Anti-Slavery Day’s importance raising awareness – Dr Alicia Kidd

Yorkshire isn’t different. In May, eight people were found in a factory during a police response to the building’s alarm, with three people later arrested on suspicion of modern slavery.

The same month, police identified two potential victims of sex trafficking in Leeds.

And only a couple of weeks ago, North Yorkshire and Manchester police arrested 13 people, four of whom were in York, also linked to modern slavery offences related to so-called “county lines”, where young people were being trafficked between Oldham and York to sell drugs.

Modern slavery may well be closer to home than we would like to think.

Modern slavery is a term used to cover a range of different forms of exploitation. People can be exploited for their labour – this commonly makes the news in the form of car washes and nail salons, but expands far beyond, most commonly found in working situations that are low paid and low skilled.

Sexual exploitation is a form of modern slavery where a person is sexually abused for the benefit or profit of someone else.

Criminal exploitation may involve forcing children to sell drugs in county lines, but could equally relate to other crimes such as shoplifting or benefit fraud that financially benefit the exploiter, while putting the victim at risk of arrest.

Domestic servitude is a form of modern slavery in which a person is coerced into a situation where they usually live on their exploiter’s premises and are expected to undertake all the domestic work.

Finally, organ harvesting is a form of modern slavery and, while there are cases of this reported in the UK, it is the least common form of modern slavery identified here.

Each year the number of victims of modern slavery identified in the UK increases.

This is not necessarily because there are more victims each year, but more likely because our understanding of what modern slavery is, and our ability to respond is improving.

In 2019, over 10,000 individuals were believed to be victims of modern slavery and referred to the national referral mechanism, the UK’s system for identifying and supporting victims. Of these, 647 were referred by Yorkshire police forces alone.

However, as the cases rise, so, too, does the pressure on front- line practitioners to provide a suitable response.

The summary of modern slavery provided above really emphasises how our responses need to be well informed, timely and equally unique and tailored to the needs of the victims. A British child trafficked to sell drugs will need vastly different support from a foreign national exploited for their labour, for example.

In response to this need for tailored approaches to the needs of victims, ahead of this year’s Anti-Slavery Day on Sunday, the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull has led a project to help improve front-line responses to modern slavery.

This project, funded by the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, a new publicly funded centre created to transform the effectiveness of laws and policies designed to overcome modern slavery, involves the development of five unique workshops, each tailored to a different audience who might interact with a victim of modern slavery.

The scenarios have all been developed based on the experiences of victims of modern slavery in the UK and they encourage regional partnerships to come together to identify what their local response should be, highlight best practice and identify and rectify any potential gaps in service in order to develop a response to modern slavery that best meets the need in their region.

These innovative training tools will empower local communities to respond in appropriate ways to complex situations and to improve responses to victim care in the hope that together we can make our region a hostile environment to exploiters and support victims into a meaningful recovery.

We hope that this Anti-Slavery Day is a good opportunity for people to recognise the role we all have to play in responding to modern slavery and to begin to develop responses that are in the best interests of those that need support.

For more information on the workshops, visit modernslaverypec.org

Dr Alicia Kidd is a postdoctoral researcher at the Wilberforce Institute and vice chair of the Humber Modern Slavery Partnership.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today.

Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers.

So, please - if you can - pay for our work. Just £5 per month is the starting point. If you think that which we are trying to achieve is worth more, you can pay us what you think we are worth. By doing so, you will be investing in something that is becoming increasingly rare. Independent journalism that cares less about right and left and more about right and wrong. Journalism you can trust.

Thank you

James Mitchinson