Anti-slavery day: Highlighting a domestic problem

Today (18 October), a number of representatives from charities like the International Organisation for Migration, Barnardos and the Human Trafficking Foundation and parliamentarians including Baroness Butler-Sloss, Anthony Steen and Peter Bone were in Trafalgar Square, London, imprisoned underneath a giant, upside-down shopping trolley.

It is anti-slavery day, and the publicity stunt had a serious purpose. It represents the plight of trafficked workers – who are shipped to the UK to work for little or no cash, often unable to leave their job and effectively kept as prisoners.

Anthony Steen, chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation, who passed through the private members’ bill during his term as MP to establish Anti-Slavery Day, says that slavery has taken a new, often undetected form: “This modern day slavery is an evil trade, and Anti-Slavery Day provides an opportunity for charities, the media and government to raise awareness of it throughout the UK.

One of the problems is that people don’t recognise that this is a UK issue, says International Organisation for Migration Director, General William Lacy Swing.

“For too long the belief has been that human trafficking can only be tackled in source countries,”  But this is not the case; “human trafficking is driven by the demand for unreasonably cheap labour and goods across the world, including in the UK.”

Anti Slavery UK estimates that there are 5000 people currently enslaved in the UK.

The IOM has helped hundreds of trafficked workers. They sent me the story of  an 18-year-old who came to London hoping to get work to support his family. He was recruited by a man who gave him a job distributing leaflets for 18 hours a day with no break. He made no money, had his documents confiscated and could not interact with anyone other than the man that recruited him. He was also physically abused.

Another couple who saw an advert for a packing company on the internet came to the UK to earn some money to support their disabled son. On arrival they were escorted to a town they didn’t know. With no family in the country and without access to a phone or email they had no access to the outside world. They were forced to work for no money, imprisoned in the factory and shared workers’ flats.

These are not isolated accounts. Kalayaan, an NGO, estimates that between 16,000 and 18,000 migrant domestic workers enter the UK each year, brought by their employer on a specific visa. Around 58% of those surveyed by the charity reported having their passports withheld and said they were not able to leave the house without someone else to accompany them. According to the report, around 9 of the workers who were reported to their local authorities as victims of trafficking were brought to the UK by diplomats.

“Be it victims forced into the sex industry, or forced to work in dreadful conditions for little or no pay, to young children being trafficked into the UK to work on cannabis farms, this is a wicked trade that we need to work collectively to stamp out.”  Steen adds, “This problem not only affects foreign victims trafficked into the UK, but also British victims trafficked around the country. Anti-Slavery Day is a fantastic opportunity to educate the public on the issue.”

This situation has become worse over the last 30 years, according to an International Labour Office report on fairer treatment for domestic workers, and it could continue. The  Government is planning to remove  protections provided by the migrant domestic worker visa, which gives them the ability to change their employer,  ensures they are recognised as workers and allows them to renew their work visas.  Kalayan says the result of losing these protections will be an “increase in abuse, exploitation and trafficking for domestic servitude.”

What can I do?

• Buy fair trade where possible
• Email or write to your local shop to ask for more guarantees about where its products come from
• Look at sites like www.buyresponsibly.org to get advice on how to buy responsibly
• Visit  www.kalayaan.org.uk for information on the trafficking of workers
• Write to your local MP and Damian Green MP, the Immigration Minister