Bahamas: Wendy’s restaurants fight human trafficking

May 2012 – Wendy’s Bahamas, a franchise of the Wendy’s international fast food chain, has joined with the United Nations Global Initiative To Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) and the new Bahamas National Trafficking-in-Persons Task Force to launch a unique “anti-trafficking-in-persons” tray liner in its ten restaurants in Nassau and Grand Bahama.

For a month, all Wendy’s Bahamas restaurants will serve food on tray liners that explain to people the different forms of human trafficking, including for forced labour, domestic servitude, female sexual exploitation and the exploitation of children.

The idea is to encourage the public to take action by speaking up and reporting suspected cases of human trafficking to the police or the local crisis centre using the 24-hour telephone numbers listed on each tray liner.

Speaking at a press conference to launch the tray liners on 21 May, the country’s Minister of National Security, Dr. Bernard Nottage, noted that the Government’s participation in the exercise was part of the Bahamas’ national campaign, as well as part of the wider global campaign to counter trafficking.

The Minister called on the public to be aware of this crime, and commended the local Wendy’s franchise for setting “an excellent example of good corporate citizenship, and effective government and private sector partnership to address matters of national, critical concern.”

Until 2011, no traffickers were prosecuted in The Bahamas. The National Task Force on Trafficking-in-Persons, launched in April 2012, aims to enhance local efforts to combat trafficking; to identify and protect victims, and to facilitate prosecution of traffickers.

The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) was launched in 2007 to promote the global fight against human trafficking, on the basis of international agreements reached at the United Nations. The GIFT Initiative aims to create synergies among the anti-trafficking activities of UN agencies, international organizations and other stakeholders to develop the most efficient and cost-effective tools and good practices against this crime.

To see the Wendy’s tray liners in PDF click here.