited raids fail to stop transnational criminal networks.
Trafficking empire fueling Southeast Asia’s scam compounds - FreedomUnited.org
Many of the scammers are victims of a labor scam themselves. Lured in with false promises of a good job then trapped in forced labor.
www.freedomunited.org
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
The Myanmar military raided an online scam compound, but traffickers remain free. Across Southeast Asia, victims are coerced into scamming under threat, while governments’ limited raids fail to stop transnational criminal networks.
French authorities have opened an investigation into sex trafficking linked to Mohamed Al Fayed, the late businessman accused of years of sexual exploitation. The allegations reveal a pattern of abuse that spanned countries and decades.
French police investigate sex trafficking tied to Mohamed Al Fayed - FreedomUnited.org
France launches a sex trafficking investigation into Mohamed Al Fayed amid growing testimony from survivors demanding justice.
www.freedomunited.org
November 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM
French authorities have opened an investigation into sex trafficking linked to Mohamed Al Fayed, the late businessman accused of years of sexual exploitation. The allegations reveal a pattern of abuse that spanned countries and decades.
Mediterranean civil rescue groups have cut all communication with the Libyan Coast Guard. Their coordinated action challenges an EU-backed system that continues sending people somewhere with a proven high risk of torture, rape, and forced labor.
Rescue groups in Mediterranean cut ties with Libyan coast guard
Civil rescue groups in the Mediterranean have cut ties with the Libyan coastguard amid EU-enabled abuses against migrants and refugees.
www.freedomunited.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Mediterranean civil rescue groups have cut all communication with the Libyan Coast Guard. Their coordinated action challenges an EU-backed system that continues sending people somewhere with a proven high risk of torture, rape, and forced labor.
The Audacity of Hope ✨
Join Freedom United this Giving Tuesday for an inspiring and fun event celebrating the hope that drives ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Storytelling • Trivia • Raffles • Lessons in change
Sign up here: donorbox.org/events/...
Join Freedom United this Giving Tuesday for an inspiring and fun event celebrating the hope that drives ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Storytelling • Trivia • Raffles • Lessons in change
Sign up here: donorbox.org/events/...
November 19, 2025 at 3:00 PM
The Audacity of Hope ✨
Join Freedom United this Giving Tuesday for an inspiring and fun event celebrating the hope that drives ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Storytelling • Trivia • Raffles • Lessons in change
Sign up here: donorbox.org/events/...
Join Freedom United this Giving Tuesday for an inspiring and fun event celebrating the hope that drives ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Storytelling • Trivia • Raffles • Lessons in change
Sign up here: donorbox.org/events/...
Canada’s Supreme Court ruled to uphold laws criminalizing sex work, ignoring voices of 23 sex worker-led and migrant advocacy groups. The ruling perpetuates unsafe conditions, isolates workers, and reinforces vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
www.freedomunited.org/news/canadas...
www.freedomunited.org/news/canadas...
Canada's Supreme Court ruling ignores safety and lived experience - FreedomUnited.org
Canada rules to reaffirm the criminalization of many aspects of sex work—and once again silences the very people most affected by these laws.
www.freedomunited.org
November 16, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Canada’s Supreme Court ruled to uphold laws criminalizing sex work, ignoring voices of 23 sex worker-led and migrant advocacy groups. The ruling perpetuates unsafe conditions, isolates workers, and reinforces vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
www.freedomunited.org/news/canadas...
www.freedomunited.org/news/canadas...
After surviving a deadly Channel shipwreck, Ibrahim—a Sudanese refugee—is jailed as a “smuggler” for steering under threat. His case reflects a wider European trend of criminalizing vulnerable people crossing borders in search of safety.
www.freedomunited.org/news/prosecu...
www.freedomunited.org/news/prosecu...
No protection, only prosecution for migrants fleeing danger - FreedomUnited.org
Ibrahim is being framed as a criminal, obscuring the state-created conditions that left him no choice, and no safe way to seek safety.
www.freedomunited.org
November 15, 2025 at 7:14 PM
After surviving a deadly Channel shipwreck, Ibrahim—a Sudanese refugee—is jailed as a “smuggler” for steering under threat. His case reflects a wider European trend of criminalizing vulnerable people crossing borders in search of safety.
www.freedomunited.org/news/prosecu...
www.freedomunited.org/news/prosecu...
Thousands in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are forced from schools, hospitals, and government offices into cotton fields, revealing that, despite official claims, forced labor remains entrenched in Central Asia’s cotton industry.
Central Asia’s cotton harvest still stained by forced labor - FreedomUnited.org
Each harvest season thousands of citizens are forced to labor across cotton fields in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
www.freedomunited.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Thousands in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are forced from schools, hospitals, and government offices into cotton fields, revealing that, despite official claims, forced labor remains entrenched in Central Asia’s cotton industry.
At 19, Kanti was trafficked to Los Angeles, forced to work for four years while her passport was confiscated. Decades later, she helped push Assembly Bill 1362 into law, strengthening protections for temporary migrant workers against trafficking and abuse.
