Xiao Fang is Getting a Second Chance (Thanks to 6Degree.org)

An excellent example of the crowdfunding approach, Xiao’s case was fully funded in just 15 days by individuals from around the world.

“Twenty-three year old Xiao Fang is from West Kalimantan, in Indonesia. She was still a minor when she was first offered a job in a restaurant with promise of good wages in Java. Instead she was tricked and forced to work as a domestic worker in Surabaya, East Java, ultimately enduring psychological and physical abuse for 6 years without being paid.”

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From domestic work to rising star photographer

The Florida 15

One of a series of photographs of Filipinos (the Florida 15) who were trafficked seven years ago by a Filipino company and were hired under false pretenses or coercion to work in a hotel in Miami, Florida. The group eventually escaped from their recruiter and headed to New York where they sought help and were eventually granted T-visas - a 4-year non-immigrant status that enables trafficking victims to stay in the U.S. and assist federal and/or state authorities in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases.

This image was taken by Xyza Cruz Bacani, a nominated IOM #MigrantHero and recent recipient of the prestigious Magnum Foundation Human Rights Fellowship, who is documenting the case of the Florida 15. You can read more about Xyza here and her work here.

Crisis Situations are Laboratories for Human Traffickers

By IOM Director General William Lacy Swing

When disaster strikes, the humanitarian community rushes to respond. We mobilize resources, activate response mechanisms, send doctors, search and rescue teams, logisticians, counsellors, engineers, equipment, tarpaulins, food, medicine and water. All the paraphernalia of an emergency response, swings into action, to conflict zones, natural calamities, or man-made disasters.

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