St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - November 2017

Modern slavery . . .
MODERN SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE UK
SEE IT — AND DO SOMETHING!
— CECILE GILLARD
THE NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY (NCA) has recently admitted it is
shocked by the scale of modern slavery and human trafficking in
Britain. Victims are hidden in plain sight ‘in almost every’ town and
city in the UK. Previous estimates of 10,000–13,000 people are ‘”the tip
of the iceberg”* In fact it is so widespread many of us are unwittingly in
contact with victims in our daily lives — key sectors include (but are not
limited to) food processing, fishing, agriculture, construction, domestic
and care work, car washes, beauty parlours and nail bars.
Will Kerr, Director of Vulnerabilities at the NCA, says: “As you go about your
normal daily life there is a growing and a good chance that you will come
across a victim who has been exploited and that’s why we are asking the
public to recognise their concerns and report them.”
If you see anything that does not look or feel ‘right’ please report your
concerns confidentially to the official Modern Slavery Helpline 0800 0121700
or online at www.modernslaveryhelpline.org/report or report to the police on
101 (call 999 if you believe anyone is in imminent danger).
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.
UN Declaration of Human Rights 1948
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me,
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed to bind up the broken
hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to release the prisoners.
Isaiah 61 v 1 [NRSV]
See it — and DO SOMETHING! Find out more from Unseen, the charity
working towards a work without slavery at www.unseenuk.org Unseen’s
Resettlement, Integration and Outreach team can help support those who
have been abused through servitude, slavery and trafficking and those in
frontline professional roles helping victims.
Cecile Gillard
Victims are of all ages (children as young as 12 have recently been rescued
by the authorities from domestic servitude) and all backgrounds. Signs that
may suggest a person is being held in a form of captivity and/or forced or
coerced into work can include:
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•
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Physical appearance — poorly dressed, unkempt, ill-fed, visible
signs of injury;
Isolation, rarely interacting with others;
Restricted freedom of movement (eg not allowed to go out in public
or travel alone);
Unusual travel patterns to and from work (eg dropped off and
collected very early or late or in groups)
Appearing to be under someone’s control; afraid to speak to
strangers or make social contact; showing other signs of stress;
Something odd about how they have come to live or work in an
area or location.
•
FROM UNSEENUK.ORG — Case study
Asif escaped persecution in his home country and arrived in the UK vulnerable
and desperate for work. He managed to find a job but was subjected to labour
exploitation for three years, working in various restaurants for little or no pay,
sleeping on their floors and working in hazardous conditions, frequently
receiving burns and scars, which caused him great mental and physical stress.
Thankfully, a former colleague put him in touch with a refugee support
service, which eventually led him to get help from Unseen’s outreach service
... Asif says that if he’d had 24-hour support when he needed it, “it would have
changed my life. I would have had my basic needs met and felt there was
someone there beside me”.
Read the rest of Asif’s story at https://www.unseenuk.org/our-impact/case-studies2
NB: Unseen has changed the victim’s name and some details to protect his identity
•
• * The above Modern Slavery article had been planned to appear in the print edition
of the October issue of the magazine to coincide with Anti-Slavery Day on 18 October.
Unfortunately, due to space restrictions in the issue marking the 500th anniversary of
the Reformation, it was not possible to do so but we are pleased to publish it now. [Ed]