During the meetings, Angel and Doolan, also a British pastor and music artist, said everything they were doing had the blessings of ‘number one’, referring to Mnangagwa. Doolan even offered to set up a face-to-face meeting with Mnangagwa on the sidelines of the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow in 2021.
Khobby and Jojo said they were moved to act in case it was their turn next.When they organised a strike to demand better treatment, their bosses brought in Laotian police and several of the strikers – including Jojo and Khobby – were taken to a police station where they were told they were sacked.
They were also told they would not be paid what was owed in wages and their overseers refused to give their passports back.Khobby said he was left stranded without a passport and the police refused to help.“This is not about only the Chinese people,” Khobby said. “Even in Vientiane, they have immigration offices who are involved. They are the ones giving the visas. When I got to Laos, it was the immigration officer who was waiting for me. I didn’t even fill out any form,” he said.
With help from the Ghanaian embassy, Khobby and Jojo were eventually able to retrieve their passports, and with assistance from family and friends, they returned home.The IJM’s Heintz, said that target countries for scammer recruitment – such as those in Africa – need better awareness of the dangers of trafficking.
“There needs to be better awareness at the source country level of the dangers associated with these jobs,” he said.
Reflecting on what led him to work up the courage to lead a strike in the scam centre, Khobby considered his childhood back in Ghana.Consumption in China, the largest consumer of tea, reached 3 million tonnes in 2022, representing 46 percent of global consumption.
India, the second largest consumer, accounted for a share of nearly 18 percent at 1.16 million tonnes in 2022, followed by Turkiye with 250,000 tonnes, Pakistan with 247,000 tonnes and Russia with 133,000 tonnes.According to the FAO, tea consumption expanded by 2 percent in 2022 compared with 2021 and further increased in 2023.
However, tea consumption in countries in Europe and North America has been declining due to increasing competition from other beverages while for Russia, tea imports have been negatively impacted by the war in Ukraine.Five odd teas around the world