Underground Trade: From Boston to Bangkok

Series produced by WGBH Radio Boston

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WGBH Senior Investigative Reporter, Phillip Martin, traveled in the U.S. and across East Asia to explore the modern slave trade of human trafficking. He examines the routes from New York to New England and from East Asia to New York and connects the dots.

Underground Trade is an investigation into sex and labor trafficking in the United States and East Asia and focuses heavily on both victims and those who are trying to end this illegal practice. Phillip Martin traveled across the United States and East Asia to expose trafficking routes and venues, and to bring attention to sexual and labor exploitation in areas as diverse as a bucolic Boston suburb to bustling Bangkok. The WGBH series was produced in collaboration with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and the Ford Foundation.

LISTENERS COMMENTS:

Carson Weitnauer
"It is an important story. Clearly, slavery is intolerable, in any form. I am glad to see attention and press on the topic. We need public support and pressure to convince government officials that we want resources spent to end slavery."

Eastwest49
"Thanks for a great series, Mr. Martin. By raising awareness and shedding light on this multifaceted, primary evil, and helping to mobilize support for victims, reporting like yours can make a difference."

HawkEye
"Outstanding that you covered the issue of THE BIGGER PICTURE and white collar crime that acts as a front for sex-industry trafficking." Hide full description

Underground Trade is an investigation into sex and labor trafficking in the United States and East Asia and focuses heavily on both victims and those who are trying to end this illegal practice. Phillip Martin traveled across the United States and East Asia to expose trafficking routes and venues, and to bring attention to sexual and labor exploitation in areas as diverse as a bucolic Boston suburb to bustling Bangkok. The WGBH series was produced in collaboration with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and the Ford Foundation. LISTENERS COMMENTS: Carson Weitnauer "It is an important story. Clearly, slavery is intolerable, in any form. I am glad to see attention and press on the topic. We need... Show full description


8 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Piece image
Individuals can take heroic steps to stop human trafficking, like the cab driver in Saigon who rescued 11- and 12-year-olds enslaved in garment fac...

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW, and WRPI


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 08:20
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Chinatown, Manhattan, Credit: Meredith Nierman, WGBH
If you think slavery ended in 1865, think again. Human traffickers have picked up where Jim Crow left off.

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW, and WRPI


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 07:53
  • Purchases: 5
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Phillip Martin travels to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to the home of a man whose 19-year old daughter was just rescued from a brothel in China. The ...

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW, and WRPI


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 05:17
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Two girls rescued from sex traffickers, Credit: Phillip Martin
Vietnam is losing its children. For years, girls and young women have been taken — kidnapped and trafficked across the border into Cambodia and so...

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW, and WRPI


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 07:38
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: child victims of sex trafficking in Pattaya, Credit: Phillip Martin
Thailand is considered an incubator for human trafficking…so WGBH Radio's Phillip Martin traveled to one town there to document the relationship be...

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW, and WRPI


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 07:49
  • Purchases: 5
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Why would someone fly 8,500 miles and spend $4,000 dollars to pony up to a bar in Pattaya, Thailand? “If they go into Pattaya, it’s not because Pa...

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, XRAY.fm, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW and more


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 04:38
  • Purchases: 6
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Without ever knowing it, you may have driven the same routes, passed the same landmarks and used the same rest stops as today’s human trafficking n...

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW, and WRPI


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 07:26
  • Purchases: 5
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On a warm night a Boston suburb saw its image altered with the arrests of individuals connected to a massage parlor. Behind the closed doors poli...

Bought by KUER, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUOW, and WRPI


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 06:31
  • Purchases: 5