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Britain's shame over 21st century slavery
BRITAIN is a key staging point in a flourishing international slave trade that has seen up to 14,000 women and children brought here for the sex industry and vast numbers enslaved in forced- labour rackets.
A report by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation today reveals modern-day slavery as a high-profit international trade and paints a damning picture of the way the Government has dealt with the issue, which has escalated over the past decade.
In association with the Wilberforce Institute at Hull University, researchers point to the UK's failure to recognise human rights issues, instead treating it as an immigration problem, often penalising victims while illegal gangmasters and traffickers escape the law.
The report is published as Britain continues its commemorations of Yorkshire-born campaigner William Wilberforce and the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition Bill. Yesterday Archbishop of York John Sentamu led a service at York Minster to commemorate the anniversary and highlight contemporary forms of slavery and people trafficking.
Last night the Home Office insisted the Government is taking action, including the formulation of a new wide-reaching "action plan".
But days after the Yorkshire Post revealed the extent of the region's reliance on economic migrants and two years after we exposed Yorkshire's involvement in the global sex trade, today's report shows repeated missed opportunities to combat modern-day slavery in Britain.
The researchers from Hull University and Anti-Slavery International suggest as many as 4,000 children have been smuggled into the UK in only 10 years to be used in the underground sex industry, alongside 10,000 women.
Their report says a recent Parliamentary speech in which the Solicitor General said more than 1,000 women were trafficked into the UK for sexual purposes annually was recognised as a "subs-tantial under-(guess)timate".
They also highlight the experiences of thousands of so-called economic migrants who come to the UK to find work legally but then find themselves tricked into forced labour, on which many UK companies legitimately rely. There are also between 300,000 and 800,000 foreigners working here
illegally, also trapped in conditions of forced labour.
In all three examples of slavery, the report says, victims' passports and official documentation are seized and they may also be kept in enforced isolation to prevent them escaping. Intimidation, coercion and violence are used and families back home have been threatened.
Despite the numbers in-volved no prosecutions have been brought for labour exploitation under the 2004 Asylum and Immigration Act.
The report adds: "The current lack of protection for those who escape from trafficking in the UK compounds the abuse that many have already suffered and prevents victims from bringing their plight to the attention of the authorities."
The document says the Government has yet to sign up to treaties and conventions designed to minimise the trafficking problem and concludes the needs of victims remain secondary to its policy on immigration.
It suggests action is needed to reverse the present situation where trafficking is a low-risk but high-profit endeavour for criminals and recommends changes to increase the human rights of victims. That could involve legal redress and compensation for forced labour victims from the gangmasters who use them.
It also identifies a "clear need" for better co-ordination between different agencies. It says it is not yet clear whether the UK Human Trafficking Centre, established in Sheffield several months ago, will "effectively fulfil this role".
The head of that organisation, Det Chief Supt
Nick Kinsella, said: "The UKHTC's remit covers all forms of human trafficking.
"Our role is one of co-ordinating not just the law enforcement response but also working with other agencies from all sections of society both here and internationally to ensure we have a comprehensive, integrated, response."
A Home Office spokesman said it was "acknowledged" the Government needed to know more about trafficking for forced labour. The Prime Minister had announced its intention to sign the Council for Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, which should improve provisions for those affected, he added.
A new UK Action Plan on trafficking would be published in the spring, detailing ways of improving enforcement work and protecting victims.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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