Is where a person is forced against their will to work or provide services whilst under threat of some form of punishment. Worldwide this is the most common form of slavery as many other types of slavery typically incorporate an element of forced labour. It can occur in most industries but is more likely in unregulated industries requiring low skilled and manual work, seasonal work, or causal labour.  In the UK, it often goes unnoticed but can be found in:

• domestic work
• street begging
• sex trade
• nail bars
• drug supply (cannabis factories)
• car wash’s
• food processing and packaging
• construction
• clothing manufacturers (sweatshops)
• marketing (door to door leaflets)
• bogus or legal charity collections
• tarmac/paving
• restaurant/fast food outlets
• agriculture (fruit and flower picking)

Victims of forced labour may also be victims of debt bondage. Victims are required to work long hours, in poor conditions for minimum pay. Legitimate businesses may unknowingly employ workers who are exploited without being aware that they are being controlled by exploiters who take their wages and control their movements. Many traffickers will often use intimidation and threats towards a potential employer, forcing them to use labour supplied by the trafficker, charging an admin fee from the employer, whilst also charging the worker for finding them 'work', supplying accommodation and transportation. There are an estimated 20.9 million people in forced labour worldwide with 4.5 million (22%) forced into sexual exploitation (Source: The International Labour Organization).  

Is a form of forced labour relating to domestic workers such as: servants, maids, housekeepers and nanny’s. Approximately 17,000 foreign nationals enter Britain on Overseas Domestic Worker Visa’s each year to work for foreign visitors to the UK.  Whilst it would be wrong to say that all domestic workers are treated unfairly, many will suffer abuse at the hands of their employer. Violence and sexual abuse are common. Until 2012, overseas domestic workers had the right to change jobs and extend their work visa in the UK, but a change in the law now prevents this from happening, effectively creating a ‘tied visa’. Critics of this current system argue that a Visa requiring a domestic worker to remain with their original employer (or face deportation), will effectively trap people into remaining in exploitative situations and discourage workers from reporting abuse. There is also evidence that potential victims have been recruited through agencies.

For professionals, domestic servitude is the most difficult aspect of modern slavery to identify. Mainly because it occurs in the privacy of the home and ‘behind locked doors’. Passports are often held by the employer. Victims are often not allowed to leave the home and when they are, movement is often controlled or restricted.  Therefore, victims won’t come to the attention of the outside world. If victims can escape their situation they may avoid the authorities through fear of being arrested, not being believed and treated as a criminal.

86% victims of domestic servitude are female with the most prevalent country of origin being Nigeria, closely followed by the Philippines (Source: National Strategic Assessment 2013).

This is where a person’s labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan. The person is conned or trapped into working for very little or no pay. One method used by recruiters is to offer victims a job or prospects of an education abroad, which includes ‘free’ travel, a job finding fee and sometimes a loan of money. Once they have arrived they then find the job either does not exist or is not what was originally offered and are trapped trying to pay off the debt. Victims are then forced to work to repay debts to their ‘employer’, with the debt often passed down to the next generation. Violence, threats and abuse are used to control the victims.

Many trafficked and enslaved people are forced into various criminal enterprises to pay off their debt bondage. A prime example is the many (not all) people that are found in cannabis factories. They are often initially treated as criminals rather than victims. Some may have been provided with false identities and documents, which will add to the suspicions of the authorities. Only a good investigation will establish whether the person is part of the criminal network, or has been forced into the criminality, through fear of violence, threats and intimidation. Other types of criminality associated with slavery are: sham marriages, illegal street trade, college fraud, benefit fraud, violence, cybercrime, intimidation, gun crime and drug supply.

Marriage of children under 16 in the UK is rare. However, child marriage is still practised across the world including sub-Saharan Africa, the Asian Subcontinent and in some parts of the Middle East. Impoverished families will sell their children into marriage for several reasons - to settle debts, raise money and for ‘honour’. Child brides are more likely to experience physical, mental and sexual abuse.

 

Many female victims are recruited and brought to the UK by ‘boyfriends’ or a ‘befriender’ only to find that when they arrive they are forced into prostitution, escort work and/or pornography. Victims can find themselves in debt bondage forced to work in the sex trade to pay back their travel and living costs. Violence, threats and fear of humiliation are used to by the abusers. Practitioners should be aware that just because a person in the sex trade is receiving payment for sexual services, they may well still be an unwilling participant. They are still victims and deserve help and protection. In any type of slavery, we should never interpret the fact that a victim had an opportunity to escape, but didn’t take it, as a form of consent on the victim’s part.

The black-market trade in organs, human eggs, bones and body parts is more prevalent than people think. The World Health Organisation estimate that as many as 7,000 kidneys are illegally obtained every year. Kidneys and other organs are generally supplied by live donors from poor and desperate people from third world countries. Victims are often targeted by ‘brokers’ or ‘agents’ with the lure of false promises and large sums of money. Many are killed, die on operating tables or are left for dead.

There is also a trade in body parts which are sold and used by those who practice juju rituals (witchcraft) believing that body parts, particularly of children, will make them rich and powerful. Medicine Murder (Muti Killings) are carried out to harvest body parts such as genitals, eyes and blood. Children are particularly vulnerable with potentially thousands of victims disappearing each year in some parts of the world. Although now not thought to be a Muti killing, the 2001 discovery of the torso of a 5-year-old boy in the River Thames is believed to be a sacrificial ritual killing with one theory being that the child was a slave, who was trafficked into the UK for that purpose.

All types of modern slavery apply to children e.g. domestic servitude, bonded and forced labour.  However, there are areas where perpetrators will specifically target children to fulfil specific markets. The most abhorrent of these is sexual exploitation where children are forced into brothels or used for child pornography. Other areas of trafficking and slavery where the exploitation of children is more prevalent are: illegal adoption, forced begging, pickpocketing gangs, benefit fraud, applying for UK residence and “County Lines” drug supply.

In our view ‘County Lines’ drug supply poses a similar threat to that of child sexual exploitation. It is organised crime, involving highly organised gangs who exploit vulnerable children and adults to supply, crack, heroin and other controlled drugs throughout the UK. The victims are often children, aged 13 to 17 years, who are initially groomed with money, gifts or through relationships. They are then moved to a rural location where they are forced to work in the drug supply chain. Victims can become ‘indebted’ to the gangs who will use extreme violence to enforce and keep control of their ‘business’. There can be some difficulties around the issue of consent, duress and a person voluntarily exposing themselves to illegal activity, but it is the view of many that children arrested for county lines activity, should be viewed as victims and the NRM policy should be applied.

Involves entrapment through Social Media. Victims are hooked by online adverts for all manner of jobs. The recruiters form a ‘friendship’ with the victim through regular contact via webcam, email or chat sites. Victims are groomed, often with the promise of lucrative work or a ‘better life’ and deceived into providing sexual images of themselves which are then used to blackmail and exploit them for sex. Perpetrators may use the ‘Dark Web’ to remain anonymous and prevent law enforcement agencies from identifying their locations.

The image of slavery since the 16^th century is still present in many countries throughout the world. Descent based slavery describes where a person is born into a group – a 'slave class'. The status of ‘slave’ is passed from mother to child. Professionals are very unlikely to come across this form of slavery in the UK, although you may find that you come into contact with people who have come to the UK, that may have been either victim or perpetrator.

This is the use of forced labour within the supply chain for everyday products found in UK stores and online.  Slavery can be found in various stages of the supply chain – production, distribution, marketing and retail.