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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Mei-Ling McNamara

Mei-Ling McNamara is a journalist, filmmaker and academic working in print and broadcast media. Her work has featured in the Guardian, Al Jazeera English, CNN International and Channel 4. Follow her on Twitter @MLMcNamara

July 2023

  • Meta this week introduced new parental supervision tools.

    Meta’s new parental tools will not protect vulnerable children, experts say

    Tech firm gives parents greater control over their children’s online activities, but not all kids have consistent supervision

May 2023

  • Illustration: Andrea Ucini/The Guardian

    The Audio Long Read
    How Facebook and Instagram became marketplaces for child sex trafficking – podcast

  • Annie McAdams

    Rights and freedom
    The lawyer whose sex trafficking case against Instagram could spell trouble for big tech

April 2023

  • illustration: a smartphone with a facebook logo on its screen forming an opening door with a shaft of light coming through the gap

    The long read
    How Facebook and Instagram became marketplaces for child sex trafficking

    The long read: Our two-year investigation suggests that the tech giant Meta is struggling to prevent criminals from using its platforms to buy and sell children for sex

October 2020

  • In Bangladesh, over a million garment workers have been fired or furloughed; many of those still in work report not being paid for two months or more

    Human rights in focus
    World’s garment workers face ruin as fashion brands refuse to pay $16bn

    Analysis of trade figures reveals huge power imbalance as suppliers in poorest parts of the world bear cost of Covid downturn

August 2020

  • View of a garment factory at the Hawassa Industrial Park in Hawassa, southern Ethiopi

    Human rights in focus
    The Children's Place cancels millions of dollars of garment orders from Ethiopia

    Largest US childrenswear retailer blames Covid for move, as employees say they are struggling to buy food after wage cuts

June 2020

  • Kohl’s ... ‘They need to do the right thing. They need to pay their bills.’

    Human rights in focus
    Anger at huge shareholder payout as US chain Kohl's cancels $150m in orders

    Retailer paid $109m in dividends just weeks after cancelling clothing orders, leaving suppliers in Bangladesh and Korea facing financial crisis

January 2020

  • An inmate in New Hampshire state prison for men reads a tablet

    Exploitation in focus
    US states move to stop prisons charging inmates for reading and video calls

    Draft bill aims to curb rise of pay-per-minute ebooks and costly facetime calls in prisons where visits are banned or restricted

August 2018

  • Still from The Trap documentary on prostitution and human trafficking in US

    The Story from the Guardian
    The Trap: a tale of human trafficking – The Story podcast

    In this special episode of The Story, we hear from filmmakers Annie Kelly and Mei-Ling McNamara about how they made The Trap, the result of a year-long investigation into America’s domestic sex-trafficking industry

July 2018

  • US president Donald Trump signs a new law to punish online sex trafficking at the White House on 11 April.

    Trafficking in focus
    Outcry as Trump restricts funding for sex-trafficking survivors

  • Nikki Bell, head of anti-trafficking organisation Lift.

    Inside the Guardian
    Modern slavery: how we exposed deadly sex trafficking in US prisons

June 2018

  • A still from The Trap

    Modern-day slavery in focus
    America's outcasts: the women trapped in a cruel cycle of exploitation

  • Jill is seen in a still from The Trap

    Modern-day slavery in focus
    Revealed: how US sex traffickers recruit jailed women for prostitution

May 2016

  • Abul Kamal Azad, a Bangladeshi man trafficked to Scotland (on the shore at Loch Linnhe with Fort William beyond)

    Modern-day slavery in focus
    A slave in Scotland: ‘I fell into a trap – and I couldn't get out’

    Abul Azad left Bangladesh to take up a chef’s job in London – but found himself enslaved in a remote Scottish hotel.

May 2015

  • Cannabis illustration

    Modern-day slavery in focus
    3,000 children enslaved in Britain after being trafficked from Vietnam

    Like many Vietnamese children, Hien was brought to Britain for a life of modern slavery. He ended up in prison on cannabis offences. We report on the gangs expanding across the UK and efforts to help their victims
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