Our Latin American – Poland prevention campaign

Lee el blog en español acá.

Earlier this year we received intelligence of a trafficking route between LATAM countries (including Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Brazil) to Poland. The evidence has been strengthened by our 285 pre-campaign survey respondents, who have given us insights into their experiences working in Poland.

By way of a response, since March, we have been running a prevention campaign targeting Latin American individuals working in Poland with safety information regarding what exploitation looks like, how to adopt preventative measures to keep themselves safe, and details for support organisations in Poland.

Our impact so far

During the last eight weeks, over 60,000 Spanish and Portuguese speakers in Poland have seen our ads. We have also sent direct messages to over 90 individuals who responded to our campaign via comment or message, many of whom we signposted to support organisations in Poland.

Furthermore, the ads have also been shared in Latin Americans in Poland groups, and by our signposting organisations.

The current situation

What we are seeing in Poland is that individuals are being recruited via job adverts on WhatsApp, social media, and agency websites, which is leading to labour exploitation.

This includes deductions from salaries to account for a perceived debt for costs incurred by the recruitment, poor living conditions in accommodation provided by the employer, working excessive hours with no overtime pay, and threats and intimidation. Meat factories appear to be one of the areas where exploitation is most prevalent.

The engagement from our target audience on our ads has generated a great deal of intelligence on trafficking networks operating on this route. This includes alleged exploitative recruitment agencies, recruitment and control methods, transport routes, and payment methods. We have shared this intelligence with our extensive network.

Next steps

Over the coming weeks, we will continue offering safeguarding support to those who reach out to us. Additionally, we will be launching a post-campaign survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign and drafting a final report that will be published and shared soon.