Modern Slavery
Modern slavery is where one person controls another by exploiting a vulnerability. It is often linked with human trafficking, where a person is forced into a service against their will – usually forced work or prostitution. The control can be physical, financial or psychological.
40.3 million people in forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and forced marriage worldwide
$150 billion made each year from forced labour, that’s over $4,750 a second
We have rescued hundreds of people, including babies younger than one year old and adults up to the age of 63
“Human trafficking is one of the most serious and barbaric crimes, profiting from human misery. Our response is a strategic one: focus on excellence, professionalism and outcomes to help victims find healing, hope and justice. Now is the time for all of us to act and end suffering.”
Neil Wain
International Programme Director, Hope for Justice
What is human trafficking?
A crime with three elements
The Act: WHAT is done
e.g. Recruitment, transfer, transportation, harbouring or receipt of persons.
NOTE: Where a victim is a child, only ACT and PURPOSE are required.
The Means: HOW it is done
e.g. threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or position of vulnerability, giving or receiving of payments or benefits used to control a person.
The Purpose: WHY it is done
e.g. to exploit a person through prostitution, other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery, servitude or removal of organs from a person.
Types of exploitation
Sexual Exploitation
A person trafficked for sex may be controlled by violence, threats, substance abuse, deception or grooming, with extreme physical or psychological domination.
Forced Labour
Forced labour is work done under the threat of a penalty such as violence or harm to family. Victims are often further controlled by debt bondage.
Domestic Servitude
A person is forced to provide services with the obligation to live on or in a property without the possibility of changing those circumstances.
Organ Harvesting
A person who is trafficked and specifically chosen for the harvesting of organs or tissues, such as kidneys, liver etc. without consent, to be sold.
Internal & External Trafficking
Human trafficking is a national as well as an international problem.
Internal Trafficking
Internal trafficking occurs when a person is recruited in one area of a country or city and moved from area to area or city to city within the same country for the purposes of exploitation. An example would be a runaway girl picked up in Philadelphia, USA who is then driven from truck stop to truck stop up and down America’s East coast to be sold for sex.
External Trafficking
If a person is trafficked into one country from another country it is case of external trafficking. An example would be a homeless man in Warsaw, Poland who is offered a job in the UK and travels to the UK but then finds himself trapped in forced labour. He is unable to leave because he has no money, can’t speak English and his trafficker has taken his passport.
