Dr Ella Cockbain

Check out our new #callforpapers! This issue will highlight examples of cross-sectoral, cross-movement solidarities to fight marginalisation and oppression 👉🏼https://antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/atrjournal/announcement/view/51
Guest editors @drellac.bsky.social and @joelquirk.bsky.social

Thank you, was a super cool project to have gotten to be part of even just for a few years!

Late sharing cos was unwell, but here’s our farewell from openDemocracy’s Beyond Trafficking & Slavery.

What a privilege to have been part of the editorial team. I learnt so much from our incredible contributors & the amazing Cam Thibos, Melissa Pawson & @joelquirk.bsky.social . Thank you all ❤️

The Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy, by Michael Geoffrey Asia. Imagine confiding your most private fantasies to what you believe is an unfeeling algorithm that cannot judge or remember. Now imagine that on the other side of that conversation is a man sitting in a...

“You cannot build ethical AI on the foundation of exploited, traumatized human labor. If the training data comes from people who were psychologically destroyed in the process of creating it, then the technology itself is tainted from the start.”

Powerful report on the emotional labour building AI.

New #CallforPapers! This issue will aim to highlight cases of intersectional, intermovement alliance and solidarity building between different marginalised and oppressed groups. See call 👉🏼 www.antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/at... Guest editors @drellac.bsky.social & @joelquirk.bsky.social

The life and limbo of a UK asylum seeker: one man’s harrowing 17-year wait for leave to remain Ussu fled imprisonment and torture, only to find himself treated like a liar and outcast in the UK. Here’s how he survived homelessness and horrific injury in almost two decades without a decision

So many of the problems with the UK asylum system - culture of disbelief, poor or nonexistent advice, endless delays, cruel accommodation policies - rolled into one awful case.

@diane-writer10.bsky.social always gets the human stories others miss or don’t care about

Latest in our solidarities series: fascinating reflections on striking workers in South Africa finding common ground with Palestine solidarity activists. I like that this series doesn’t shy away from tensions & challenges, as well as benefits.

By Maya Bhardwaj for @beyondslavery.bsky.social .

It’s so depressing that ECPAT & Missing People are once again needing to raise the alarm over trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the U.K. They’ve been highlighting this problem for years and it’s such a serious safeguarding issue.

A bizarre new alliance is coming after sexual freedoms Radical feminists and religious groups teamed up against sex work. Now they’re going after broader reproductive freedoms

Radical feminists and religious groups got into bed together once. Now they're broadening the affair, says @gaatw.bsky.social www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...

Image of a woman with her head in her hands and the text "I sometimes feel like I've been forgotten, that I'm just another statistic for the system. Abbie, survivor of sexual violence. www.rapecrisis.org.uk

Survivors should not be #LivingInLimbo.

New report from @rapecrisis.bsky.social exposes the severe harm the Crown Courts backlog is having on survivors of rape and sexual abuse.

Find out more and take action ⤵️
rapecrisis.org.uk/get-involved...

A bizarre new alliance is coming after sexual freedoms Radical feminists and religious groups teamed up against sex work. Now they’re going after broader reproductive freedoms

Our Human Trafficking Lead @mayal-n.bsky.social has written about the growing attack on sexual freedoms, the (mis)use of anti-trafficking frameworks to do so, + the opportunity it has given us to join an incredible alliance of feminist LGBTI rights activists: www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...

This is how the far right should be covered and analysed

Not focusing only on the words or actions of one man but by looking at wider societal trends, the role of the mainstream and of course accounting for power

This is not (just) opinion, it's necessary analysis

Vital piece on attempts to frame all surrogacy as trafficking & the coalitions pushing & opposing this.

Important insights into the transphobia & attacks on reproductive freedoms involved, by @mayal-n.bsky.social @gaatw.bsky.social for our solidarity series @beyondslavery.bsky.social

Twenty people allege he has a racist past. He denies it. Who’s telling the truth about Farage’s schooldays? Reform UK’s leader refuses to answer questions about his abusive behaviour, claiming there’s ‘no evidence’. We talk to victims and witnesses

If only there were some clue from his subsequent political career

In Spain, Farmworkers Are Dying in the Heat Three migrant farmworkers died from heatstroke in Spain this summer. Largely ignored by media, their fate illustrates how the effects of the climate crisis are offloaded on the least visible workers.

“They treat us worse than dogs", one worker told me.

Based on reporting in Huelva & Lleida, my latest for
Jacobin looks at how climate breakdown is aggravating yet further the harsh realities faced by migrant farm workers in Spain's lucrative agri-industrial sector. jacobin.com/2025/10/spai...

