About the Founder
Angus Thomas is a photographer, storyteller and lifetime human rights campaigner. He was first introduced to humanitarian issues after meeting a group of Tibetan refugees in the Himalayas and walking with them to Jivatsal, Choglamsar, the prayer ground of the Dalai Lama in exile.
Following his return to the UK he began to advocate on behalf of Tibetan refugees as a parliamentary liaison officer. He briefed and lobbied MPs and members of the House of Lords later becoming an FTC liaison to then British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook for the first Sino-EU Summit in 1998. Throughout this time Angus sponsored many orphaned Tibetans through school and into employment.
Angus started the Send Them Home campaign in 2019 after a chance meeting with a young Nigerian woman trafficked to the United Arab Emirates for sexual exploitation. After rescuing her, he was able to rescue and repatriate a large number of Nigerian women from the same network. He built a network of collaborators and safe houses for the girls to hide in Dubai whilst he secured their exit papers and emergency passports.
The Send Them Home campaign was covered by BBC News, The Victoria Derbyshire Show and BBC Radio. In June 2023 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists undertook a six-month investigation into sex trafficking in Dubai focussing on the main trafficking ring uncovered by Angus. The investigation was syndicated by Reuters. In July 2023 Angus received an award from the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons NAPTIP as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations for his work with Nigerian victims of sexual exploitation in Dubai.
Angus quickly became an expert on sex trafficking to the UAE and was able to advise and assist NGOs in the UAE and Nigeria. He also held many meetings with hotel chains to discuss the violations of their own human trafficking policies taking place in plain sight. He recently co-authored an opinion piece for Hospitality Net with the Director General of NAPTIP, Fatima Waziri-Azi calling for hotels in the UAE to take a role in stamping out sex trafficking.
Rescuing these victims of sex trafficking, supporting them upon their return and his close involvement with NAPTIP gives Angus unique insight into the many aspects of sex trafficking at a deeply personal level. The campaign managed a group WhatsApp chat which enabled all of the survivors to stay in contact both in the UAE and as they navigated their way into life back home. He has adopted one of the young women he rescued from the UAE.
The Stop Human Trafficking Exhibition video: The Dark Side of Dubai
Whilst creating the Hope Education Project in Ghana Angus spent time with both victims and perpetrators of human trafficking, sex workers, victims of labour trafficking and domestic servitude. Angus has conducted focus groups with both in-school and out-of-school children and young adults in both the north and south of Ghana. He has forged alliances with the leading NGOs and CSOs and developed strong working relationships with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Ghana Education Service and the Economic and Organised Crime Office.
During his time in Ghana Angus has spent extended periods in the slums of Accra including Agbogbloshie and Jamestown. On his first visit to Accra in 2021 Angus fell in with a Mamprusi kayaye community of women and girls sleeping rough in Makola Market. Since this time he has sponsored some into business and education and stayed with many families in their home villages in the Northern Region. After travelling extensively in the North East of Ghana, Angus settled upon Tamale as a base for HEP. The North East is acutely affected by the trafficking of girls for both sexual exploitation and labour, forced marriage, and the commoditization and sexual exploitation of girls. As a result of this HEP, together with its academic partners, has created an intervention development research proposal for the US State Department focussed on the forced child labour and child sex trafficking of kayaye.
In late 2023 the Send Them Home campaign held a six-week exhibition in Soho, London to highlight sex trafficking in the UAE. The centrepiece was a 20-minute video featuring interviews with many survivors Angus had rescued. As an adjunct to the exhibition, Angus hosted a well-attended roundtable on human trafficking moderated by the Financial Times. Funds raised during the exhibition enabled Send Them Home to rescue and repatriate three Nigerian victims from Dubai.
Elsewhere Angus Thomas has taught photography skills to young people excluded from school in London, worked as a volunteer at the Women’s Environmental Network and a women’s empowerment collective in New York as well as many stints at various food banks during the COVID pandemic. As a photographer, Angus has always had an eye for the underdog. An avid traveller he’s quick to build relationships and is always in search of the unrepresented and unseen. His photography is both emotive and empathetic and has the great ability to bring out the best in people to create heroic depictions of his subjects.
RECENT MEDIA FOR ANGUS THOMAS
The ICIJ’s 6-month investigation into sex trafficking in the UAE focuses on Angus’ work in Dubai – syndicated by Reuters
The BBC Africa Daily podcast speaks to Angus and some of the survivors of sex trafficking he has rescued
Angus speaks to the Deutsche Welle AfricaLink podcast on International Women’s Day about human trafficking
The campaign video from the Send Them Home exhibition featuring Angus, NAPTIP DG Fatima Waziri-Azi and survivors of sex trafficking he has rescued
The Stop Human Trafficking exhibition in London – an immersive journey into the dark and complex world of human trafficking
Angus speaks to the Africa Rights Talk Podcast about his human trafficking work in Ghana, Nigeria and the UAE
Big international hotel brands must take seriously their role in stamping out human trafficking. Hospitalitynet opinion piece
Survivors must be included in anti-human trafficking solutions. EU Observer opinion piece
Send Them Home partners with NAPTIP to rescue three victims of sex trafficking from Dubai