Nearly 28 million people around the globe are estimated to be trapped in jobs so oppressive that they amount to modern slavery.
#TraffickingInc, a new ICIJ reporting collab, examines what is said to be the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise. 🧵bit.ly/3FpMW2s
2/ #TraffickingInc uncovers the people, companies, and business practices that draw profit from different forms of coerced labor across borders — and the well-known employers and entities that human trafficking is linked to. bit.ly/3DhXk9y
3/ First up in #Trafficking Inc., — an investigation co-reported by ICIJ, @washingtonpost, @NBCNews and @ARIJNetwork reveals that many foreign workers for defense contractors on US military bases in the Gulf are trapped by abusive employment practices. bit.ly/3FiS601
4/ “People have been stuck there for years ... The company doesn’t want to pay new laborers more money,” says Anil Lama, a former IT worker at an American military installation in Kuwait. He's one of dozens of migrant workers we interviewed for this story. bit.ly/3FiS601
5/ The US military operates more than a dozen bases in the Middle East, used to wage wars, fight terrorists and pursue regional geopolitical interests, and is deeply dependent on defense contractors and their legions of migrant hires to keep them running. bit.ly/3FiS601
6/ Foreign workers for defense contractors on at least 4 US military bases in the Gulf say abusive labor practices prevent them from returning home or even looking for better work in the region — an issue that’s been repeatedly flagged in recent years. bit.ly/3FiS601
7/ Migrants seeking work in the Gulf can face onerous debts after paying outside recruiters exorbitant fees.
“Although I knew [the fee] wasn’t legal, I had no choice,” says Dilip Gurung, a Nepali who took a job in Qatar with defense subcontractor KRH. bit.ly/3FiS601
8/ The fees can run up to thousands of dollars and are often financed with high-interest loans, requiring migrants paid as little as $1/hour to work for several years at potentially exploitative jobs, unable to quit before they’ve paid off their debts. bit.ly/3FiS601
9/ Thousands of workers who travel to the Gulf seeking jobs vital for supporting relatives back home – though the pay is often low and the hours long – are also vulnerable due to the local “kafala system,” which gives employers wide control over them. bit.ly/3FiS601
10/@USGAO investigated working conditions at military bases last year, finding that recruitment fees can put workers into “debt bondage” and asking @DeptofDefense to boost oversight of contractors and reporting of internal human trafficking investigations. bit.ly/3FiS601
11/ #TraffickingInc focuses on labor and sex trafficking – both growing global phenomena exacerbated by the pandemic – detailing how immigration laws in many countries make migrant workers vulnerable and highlighting untold stories of hardship and abuse. bit.ly/3NaC5v2
12/ ICIJ partner @gbh investigated human trafficking in Massachusetts, exposing flaws in U.S. protections for trafficked workers and authorities’ failures to punish labor traffickers who prey on vulnerable workers. bit.ly/3gNwuyy
13/ Got a story tip, documents, photos, video clips or leads you want to share with ICIJ and the global reporting team behind #TraffickedInc?
Get in touch at traffickinginc@icij.org or explore other ways to contact us securely. icij.org/leak/
14/ More #TraffickedInc stories will be published by ICIJ and media partners in the coming months.
📧 Sign up for our free email newsletter to get all of our new investigations in your inbox! icij.org/newsletter/
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Interpol has asked governments worldwide to find and provisionally arrest Isabel dos Santos, yet the former Angolan billionaire isn't hiding. Instead, she often posts about her lavish lifestyle at a Dubai residence.
Newly leaked Dubai property data reviewed by ICIJ for #DubaiUnlocked reveal that dos Santos and her mother, Tatiana “Kukanova” Regan, co-own an apartment in a building called Sadaf, Arabic for “seashell,” overlooking Dubai Marina and the Persian Gulf. buff.ly/3ykHpIP
The eldest daughter of Angola’s former president, dos Santos came under scrutiny by authorities on three continents after ICIJ’s #LuandaLeaks revealed how lucrative deals obtained under her father’s rule helped her become Africa’s richest woman. buff.ly/3UY5DBE
Did you miss the launch of our #SwaziSecrets investigation?
Catch up with the stories our partners worked on in this thread!
@amaBhungane, @AJEnglish, @FinUncovered, @OpenSecretsZA, @jeune_afrique, @TheAfricaReport, @MakandayMedia, @PremiumTimesng buff.ly/4dBIMTK
A member of the Qatari royal family invested about $50 million in Newsmax, bolstering the conservative outlet at a time when Qatar was facing diplomatic pressure and seeking U.S. allies.
Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, a former Qatari government official and the owner of a London-based investment fund, Heritage Advisors, invested in Newsmax in 2019 and 2020.
The investment has not been previously reported. buff.ly/3ITH5mh
The documents were obtained by ICIJ from a trove of roughly 100,000 leaked files from Genesis Trust, a Cayman Islands-based financial services provider now called Highvern.
Newsmax and Heritage Advisors confirmed the investment. buff.ly/3ITH5mh
ICIJ's 2023 investigations stretched around the world, exposing greenwashing in the global sustainability industry, labor trafficking in the Middle East, and the sprawling financial networks that have powered the Putin regime.
ICIJ-led investigation #CyprusConfidential revealed how the EU member state has served as a hideaway for Russian wealth, with Cypriot firms moving vast sums for oligarchs, including after Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion.
Two wealthy Haitians sanctioned by Canada owned or had other links to almost 20 companies and trusts created in some of the world’s most secretive tax havens, according to documents from the #PandoraPapers.
1/8 #CyprusConfidential reveals the pivotal role the Mediterranean island plays in helping oligarchs move and hide their wealth. Here are six billionaires identified in the 3.6 million document leak: bit.ly/40GMmpy
2/8 #CyprusConfidential details how, just days before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, more than $1.7 billion worth of shares from Russian steel giant Evraz were transferred from former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich’s BVI-based company to himself.
3/8 ICIJ’s partners for #CyprusConfidential also report that Abramovich wielded significantly more influence in European professional football than was previously known: bit.ly/3sDwmIa
1/12 🧵 #CyprusConfidential, a new investigation from ICIJ, @paper_trail_m and nearly 70 media partners, exposes the sprawling financial networks that have powered the Putin regime as it dominates its neighbors — and undermines the West. bit.ly/473nACl
@paper_trail_m 2/12 A trove of 3.6 million leaked documents shows how Russian money flowed through Cyprus’ banking system over decades, under the watch of the European Union. bit.ly/49DkJSc
@paper_trail_m 3/12 As the West sought to block funding for President Vladimir Putin’s war machine after Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion, Cyprus firms scrambled to keep key backers of his regime a step ahead of looming sanctions. bit.ly/3MGbRl3