A few weeks ago this Reform rising star went on LBC & said young people were being paid too much,citing his experience in hospitality.

So we looked into his companies & found 3 tribunal judgments for failure to pay wages, holiday pay & provide contracts
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Delighted to co-author this piece urging the de-silo-ing of anti-trafficking work, & genuine solidarity with grassroots movements.

Up to 50,000 nurses could quit UK over immigration plans, survey suggests Exclusive: union leaders say proposed changes are immoral and could threaten patient safety if there is staff exodus

Important piece. The many worrying human impacts come through very strongly here.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Why can't anti-trafficking be more radical? Anti-trafficking has always been the handmaiden of Global North power, never its rebellious daughter. Let’s change that

Why can't anti-trafficking be more radical?

Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions Explore the complexities of trafficking and the importance of effective evaluation in anti-trafficking interventions and measures.

Congratulations to Ella Cockbain and Aiden Sidebottom and Sheldon X. Zhang and their contributors! Their #OpenAccess book Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions published today. Read and download free at: bit.ly/4oc6Lxg #HumanTrafficking #ForcedLabour

Book cover image for new book, “Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions: Critical Reflections and Lessons from the Field”. Editors Ella Cockbain, Aiden Sidebottom and Sheldon X. Zhang. Publisher UCL Press, 2025.

We really hope you find it useful & it gets out far and wide - again, it’s free to read & share!

With huge thanks to co-editors Aiden Sidebottom & Sheldon Zhang, all our contributors, @uclpress.bsky.social for seeing value in the proposed book, the reviewers, & our funders the ESRC @ukri.org /end

The book contains a mix of overarching thematic chapters on fundamentals & in-depth reflexive case studies from different evaluations.

We show an inclusive, evolving conceptualisation of evaluation & evidence. We also highlight particular tensions & challenges for anti-trafficking specifically. 4/

We appreciate that more & better evaluation evidence isn’t a silver bullet.

But it’s unethical & ineffective to keep throwing money at anti-trafficking interventions without a more nuanced understanding of how they are helping or hurting. 3/

Featuring a great set of contributors from across public health, crime, social work & social care, politics, international development, and - crucially - lived experience of trafficking & anti-trafficking.

We hope this book will inform & encourage evaluations that are critically needed here. 2/

Evaluating Anti-Trafficking Interventions Explore the complexities of trafficking and the importance of effective evaluation in anti-trafficking interventions and measures.

Despite huge sums spent on anti-trafficking, there are staggeringly few evaluations of interventions & growing evidence of harms caused.

This new edited book with @uclpress.bsky.social is our attempt to help change that. 1/

Open access with free digital downloads: uclpress.co.uk/book/evaluat...

Why can't anti-trafficking be more radical? Anti-trafficking has always been the handmaiden of Global North power, never its rebellious daughter. Let’s change that

“the anti-trafficking section treats collaboration more like conquest.”

New in our solidarities series is this super sharp piece on alternative visions for change, by Sophie Otiende & @christianashnc.bsky.social

@beyondslavery.bsky.social

www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...

Today is International Men’s Day. So here’s to refugee men fleeing abuse, trans men denied healthcare, queer men bullied for being different, Black men racially profiled, disabled men excluded from work, and all the other men who fail at being “real men.” May we continue to cultivate our humanity.

"Let me be clear: this wasn’t some magical turning point where sex workers & cops became best friends. … We haven’t forgotten being hunted, harassed & humiliated … But it taught us something powerful: both sides are capable, if only for a moment, of putting all that aside. Doing so can save lives."💯

New article in Journalism Studies “Judged, Misrepresented and Misunderstood”: Human Trafficking Survivors’ Engagement with Journalists” by Barbara G. Friedman, Andrea Lorenz, Chris Ash, & Ethan Czuy Levine.

Abstract: This mixed-methods study surveyed 49 human trafficking survivors in 2024 about their experiences with media to understand why they engage (or do not) with the news media, and how they characterize those interactions and expectations. A qualitative analysis yielded five themes related to motivation, preparation, consent violations, setting boundaries, and backlash after sharing their stories with media. Based on findings, we recommend journalists adopt a power-sharing model to improve coverage and to give trauma survivors more control over how their stories are represented to the public.

Excited to see this published: peer reviewed publication on trafficking survivors’ experiences with journalists. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

As drug users, solidarity isn’t just important – it’s survival We formed a union to resist the violence of mainstream treatment. Collaboration will be the key to our success

As drug users, solidarity isn’t just important – it’s survival