The modelling agencies recruiting from refugee camps
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2023
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Modelling agencies are recruiting young people who have fled war-torn African countries and are living in extreme poverty. They are flown to Europe to take part in fashion castings, but some return within days or weeks, often laden with debt. We speak to the journalists behind the Sunday Times investigation.
With thanks to Edwin Okoth who provided additional reporting on this investigation, and Mari Malek from Runways to Freedom.
This episode contains material that some listeners may find upsetting.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Guests:
- Lisa Brinkworth, freelance journalist.
- Hugo Daniel, Reporter, The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips: 9 News Australia, The Times.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you slide by on track to your destination, not a car in the world, as you simply lean back. |
| 0:17.0 | And before you know it, you're there. |
| 0:20.0 | This is how travel should feel, and on our trains, it does. |
| 0:25.0 | Avanti West Coast, feel good travel. |
| 0:38.0 | Back in the 1990s, when a new tribe of supermodels emerged, |
| 0:43.0 | think Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cordia Schiffer. |
| 0:48.0 | There was such a frenzy demand for them that they became famous for the phrase, |
| 0:53.0 | I wouldn't get out of bed for less than $10,000. |
| 1:00.0 | Now, three decades, and an awful lot of inflation later, |
| 1:04.0 | you can just imagine how lucrative and influential it is to be the face of a generation, to be a supermodel. |
| 1:14.0 | And one of the most popular supermodels at the moment is Adit Akej. |
| 1:19.0 | To put into perspective just how big of a deal Adit is, |
| 1:22.0 | while she has graced the covers of many Vogue magazines from all over the world. |
| 1:30.0 | I was born at Zal Sudha. |
| 1:32.0 | I grew up in a refugee camp in Kaakuma, in Kenya, and moved to Australia when I was seven or eight. |
| 1:45.0 | Kaakuma is one of the world's largest refugee camps, |
| 1:51.0 | and many of the girls and boys there dream of changing their lives, |
| 1:56.0 | of becoming globally successful supermodels like Adit Akej. |
| 2:01.0 | A Sunday Times investigation has found scouts recruiting refugees, |
| 2:07.0 | flying them to Europe with the offer of modeling opportunities. |
| 2:12.0 | I was so excited, and I was like, |
| 2:15.0 | I started, it's my dream come true, my dream has come true. |
... |
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