The slavery happening on our doorsteps is a collective problem

James John and Josie Connors have been jailed for 11 and four years after being convicted of keeping modern-day slaves at a Bedfordshire caravan site (Getty Images)

Back in September 2011 a police raid on a travellers’ site in Bedfordshire uncovered a story that left many of us perplexed. It was revealed that a well-organised operation to turn rough-sleepers into modern-day slaves had been taking place. At the time, and according to the Thames Reach charity, more than 20 eastern and central European immigrants had ran away from similar gangs and contacted them searching for help and shelter.

The Bedfordshire gang in particular seems to have run a profitable business. Once the homeless victims were picked up and promised jobs and good money, they were kidnapped – literally – and forced to live a life of servitude, isolated from the rest of the world, separated from their families and friends, thrown into crammed accommodations, and ordered to do hazardous and backbreaking jobs for the rest of their lives.

The fact that all this was going on for years under the gaze of Bedfordshire police is difficult to digest, but in all fairness blaming the police would be a very easy route in this case. Bedfordshire residents who hired the services of these men must have come across their enslaved workers repeatedly during this time, and yet, somehow they failed to make enough noise about it to attract the attention of the authorities. Fellow travellers who might have been aware of this situation also failed to come forward and denounce what was going on, although one can guess than fear may have stopped them from doing so.

The fact of the matter is that the failing was a collective one, and that it happened on our doorsteps. Usually when we discuss modern day forms of slavery we tend to look at the developing world for examples (Mauritania, the Philippines, or Haiti, to mention but a few) when slavery is obviously sometimes much closer to home.

As Thames Reach rightly noticed back in 2011 this is far from being an isolated case. Not long ago the BBC reported about similar gangsters who taking advantage of the elderly and the vulnerable, had been doing something similar to the Bedfordshire gang, but instead of keeping their victims in England, they were “exporting” them to other European countries like Sweden and Belgium, where they were being subjected to similar conditions.

In 2009 it was reported, also by the BBC, that young women from Eastern Europe were being tricked into coming to England, where they were then sold off in auctions at airport coffee shops upon their arrival. And, predictably, Britain is not alone; modern day slavery is a problem that affects every day more and more countries across the world.

Although the term “modern day slavery” tends to prevail, in reality there are other forms of unfree labour that perhaps don’t receive as much attention but that continue to plague both the developed and developing worlds. Among them we can find frequent cases of bonded labour, child labour used to produce clothes for several Western high street brands, and prison labour.

The Bedfordshire gang case has provided us with the inescapable proof, and truth, that some of the people we may come across in the streets of our cities and towns may be having a terrible experience that we can barely imagine.

What the case has also revealed is that just because slavery was abolished more than two centuries ago, it doesn’t mean it is something that’s confined to the history books. The new legislation passed in 2010 that allowed the government to take on these slave traffickers and owners should have been in place a long time ago. Bedfordshire police should have acted as soon as the first slave escaped from the camp, and those who hired the services of this gang should have paid attention to who the people laying down the cobbles on their driveways were.

Stopping instances like this from happening again is in our hands; it is our common and shared responsibility to ensure that human trafficking and slave ownership are abolished once and for all.

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• harrythomas2

  Yeah, right. Just WHERE did I “illegally incite racial hatred”? Was it when I pointed out the following:

  1. that the police are reluctant to act when those committing criminal acts are of a different racial group (like the Pakistani paedophile gangs, or African families making slaves of their relatives’ children)? Fact.

  2. that the police are reluctant to act against “travellers” because now the Left has given them special “racial” status? (Note that the Irish in Ireland don’t view them as such). Fact.

  People who bandy around the “racist” tag are usually the ones who are racist themselves (psychological projection). Likewise your slurs referring to Orwell’s 1984, which ironically I had you pegged for. It’s truly amazing that you’ve been able to build a mountain from the few crumbs I posted in my original comment. The way that you’re able to manipulate and reconstruct somebody’s words says a lot about the type of person you are. Dangerous. I’d go as far as to say you’re a narcissist and a sociopath. Keep on projecting mate, if it makes you feel superior. I know that I’m NOTHING like you. Thank God.

• Newsbot9

  You have made a series of highly racist, completely untrue claims.

  You are desperately defending your racism with excuses and apologia, and without any background knowledge of your arguments. Orwell’s IngSoc is;

  “rejects and vilifies every principle for which the Socialist movement originally stood, and it does so in the name of Socialism”.

  You, not me. But you didn’t know that, of course. (Heck, not even a socialist)

  Of course, as a little social darwinist and totalitarian, you of course view deviation from the party line as mental illness, with one of the typical instant “mental health” judgements which characterise your ideology.

  And no, you’re nothing like me. I’m not a racist and a bigot, and I don’t worship at the altar of the far right.

  Your “final word” was, predictably, far from final.

• Newsbot9

  Right. They’re very different and British law acknowledges that.

• James

  I’m actually left wing myself (though libertarian as well, especially on civil issues), but I don’t choose ideologies and agree with everything they say. I originally thought “nahh, its just racist to assume people are like this”, Experience told me otherwise.

• juliarosemary

  I really dont know how you can compare workfare with these criminals. Many of these men kept as slaves had learning disabilities,were homeless,mentally ill or otherwise vulnerable,.and were treated very badly. This was a disgusting crime and there should be no place in our society for these exploiters or others like them