30 July is United Nations World Day against Trafficking in Persons, established to raise awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims and promote and protect their rights.
More than 20million people living today around the world have been trafficked either for sexual exploitation (22%), forced labour (68%) and other (10%) activities across the world. Every country in the world is affected by human trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit, or destination for victims. Traffickers the world over continue to target women and girls. Most of the victims detected across the world are females; mainly adult women, but also increasingly girls. The vast majority of the detected victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation are females, and 35 per cent of the victims trafficked for forced labour are also females, both women and girls.
Estimates suggest there are more than 100,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK, 10 times the number previously estimated by the Government. The newly published (13.7.20), report ‘It Still Happens Here’ claims that the issue of modern slavery is likely to intensify in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and is already costing the taxpayer many billions of pounds.
You can support the Justice and Care initiative, ‘Unlock the doors of modern slavery’. Take a picture of yourself outside your front door with a sign that you have made which reads “#UnlockTheDoors”.
Post the photo on social media with the hashtag #UnlockTheDoors and tag @justiceandcare. They will collect all posts together and deliver a montage to the UK government.