MANILA, the Philippines – On September 29, 2009, two child sex traffickers were sentenced to life imprisonment by a regional court for their crimes. This critical prosecution is all the more significant because one of the two perpetrators is the first Philippine police officer to be charged with a trafficking offense. Former police officer Dennis A. Reci and associate Felicano Manansala faced charges of qualified human trafficking, the gravest offense under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

CHENNAI, INDIA – When IJM and local government officials arrived at a rock quarry on the outskirts of a small village early on an October morning this year, the laborers were already hard at work. The men’s bare backs shone against the grueling sun and the women in threadbare saris bent over piles of rocks. A verdant field of rice paddies contrasted with the brown-clay sugarcane field in front of the rock quarry – a deep well where rocks were dredged up, piled and crushed into gravel.

SIEM REAP, Cambodia – For months, rumors had swirled that young girls were being sold for sex in a karaoke bar tucked in the bend of a dirt road in Siem Reap. IJM investigators had been building up a case, but needed critical evidence to prove that minors were being made available to customers.

CHENNAI, INDIA - Light clouds blow through the new blue sky as Kanmani* loads her life into the waiting truck. In moments she will be on her way to freedom – leaving behind the rice mill where she and her husband were trapped in slavery.

KAMPALA, Uganda – On September 3, 2009, Ugandan widow Joyce was vindicated in court, as the two perpetrators responsible for illegally seizing her home and property from her in the aftermath of her husband’s death were found guilty of their crimes.

CHENNAI, INDIA – In most of its cases on behalf of victims of forced labor slavery, IJM works with public prosecutors to bring slave owners to justice. But in and around Chennai, India, IJM’s staff discovered a recurring problem: Most of these prosecutors – those with the responsibility to pursue convictions in forced labor cases – lacked a basic knowledge of forced labor law and prosecution methods, and many did not understand the brutal nature these crimes.