Global response

Modern Slavery is a global problem, which needs a global response.

A specialist international team sits within The Salvation Army’s Anti Trafficking and Modern Slavery department in the UK and Republic of Ireland. They focus on supporting countries where communities are vulnerable to trafficking. 

The Salvation Army is present in 131 countries and has made responding to modern slavery and human trafficking a global priority, building on a long history of working in this field. From the UK we partner with 11 countries across Africa, Europe, South Pacific and East Asia. 

We provide financial and technical support, funded from a combination of Government grants and charitable funds, as well as developing and sharing best practice through colleagues across The Salvation Army and other organisations also engaged in tackling modern slavery. 

We currently partner with the following countries on a range of programmes to help them engage, be encouraged and equipped to respond to trafficking: 

• Malawi
• Tanzania
• Nigeria
• South Africa
• Nepal
• India
• Bangladesh
• Philippines
• Ukraine
• Poland
• Russia

The Salvation Army provides financial and technical support to eleven anti-trafficking projects around the world, including a recovery centre for child victims in Malawi, a community and recovery programme in India, employment verification and job support programme in Poland and a social enterprise cafe in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Community Awareness and Response programme in Nigeria

In 2018 our innovative Community Awareness and Response programmes in Nigeria and the Philippines moved from development phase to receiving their first referral of a person previously supported under our UK Government contract.

The programme runs across four states in Nigeria and aims to change community attitudes and behaviours towards trafficking, offering care and accommodation with specially trained host families and linking people to long term community reintegration and support programmes run through Salvation Army churches and centres.

The project moves away from shelters and institutions, favouring traditional African responses of providing support within family and community settings, with a focus on empowering communities to care for their own vulnerable people in the long-term and empowering survivors to develop sustainable self-reliance to reduce the risk of re-trafficking.

As at October 2018, the project had received more than 100 referrals and more than 50 survivors had been supported with recovery and rehabilitation services while capacity continues to be built to meet the continuous growth in demand.  In Nigeria most referrals have been for adult women who were victims of sexual exploitation, although some were children, some men and some trafficked for domestic servitude and forced labour.