Welcome to the Bridge to Freedom Foundation Blog


Thank you for visiting the Bridge to Freedom Foundation (BTFF) blog, where we look forward to bringing you inside information on the inner-workings of BTFF, inside information on our volunteer team and leadership, in-depth coverage of BTFF and partner events, news and happenings from across the globe and so much more.

Learn more about Bridge to Freedom Foundation and how you can help on the BTFF website. We do hope you will subscribe to and follow our blog and please e-mail us at blog@btff.org if you have any feedback, ideas or contributions.

Thank you for your support!
Cassandra Clifford
Executive Director and Founder of BTFF

Monday, July 8, 2013

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

The New Prositiutes
In 2005, Ms. Brainard-Barnes was a 22-year-old single mother who had difficulty holding down a steady job. She never could afford her own place, staying with her sister for long stretches and occasionally with a boyfriend. Modeling, she thought, could lead to a music career. As soon as she enrolled on a site called, she received dozens of e-mails from places that purported to be modeling agencies but that, after a few clicks, turned out to mean nude modeling and sometimes working as an escort. She wasn't thrown by seeing this. What did surprise her was the money; he could earn enough money to fulfill those same responsibilities. Online, she could be her own boss and not share what she made with anyone; not a pimp, not an escort service, not a boyfriend.In 2010, Maureen Brainard-Barnes’s body was one of four uncovered close by one another in the sand dunes of Gilgo Beach, Long Island, wrapped in burlap. Three years later, the Long Island serial killer case remains unsolved, even as six more sets of remains have been discovered nearby along Ocean Parkway and farther east. Read More 

House Keeper in New Jersey Accuses Diplomat of Human Trafficking 

A Peruvian woman has accused a top official at Peru’s mission to the United Nations of entrapping her in a life of involuntary servitude in the New Jersey suburbs, forcing her to work as many as 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for little or no compensation  Every year, thousands of foreigners are issued special visas to come to the United States and work for foreign diplomats. But immigrants’ advocates contend that some diplomats, behind the cover of diplomatic immunity, take advantage of those employees, violating local and federal labor laws and sometimes confining them to a form of modern-day slavery.by the Government Accountability Office in 2008 found that since 2000 at least 42 foreigners brought to the United States to work as domestic workers said they were abused by their employers. Read More


Philippians Investigate Prostitution Ring Charges. 
The Philippine government is investigating allegations that its diplomatic personnel have trafficked Filipino women in the Middle East who were seeking refuge, the foreign secretary said Monday.Philippine diplomatic and labor officials are alleged to have forced distressed Filipino women, in countries like Kuwait and Jordan, into prostitution in return for safe passage back to the Philippines. The report goes on to state that the Philippine government in 2013 provided assistance to 1,029 Filipino victims of trafficking and illegal recruitment, and established 15 new worker resource centers in countries with large numbers of Filipino workers. It also deployed diplomatic personnel and social workers overseas to provide assistance to distressed workers. Read More

No comments:

Post a Comment