The slave trade is alive and kicking in Britain as thousands are held captive

BRITAIN: Slavery didn’t end in the 19th century. The reality is that it continues to thrive.

Last month, the first ever Global Slavery Index revealed there are 29.8m people living as slaves in 162 countries. Britain is not immune to the problem and even though it is ranked 160th on the list, there are still more than 4,000 slaves here, an estimate that the index judges to be conservative. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) identified more than 2,000 potential victims of human trafficking in Britain last year.

Slavery can be found in brothels, households (domestic servitude), drug farms, nail bars, building sites and factories across Britain. It’s such a pressing issue both domestically and internationally – the US State Department believes human trafficking is the second largest illicit trade on the planet after drugs – that the government here is introducing legislation early next year to tackle the problem.

Charities working with victims of human trafficking see the forthcoming Modern Slavery Act as pivotal in raising awareness of the complexities of human trafficking, ensuring proper support for victims and deterring traffickers through tougher sentences and asset-stripping.

‘It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to introduce a bill that will send a clear statement and bring focus to the issue,’ said Andrew Wallis, chief executive of Unseen, a charity supporting survivors of slavery.

‘The way to understand trafficking is it’s an illicit trade run by smart, illegal business people, looking for low risk and high returns – they are not restricted by the law or borders and the commodity they are buying and selling is people.

‘In our experience, we found police weren’t aware of trafficking as a crime and treated it as an immigration issue, so this bill will give police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the judiciary a Modern Slavery Act they can prosecute with. Also, it will make statutory bodies such as social services, nurses, GPs and local authorities more aware of the signs of trafficking, which is important as 95 per cent of victims are found by statutory agencies.’

The Eaves’ Poppy Project has been supporting and providing secure accommodation for trafficked women since 2003 and pointed out a vast difference in how victims are treated, depending on their country of origin.

‘We’ve noticed a disturbing trend – we’re finding victims of trafficking in immigration detention centres and prison because they’ve been put there wrongly,’ said Dorcas Erskine, the project’s national co-ordinator.

The charity believes the confusion arises over which department’s role it is to formally identify people. It says victims who have European nationality are dealt with by the UK Human Trafficking Centre based within the National Crime Agency, but victims from outside the EU are formally identified by the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) service.

Erskine feels UKVI may have a conflict of interest as it attempts to safeguard Britain’s borders, which may make the agency more sceptical in accepting that someone is a victim of trafficking.

‘Whether individuals have the right to be in Britain is a completely different question to whether you’ve been a victim of trafficking,’ she said. They have also found victims of trafficking are often unfairly criminalised. ‘We’ve come across trafficked women who have been charged with having a false passport when it’s the trafficker who’s behind that,’ said Erskine. ‘In one case, a woman who was trafficked and forced to work on a cannabis farm had the book thrown at her for drug offences – we successfully appealed, but the lack of understanding was shocking.’

A Home Office spokeswoman said: ‘All victims, regardless of nationality, are entitled to the same level of protection and support and are assessed against exactly the same criteria. The home secretary and security minister have made clear ending modern slavery lies in tackling the organised criminal gangs behind the majority of it, rather than simply treating it as an immigration problem.’

Metro