Page 21 - MiddleEast-business

19

It’s a fact, and it’s horrific. Slavery is person, perhaps who has money has a growing Vietnamese migrant
alive and kicking in the 21st century. problems, has suffered mental community, many of whom have
health problems, or who is keen to been brought into the country on
This magazine has featured
avoid coming into contact with the the back of a lorry, often illegally,
numerous articles over years about authorities (police, immigration etc). to work in nail bars or on cannabis
this most shocking of practices. farms. Regularly, many have
Two years ago, I wrote a piece on Slavery In Its Many Forms their passports taken away upon
modern slavery and looked at its departure and are kept in shocking
history and current hotspots; earlier I’ll take my home country as an conditions throughout the very
this year we featured ‘Humans for example. With its own reprehensible long journey across continents,
Sale’, an article by activist, Katerina history of owning slaves in centuries just like the car washers in my city.
Stephanou1. past, the British Government now Exploitation is at the very core of
estimates that there are tens of modern slavery.
In this follow up article I’m hoping
thousands of people held illegally
to raise awareness about an often But it’s not only those from overseas
overlooked fact - modern slavery in modern slavery in the United
Kingdom (UK). In 2015, the UK who are at risk. There have been
can exist locally without you actually
enacted a law, the Modern Day many cases reported in the local
being aware of it. I decided to return
Slavery Act 2015, to try to protect the press of vulnerable British men and
to this subject when a local car women who have fallen on hard
human rights of individuals working
wash was closed down after a raid times, perhaps due to mental health
by the local police. The bosses, or both in the UK and overseas - problems or becoming homeless,
gangmasters, of the car wash - all usually this would benefit overseas being kept for years as unpaid
Romanians - are now in court facing employees or those working for sub- workers in brutal conditions. This
charges ranging from exploitation of contractors/part of the extended has also happened in my quiet
foreign workers to modern slavery. supply chain. This has gone a long corner of the world, Cumbria, where
way to enabling the authorities to
In the court case that followed bring perpetrators to justice. a man was kept shackled in a shed
the closure, it was disclosed that for over six years. Didn’t anyone
Romanians, who legally have the The recent appalling news of the miss him, you ask yourself? The sad
truth is no, no-one missed him.
right to work in the UK under current death of 39 Vietnamese migrants
EU laws, travelled thinking that who froze to death in the back of a Exploiting the Weak
they were coming for a decent job. refrigerated lorry in Kent brought
Upon arrival, they were deprived this issue to the attention of some On a global scale, modern slavery
of breaks despite working up to for possibly the first time. The UK is a major risk for members of
11 hours-a-day, six days-a-week,
and one spoke of being left with a
weekly wage of just £10 ($15) after Modern slavery in numbers
deductions for rent and electricity
were applied. They weren’t provided
with clothing to protect them from people affected by people forced into
cleaning chemicals, were housed in 40.3 4.8
million modern slavery million sexual exploitation
“dirty” rat- and insect-infested multi- across the world
occupancy rented property, and
prevented from leaving after identity
cards were taken away. children held as of people trafficked
10
million slaves globally 99% for sexual exploitation
Slavery can affect people of any
age, gender or race. However, are women and girls
most commonly, slavery affects
people and communities who are people in slavery
1.5 slaves in developed 4.1
vulnerable, and thus more likely to million economies million are exploited by
be exploited. As with the workers governments
who came to the car wash, they had
been living in poverty with no real
prospects for a decent job. They slavery victims are of illegal profits due
16 $150
were willing to accept the offer of million exploited by billion to forced labour in
a job abroad that turned out to be economic activities the private economy
something horrific.
A modern slave is therefore *All estimates by International Labour Organization 3
more likely to be a vulnerable

www.MiddleEast-Business.com 7 year, Issue 26, Mar - May 2020
th