Our Justice and Peace Coordinator, Fr Marco Villani SDB, attended the Arundel and Brighton Justice and Peace conference at the St Philip Howard Centre on 26th January, in the lead up to the memorial of St Josephine Bakhita, a former slave, and International Day of prayer for the victims of human trafficking. He recounts the shocking statistics on the extent of modern slavery in our society. 

 

The focus of this assembly was on forced Labour, servitude and trafficking. Horrendous cases of domestic servitude were shared - one person had been living in an unconverted loft in Sussex for 17 years, while being forced to work for no pay. The message was that we have to open our eyes to the extent of slavery all around us:  in shops, in the construction industry and in the services sector.

Human trafficking deals with the transportation of a person to exploit them. Crossover criminality is when there are multiple strands of criminal activity that interconnect. Organised immigration crime, child sexual exploitation, rogue trading, illegal drug manufacture and distribution, and prostitution are just some examples.

 

Those who conduct and facilitate modern slavery and human trafficking face life imprisonment or ten years jail under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 section 52, which also requires the police to refer potential victims to the government. All police forces, all councils and the Medaille Trust and Salvation Army work closely to tackle slavery. Section 1, sub- section 5 of the Act states that even if people who have been trafficked are content with their work, they are still victims of trafficking.

 

Survival crimes have been recorded by the police with regard to contract seafarers who have been working, possibly on false papers, whilst on land; they are expected by their so called employers to raid supermarket bins for out of date food. Human trafficking can even include people who run so-called care homes in this country using slave labour.

 

The victims are persuaded by the police to leave their servitude and are taken to safety, while accommodation and support is also available under the National Referral Mechanism. Children’s Services and local authorities will be involved depending on the age of the trafficked victim.

 

A remarkable statistic is that UK nationals are more likely to be trafficked than overseas nationals.

 

The Santa Marta Group is an alliance of international police chiefs and bishops from around the world working together to put at end to slavery and human trafficking. According to this group, 40 million people are enslaved worldwide. This includes 10-13,000 UK slaves according to some statistics, but according to Walk Free, there are up to 150,000 people in slavery in the UK.

 

The origins of the Santa Marta came about in the aftermath of the London 2012 Olympics, aiming to raise awareness, prevention, protection and prosecution. This was instrumental in the introduction of the Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner. 

 

The Medaille Trust is the largest Catholic Organisation offering safe houses for trafficking victims, set up in 2006 by groups of religious congregations in the UK, and is at the forefront of working to combat modern slavery and human trafficking. 

 

Fr Marco Villani SDB