California’s new law offers hope for migrant workers
A survivor’s story helped drive California’s new law regulating foreign labor recruiters—but advocates say more must be done.
www.freedomunited.org
November 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
At 19, Kanti was trafficked to Los Angeles, forced to work for four years while her passport was confiscated. Decades later, she helped push Assembly Bill 1362 into law, strengthening protections for temporary migrant workers against trafficking and abuse.
Kavin came to the UK legally on a skilled worker visa, hoping for a better life. Instead, his employer seized his passport, forced him into grueling labor, and paid just £100 a month—exposing how weak visa protections leave migrants vulnerable to trafficking & exploitation.
UK visa system trapping workers in modern slavery - FreedomUnited.org
A recent investigation found UK visa putting thousands of migrant workers at high risk for labor exploitation and modern slavery.
www.freedomunited.org
November 9, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Kavin came to the UK legally on a skilled worker visa, hoping for a better life. Instead, his employer seized his passport, forced him into grueling labor, and paid just £100 a month—exposing how weak visa protections leave migrants vulnerable to trafficking & exploitation.
China intimidated Sheffield Hallam University into halting research on Uyghur forced labor, using threats, censorship, and economic pressure. The university’s decision to suspend her work has sparked alarm over efforts to conceal the truth about the ongoing exploitation.
China’s efforts to muzzle UK research on Uyghur forced labor - FreedomUnited.org
China’s intimidation pressured a UK university to halt Uyghur forced labor research, raising urgent concerns about academic freedom.
www.freedomunited.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:00 PM
China intimidated Sheffield Hallam University into halting research on Uyghur forced labor, using threats, censorship, and economic pressure. The university’s decision to suspend her work has sparked alarm over efforts to conceal the truth about the ongoing exploitation.
Ending child marriage would not erase family hardship, but it would draw a clear legal line protecting minors from coercion, exploitation, and abuse. So why do 34 US states still allow child marriage?
www.freedomunited.org/news/america...
www.freedomunited.org/news/america...
America’s child marriage problem is still being ignored - FreedomUnited.org
At just 11 years old, Brigitte Combs’ mother found her a husband—a 26-year-old man devoted to the Hare Krishna movement. Living in Los Angeles, Combs wasn’t allowed to attend school
www.freedomunited.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Ending child marriage would not erase family hardship, but it would draw a clear legal line protecting minors from coercion, exploitation, and abuse. So why do 34 US states still allow child marriage?
www.freedomunited.org/news/america...
www.freedomunited.org/news/america...
Despite the UK housing industry’s significant economic contribution and the political drive to increase housing supply, the risks of forced labor and labor exploitation are being largely overlooked.
Modern slavery risks hidden in the UK’s homebuilding boom - FreedomUnited.org
A recent report highlights a critical issue within the UK’s housebuilding sector: the inadequate understanding and documentation of modern slavery risks in the supply chain.
www.freedomunited.org
November 6, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Despite the UK housing industry’s significant economic contribution and the political drive to increase housing supply, the risks of forced labor and labor exploitation are being largely overlooked.
Millions of South Sudanese children face the worst forms of labor. Flooding, disease, conflict and lost US aid push families to the brink of starvation, forcing girls to marry, boys into armed groups, and all children into exploitative work just to survive.
Child labor soars in South Sudan as aid cuts deepen starvation - FreedomUnited.org
A government study found nearly two-thirds of South Sudanese children are engaged in the worst forms of child labor.
www.freedomunited.org
November 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Millions of South Sudanese children face the worst forms of labor. Flooding, disease, conflict and lost US aid push families to the brink of starvation, forcing girls to marry, boys into armed groups, and all children into exploitative work just to survive.
Poverty and rising living costs are pushing more people in the UK into sex work to survive. But a dangerous legal grey area criminalizes nearly every related activity, silencing workers and leaving them vulnerable to violence and sexual exploitation.
www.freedomunited.org/news/uk-sex-...
www.freedomunited.org/news/uk-sex-...
UK sex work laws turn survival into exploitation- FreedomUnited.org
Poverty is the main reason people enter sex work in the UK, but criminalization laws make workers vulnerable to exploitation.
www.freedomunited.org
November 3, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Poverty and rising living costs are pushing more people in the UK into sex work to survive. But a dangerous legal grey area criminalizes nearly every related activity, silencing workers and leaving them vulnerable to violence and sexual exploitation.
www.freedomunited.org/news/uk-sex-...
www.freedomunited.org/news/uk-sex-...
Advocates warn that Utah’s proposed "homeless campus" resembles internment camps, criminalizing poverty to extract forced labor. The plan exploits loopholes in the 13th Amendment and turns the unhoused into a captive workforce under the guise of care.
www.freedomunited.org/news/utah-ho...
www.freedomunited.org/news/utah-ho...
