Anti-slavery day urged to combat human trafficking

Tory Anthony Steen (Totnes) said the annual day would make people aware of the “dangers and consequences” of modern-day slavery, which was taking the place of the transatlantic slave trade.

Introducing his Anti-Slavery Day Bill, which has cross-party support, he told MPs: “Today more than twice as many people are in bondage in the world as were taken in chains during the entire 350 years of the African slave trade.

“Despite the abolition of slavery, modern forms of trading in human beings continue, whether for sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic slavery or organised crime.”

Mr Steen, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Trafficking of Women and Children, said estimates put the number of victims in the world at any one time as 800,000.