What is Don't Trade Lives?
Don’t Trade Lives is an advocacy campaign to unite Australians against human trafficking and slavery. Don’t Trade Lives examines the issue of labour exploitation in the contexts of Asia and West Africa and looks at how our purchasing behaviour relates to these issues.
Trafficking and slavery is about the buying and selling of people for exploitative labour. It is the third-biggest transnational, organised crime in the world, behind drugs and arms. It has been estimated that trafficking has enslaved 27 million people, in countries all over the world.
Labour trafficking and slavery in Asia
Asia is recognised as a region where there is a high prevalence of human trafficking: it is a point of origin, transit as well as a destination point for trafficking in persons. Victims have been found in domestics servitude, agricultural work, garment manufacture, the fishing industry, construction as well as sex work. Increasing numbers of men and boys are being noted.
Don’t Trade Lives encourages Australia to take the lead in in ensuring an integrated anti-trafficking policy environment in the Asia-Pacific Region.
Story: Not in our neighbourhood!
Cocoa harvesting in West Africa
Criminal networks have been caught trafficking children across regions and international borders to work on cocoa farms in West Africa. Hundreds of thousands of children working in cocoa fields are subjected to the worst forms of child labour. Major chocolate manufacturers have known about the problem of child labour in cocoa production for at least ten years. These manufacturers and exporters bear much responsibility in tackling the issue.
Don’t Trade Lives calls for the global chocolate industry to guarantee farmers a fair price for their cocoa and eliminate exploited labour from cocoa production by 2018.
Story: What is the real cost of chocolate?
Ethical Consumerism
The products that we buy and use in Australia can affect people in other countries. Sometimes the workers producing these goods receive low pay or must work in dangerous conditions, and sometimes, the workers are child labourers and people that have been trafficked. It is difficult to quantify the extent of this problem and to determine which products we purchase are made through the use of exploited labour.
Don’t Trade Lives seeks to reduce trafficking and slavery by reducing the market within Australia for products produced through exploited labour.
Story: Ethical Consumerism: What's behind the label?
Who does Don't Trade Lives help?
Victims of human trafficking and slavery All trafficked people live in slave-like conditions. The terms “human trafficking” and “slavery” have slightly different technical meanings, but at Don’t Trade Lives we address these issues together.
The victims of trafficking end up in horrendous situations. Many are trafficked into bonded labour and forced to work as virtual slaves to pay off a family debt. They may work on farms, in mines and factories, or as domestic workers in private homes.
Countless women and children are trafficked into the commercial sex industry to work as prostitutes, and satisfy the growing demands of local and international sex tourists.
What will you receive?
When you join the Don't Trade Lives campaign, you'll discover how your voice and actions can change the lives of the world’s poorest people. Action News Online, World Vision’s advocacy enewsletter, gives you the latest updates on our campaigns, practical advocacy tips, film and book reviews, and petitions that send your message direct to Australia’s decision-makers.
Join Don't Trade Lives, and know that your actions are helping to end human trafficking and slavery around the world.
Check out our resources
We have a great range of audio, website links and downloadable documents for you to learn more about modern-day human slavery and trafficking.