TOR140: Communicating Effectively At Scale About Human Exploitation With Tara Dermott Of IOM X

Terms Of Reference Podcast

So, imagine for a moment that you're a college student getting ready to spend a summer working internationally. Maybe in a hotel in a tropical resort, or as an eco tour guide, or maybe helping teach children in an orphanage. The options are almost limitless if you look hard enough. This is exciting stuff! So, now your bags are packed, you've said goodby to mom and dad and you're on the plane. But, when you land at your destination, it turns out to be nothing at all like what you expected. You're passport and phone are taken from you. You're locked in a hotel room and, rather than serving cocktails to high end tourists, you find yourself being forced to clean fish or... some other job.

I've just painted a picture that, in reality, is fairly unlikely for a kid from the US or Europe, because there are systems in place that vet employers, study abroad opportunities and the like to ensure they are legit. Unfortunately, however, human trafficking and exploitation is still a reality for thousands of people around the world today. Often the go-to image of this horror is young women being forced into the sex trade. But exploitation happens in numerous other ways as well - in domestic work, in fisheries, in manual labor of all types.

My guest for the 140th Terms of Reference Podcast has spent a career combatting human exploitation. Tara Dermott currently leads IOM X, which is the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) campaign to encourage safe migration and public action to stop human trafficking and exploitation in the Asia Pacific region. This campaign has reached more than 158 million people in less than two years and has helped to not only shape the conversation around exploitation, but also help many people out of it.