A CHARITY is empowering individuals, communities and organisations to recognise the signs of modern slavery and take action after it was estimated by the Home Office that there are between 10,000 to 13,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK.

The issue was highlighted at an awareness event in West Devon last week organised by Unchosen, a Westcountry charity, which uses film to fight modern slavery, in conjunction with activist group Stop the Traffik.

Modern slavery can affect men or women, boys and girls and people of any background or nationality as well as those trafficked into the UK. The event at The Wharf, Tavistock was held to give people an insight into what slavery might look like in their area and what they can do about it.

Among the panel answering questions following a short film screening was Jenny Hall from the Devon and Cornwall Police Modern Slavery Unit and Faye Gould from Restore which runs an Exeter safe house for survivors of human trafficking.

There are said to be more people in slavery today than at any point in history and human trafficking generates as much profit as drugs or weapons trafficking — around £20-billion per year, yet only one in 100 victims are ever rescued.

Human trafficking is the movement of a person from one place to another, within a country or across borders, into conditions of exploitation against their will. Unlike its historical counterpart, modern slavery is illegal and involves more subtle means of coercion and control.

Almost anybody can be a victim of modern slavery, although the risk is increased when someone experiences poverty, mental health issues, drug addiction, homelessness, political instability and social exclusion.

British Nationals are the third highest group to fall victim to modern slavery with Romanians at the top, Polish second, Nigerians fourth and Albanians fifth. Some 78% of victims are working in this country legally, contrary to the belief that the majority are illegal immigrants.

Someone is in slavery if one of the following is taking place:

l They are forced to work regardless of their mental or physical health.

l They are owned or controlled by an ‘employer’, usually through mental or physical abuse or the threat or abuse.

l They are dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’.

l They are physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement.

The main forms of slavery are:

Forced labour — which is likely to be found in low-paid or low-skill sectors, such as agriculture, construction and manufacturing.

Roughly a third of cases of slavery discovered in the UK are of forced labour.

Forced criminality —a type of forced labour where victims are forced to commit crimes for the profit of another person. This can involve anything from pick-pocketing, begging or fraud to drug related crimes such as cannabis farming.

Sexual exploitation — non consensual or abusive acts performed without the victim’s permission. Often it may seem like acts are consensual when in fact victims are being coerced or threatened by their employers/traffickers. This affects female and male victims.

Domestic servitude — victims are forced to work in private houses for little or no pay, often with restricted freedom. Roughly a quarter of domestic servitude victims are children.

Forced marriage — when a child or adult has not consented to be in a marriage. Often they are unable to leave and are forced to perform domestic chores or sexual acts.

Child slavery — children are particularly vulnerable to all the above forms of slavery — and are often taken advantage of by traffickers.

Jenny Hall, who is the national policing modern slavery portfolio co-ordinator, said getting victims to testify could be difficult as very often they did not realise they were being exploited as they came from a very poor background.

In some cases they also found it difficult to testify against those who were feeding them and with limited language skills, social skills or money, a life outside of what they had known was even more frightening to them.

It’s a fact that 50% of individuals who escape from slavery end up back there within two years. Faye Gould from Restore said being trafficked left an individual broken, afraid and untrusting: ‘All too often they slide back into the life they escaped as they have nowhere else to go,’ she said.

‘At Restore we concentrate on what happens to the person once they escape. We provide a safe house for 45 days, aim to find accommodation for up to 12 months and help them rebuild the life that was intended for them.’

There was no one size fits all when it came to victims of modern slavery — for example, well educated young girls from good backgrounds could find themselves sexually exploited — and equally offenders could range from large criminal gangs to individuals like farmers and private home owners.

The homeless were particularly vulnerable and a recent case brought by HM Customs was mentioned whereby a group of people were exploited, many of them homeless, to lay tarmac and decking for very little money and food and were accommodated in poor quality caravans, where the unusable toilets were stuffed with cash.

HM Customs found money and assets valued at £100,000 and 12 cases of trafficking were brought against the instigators.

Large name food and clothing brands were also to blame for exploiting workers, the event was told, and new legislation was due to come in next year whereby firms with a turnover of over £36-million would have to disclose all details of their supply chain.

There were very real concerns that with many refugees and migrants arriving in Europe as a result of the crisis in Syria, they were targeted by child sex trafficking gangs and being used for other forms of modern slavery.

Dr Julia Tomas from Unchosen said the charity’s role was to prevent modern slavery and to that end had produced a series of DVDs which were available as a free resource to organisations, agencies and communities: ‘It is so important that people know they can do something about it if they see something suspicious. They can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 and remain absolutely anonymous.’

To find out about the work of Unchosen go to www.unchosen.org.uk, find Stop the Traffik on Facebook, Jenny Hall on Twitter and Restore at To-Restore.org or on Facebook.