Recent reports

Two islands in the Bering Straits, one Russian, one American, are barely two miles apart. Only a few military observation posts remain on the Russian island, but a community of Eskimos lives on the US island. After the Cold War they hoped to resume regular contact with Russian relatives – but now the chances seem […]

The global tea industry is worth $20 billion a year, but on India’s tea estates millions of workers and their families suffer from hunger, disease, human rights abuse and exploitation. Marooned in an overgrown tea garden

India’s economy is the 10th largest in the world, but millions of the country’s workers are thought to be held in conditions little better than slavery. One story – which some may find disturbing – illustrates the extreme violence that some are subjected to. They tried to escape and were punished with an axe. Punished by […]

For the first time in 84 years, the International Labour Organization (ILO) will this week decide on reforms to its convention on forced labour. This is a global practice in which millions of workers live in a form of modern slavery. This is a global practice in which millions of workers live in a form […]

Russia’s annexation of Crimea has led some to wonder whether any other former Soviet countries could follow. The separatist region of Trans-Dniester has already offered itself to Moscow – a request which Russia has promised to consider. “It’s been getting much worse in the past few months,” said a mother of two who didn’t want […]

Humphrey Hawksley reports from the brick kilns of India where more than two million people feed the booming construction sector and economic miracle by working in conditions campaigners describe as ‘slavery.’ Their work goes into building the skyscrapers, offices and call centres, but the bricks they make are now being condemned as blood bricks. India […]

Guatemala in Central America has one of the worst records of violence, corruption and treatment of workers. Humphrey Hawksley travels through the country asking why the European Union is now  giving it new trade privileges. BBC’s Our World – Guatemala’s Sweet Deal

Humphrey Hawksley goes to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda to investigate the link between minerals, war and business. These are the raw materials used in our every day lives for computers, phones and household appliances. Humphrey asks if a little-known American law might force a change to how multi-national companies do business in […]

Globalisation has brought the world’s goods to the west. But how can consumers be sure they are buying food and clothing manufactured without harming workers – especially children? Humphrey Hawksley travels to the cotton fields and factories of India and discovers rampant abuse and child labour. India’s exploited child cotton workers