A new “homeless campus” in the US raises fears of forced labor
This US state is creating a facility for homeless people but is it a rehabilitation center or a forced labor camp?
www.freedomunited.org
November 1, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Advocates warn that Utah’s proposed "homeless campus" resembles internment camps, criminalizing poverty to extract forced labor. The plan exploits loopholes in the 13th Amendment and turns the unhoused into a captive workforce under the guise of care.
www.freedomunited.org/news/utah-ho...
www.freedomunited.org/news/utah-ho...
15 cases of slave labor, including children and the elderly, have emerged in Brazil’s 2025 coffee harvest—five of which were linked to Starbucks.
As the company continues to build its profit, modern slavery continues to be identified in its supply chains.
www.freedomunited.org/news/starbuc...
As the company continues to build its profit, modern slavery continues to be identified in its supply chains.
www.freedomunited.org/news/starbuc...
Starbucks under fire for turning a blind eye to modern slavery - FreedomUnited.org
A Starbucks-certified coffee farm was found with workers in slavery-like conditions—and still kept the company’s seal.
www.freedomunited.org
October 31, 2025 at 6:08 PM
15 cases of slave labor, including children and the elderly, have emerged in Brazil’s 2025 coffee harvest—five of which were linked to Starbucks.
As the company continues to build its profit, modern slavery continues to be identified in its supply chains.
www.freedomunited.org/news/starbuc...
As the company continues to build its profit, modern slavery continues to be identified in its supply chains.
www.freedomunited.org/news/starbuc...
The US and UK have taken coordinated action against a Cambodia-based crime network accused of running online scamming centers that trap trafficked workers in cyber slavery and steal billions each year.
Cambodia tycoon faces major sanctions over cyber slavery - FreedomUnited.org
The US and UK have taken coordinated action against a Cambodia-based crime network accused of trapping trafficked workers in cyber slavery.
www.freedomunited.org
October 28, 2025 at 6:00 PM
The US and UK have taken coordinated action against a Cambodia-based crime network accused of running online scamming centers that trap trafficked workers in cyber slavery and steal billions each year.
Change the world… mostly without leaving your couch. 🛋️
Our Freedom Footprint Guide—created with input from survivors—shows how small, everyday actions can create real change for people and the planet.
👉 Get the guide here: www.freedomunited.or...
Our Freedom Footprint Guide—created with input from survivors—shows how small, everyday actions can create real change for people and the planet.
👉 Get the guide here: www.freedomunited.or...
October 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Change the world… mostly without leaving your couch. 🛋️
Our Freedom Footprint Guide—created with input from survivors—shows how small, everyday actions can create real change for people and the planet.
👉 Get the guide here: www.freedomunited.or...
Our Freedom Footprint Guide—created with input from survivors—shows how small, everyday actions can create real change for people and the planet.
👉 Get the guide here: www.freedomunited.or...
38 members of the EU Parliament are calling an end to EU funding for Libya’s coast guard, citing overwhelming evidence of human trafficking, shootings, and torture of migrants. Yet, the EU Commission continues to fund the abuse.
European lawmakers challenge EU over funding abuse in Libya - FreedomUnited.org
EU lawmakers challenge EU commission for funding of Libya's documented abuse and violence, but the payments just keep rolling out.
www.freedomunited.org
October 26, 2025 at 6:00 PM
38 members of the EU Parliament are calling an end to EU funding for Libya’s coast guard, citing overwhelming evidence of human trafficking, shootings, and torture of migrants. Yet, the EU Commission continues to fund the abuse.
Survivors of trafficking and domestic violence are suing the Trump administration, accusing ICE of unlawfully detaining and deporting victims protected under federal law. Advocates warn that canceling protections fuels re-trafficking and exploitation.
Migrant survivors sue ICE over deportation policies
Migrant trafficking survivors are suing ICE in the US, accusing the agency of detaining and deporting those meant to be protected.
www.freedomunited.org
October 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Survivors of trafficking and domestic violence are suing the Trump administration, accusing ICE of unlawfully detaining and deporting victims protected under federal law. Advocates warn that canceling protections fuels re-trafficking and exploitation.
Saudi Arabia to end exploitative Kafala system, linked to forced labor and abuse of millions of migrant workers. While the move offers hope, rights groups warn progress depends on enforcement—pointing to Qatar, where similar reforms remain unimplemented.
www.freedomunited.org/news/saudi-a...
www.freedomunited.org/news/saudi-a...
Saudi Arabia finally turning the page on the Kafala system - FreedomUnited.org
After over 50 years the labor sponsorship program known as the Kafala system is being dismantled by the Saudi Arabian government.
www.freedomunited.org
October 24, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Saudi Arabia to end exploitative Kafala system, linked to forced labor and abuse of millions of migrant workers. While the move offers hope, rights groups warn progress depends on enforcement—pointing to Qatar, where similar reforms remain unimplemented.
www.freedomunited.org/news/saudi-a...
www.freedomunited.org/news/saudi-a...