Welcome to the HTS Global COVID-19 Database. This page serves as a resource hub for articles, blogs and films on COVID-19 and the dangers presented by a global pandemic for human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Please use the search engine below to locate resources on your desired topic and/or region.
HTS COVID-19 Blogs
There Could be Labor Exploitation in Your Coffee Cup: Here’s How It Got There
Around the world, approximately 26 million people work on coffee plantations every year. Men, women, and children labor in countries along the equator picking the beans that, through murky supply chains, eventually end up in your local grocery store or café. But...
Race and Intersectional Identities within Modern Slavery and Human Rights
2020 has been an unprecedented year for many communities across the world as we face the impact of COVID-19. Families that come from low economic backgrounds are losing their employment with no way of maintaining a stable income. Many are also faced with the...
Solidarity Against Modern Slavery During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the lack of protection policies in place to prevent millions of people from being coerced under threat into modern slavery. As this crisis continues into the foreseeable future, we need to call on countries to ensure that their...
Why Online Exploitation Is The Next Public Health Crisis
When the novel coronavirus was first recognized as a serious threat, health officials warned that individuals should socially distance and wash their hands, and government leaders issued stay at home orders and closed restaurants, schools and other public places in an...
Domestic Workers, Forced Labor, and the Locked Doors of Covid-19
In October 2019, BBC News Arabic conducted an undercover investigation in the Middle East. Two reporters, posing as a husband and wife, made a horrifying discovery: thousands of domestic workers for sale as chattel on internet apps. This booming on-line black market...
Human Trafficking and Prison Labor, Part 3: Incarcerated Workers and COVID-19
This is the final part in a three-part blog series authored by Polaris to introduce the issue. The first two blogs focused on how human trafficking and prison labor are connected and the different types of prison labor that exist. As COVID-19 spreads across the...
After Decades of Voluntary Corporate Efforts, Child Labor is Still Being Used to Make Chocolate
For two decades, child labor in cocoa growing areas in West Africa has been well known, and despite voluntary corporate commitments, we are still seeing children working to produce cocoa for chocolate bars. Recently, Reuters got a hold of a leaked draft of a study...
COVID-19 and Human Trafficking
The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has resulted in widespread stay at home orders, shuttering businesses and creating mass layoffs. Human traffickers prey on those who are economically vulnerable which has some experts concerned that the virus could lead to an...
State-level Guidance Relating to COVID-19 and Foster Care
Human Trafficking Search conducted research on the intersection of foster care and human trafficking. There are many reasons a child ends up in foster care, the most common according to our research are parental substance abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic violence or...
Coronavirus and Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, and Child Abuse
The Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has swept the nation. People are being advised to stay at home and to practice social distancing. Restaurants and bars are closing or drastically curtailing operations, schools are being closed, events are being cancelled,...
