Gavin Poole: Spectre of slavery is haunting modern Britain

This is not the first time a case like this has surfaced. In many instances the victim, in her search for attention and love, is coerced into falling for an older man who calculatingly gives her all she wants, until he prostitutes her amongst his friends and clients, trafficking her from house to hotel over the weekend to be exploited and abused for a profit.

The psychological and emotional control these men have had over girls young enough to still be in school is unimaginable. There may not have been visible chains around their wrists, but these girls were slaves in the UK. It is uncertain just how many more of these organised gangs of traffickers are operating in this country.

The fundamental stripping away of a person’s freedom, financial independence and choice – slavery – is not a thing of the past, borne away by William Wilberforce and his coalition 200 years ago.

It is taking root around the world, and even in the UK. It is not only adults, but increasingly children who are treated as commodities and sold as a “product” from which to profit.

And this is a profitable trade – it is estimated that the global slave trade, which is the fastest-growing criminal activity in the world, earns twice the revenue of the cola industry.

The Centre for Social Justice believes that there is nothing more unjust than the buying and selling of slaves – often called human trafficking – and is launching an in-depth policy review to identify how the UK is reacting to slavery within its borders. For the UK, previously known as a beacon of the anti-slavery movement, it is time to re-think the response to this growing problem.

Every slavery victim today represents a family torn apart and an individual’s rights ignored. Often impoverished and always vulnerable, today’s slaves are growing in number. Situations of desperation in their own communities across the globe become so irreversible that the only solution is to sell a daughter into sexual slavery, or borrow money for a flight to “somewhere better’ and be forced to pay back the resulting debt as a slave in an illegal factory, an agricultural field or a brothel.

The indiscriminate nature of trafficking is reflected in the rise in cases of children from Vietnam being forced into working in the enormous number of cannabis farms across the UK.

These farms are found in any residential street in any town in the country – and behind those closed doors are child slaves, forced to work relentlessly for no money. They are often abused and always afraid.

Enslaved in houses across the UK are those vulnerable domestic workers who want to earn money cleaning and cooking, but instead have their passport seized by their “owner” and are forbidden to leave the house in which they live and work; sleeping on the kitchen floor and eating leftovers from the family meal will be commonplace.

The CSJ intends to review how the slave trade has developed into a low-risk, high-profit “business”, and identify how the UK can become the most hostile of environments for traffickers.

Throughout the 18-month review period, which was launched yesterday, the CSJ will address the issue of identification of traffickers and victims. Effective training is of vital importance in the fight against trafficking; how can those who are coming face to face with trafficking victims – social workers, hospital workers, the police, prison workers – be better equipped to identify and support victims and survivors of the slave trade in the UK?

The review will investigate how and why prosecutions for trafficking and enslavement remain so difficult to obtain. It will answer the question of why not one person has been prosecuted for the illegal act of trafficking, and why lighter charges have been applied in order to bring any form of justice at all.

The review will investigate where the responsibility for aftercare and support for victims lies across all sectors, and will develop a model of ideal engagement for charities, the Government, police and statutory bodies to create an effective and appropriate response to the different and individual needs of every victim of slavery.

The presence of slaves in the UK reflects the continuation of an illegal trade which, since its “official” abolition in 1807 has grown to devastate many more people today than it did 200 years ago.

The plight of slavery victims should strengthen our resolve to ensure that the UK is once again at the forefront of tackling slavery and protecting victims.

Gavin Poole is director of the Centre for Social Justice, a think-tank founded by Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith.