{"id":4808,"date":"2021-07-07T18:10:49","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T17:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/midland-chase\/?p=4808"},"modified":"2021-07-07T18:10:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T17:10:49","slug":"modern-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/midland-chase\/2021\/07\/07\/modern-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern Slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

SI Midland Chase President-Elect Judith Carder will take modern slavery as the theme for her year in 2021-2. It\u2019s also a subject that fits within our current Presidential theme of Mind The Gap. Judith recently arranged an excellent short training course for SIMC members delivered by <\/span>Voice of Hope<\/span><\/a> a Stoke on Trent based charity raising awareness of, and working to end modern slavery. It\u2019s summarised here…<\/span><\/p>\n

Modern slavery is an incredibly wide ranging and extensive issue – shockingly so. It comprises Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and County Lines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1833 when slavery was finally abolished in the British Empire, it was estimated that there were 18 million slaves worldwide. The latest figure today is between 43 and 47 million – more than 2.5 times as many – people worldwide are estimated to be in some form of slavery. <\/span>Source:ILO<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

But is it really as bad as that? People often ask…Because the challenge is that we aren’t aware of the extent and scale of the problem. It\u2019s not immediately visible to us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Slavery is organized crime on a scale second only to that of the illegal arms trade. The economic cost in the UK – estimated at the end of 2017 – was between \u00a33.3 and \u00a34.3 billion. The physical and emotional costs to the individual victims are the biggest components of this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So how can we become more aware of this issue and of our potential contribution to it?<\/span><\/p>\n

How many slaves work for you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In other words, what\u2019s your slavery footprint?\u00a0 <\/span>Take the survey here<\/span><\/a> – you might be very unpleasantly surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Modern<\/a>Statistics show that nine million new slaves are created each year. That’s one new slave every four seconds – day in, day out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

66% of these (around 30 million people) are to be found in Asia, where five countries are the worst offenders, namely India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan. Slaves are found in factories, on construction sites, in domestic service, in the sex trade, and in fishing. But it’s on our doorsteps here too!<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally speaking 75% of slaves are engaged in forced labour of some description, while the balance are involved in the sex trade.\u00a0 Given the high proportion in forced labour, manufacturing supply chains are absolutely critical to controlling and reducing modern slavery. Thus the business sector is critical to helping identify and solve the problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So our challenge as individuals is to be much more aware of what the issue is and where it might exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voice of Hope uses the maxim that \u201cThe eye doesn’t see, what the mind doesn’t know\u201d<\/strong>. And that probably applies to most of us in the matter of modern slavery. We need to educate ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

The excellent training course delivered by Voice of Hope had five elements:-<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What is modern slavery?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Why does it exist?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. What form does it take?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. What are its indicators – how do we recognize it?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. How should we respond?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What is modern slavery?<\/b><\/h3>\n

    The simplest and clearest definition is that it is \u201cthe illegal trade of exploiting people for profit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    In addition, the UK government defines it as: \u201cThe recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Trafficking is the movement of people from one location to another from\/into exploitative conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

    In the UK The Modern Slavery Act 2015, chapter 30, created the role of an <\/span>antislavery commissioner<\/span><\/a> and aimed to do three things primarily:<\/span><\/p>\n