A woman unknowingly trafficked into the UK then stripped of her passport and forced to work ended up homeless because it was her only route of escape.
Last year saw a 52% rise in modern slavery victims referred to the National Referral Mechanism, which collects data on human trafficking in the UK. Most of these slaves end up ‘homeless or destitute’, according to homeless charity the Passage.
Hadi* was forced to work for a French-speaking family after she was tricked into coming to the UK from North Africa with the false promise of a better life. Instead, her captors hid her passport and used the fact that she spoke no English to keep her captive.
Hadi, 32, was only saved with the help of her perpetrator’s son, who taught her some basic English, gave her his house key and drew a map to the police station. She managed to escape but ended up in emergency accommodation, with no way of finding her own home.
Dayo* was also brought to the UK on false pretences then forced to work for over two years, her abusers telling her it was to pay back the cost of her flight from Nigeria.
When she eventually escaped, Dayo, 36, ended up sleeping on buses and in parks.
Nabin, 43, said being exploited in the UK was ‘the most difficult years of his life’. He said he had ‘no choice’ but to live as a slave after arriving in the UK in 2006 while fleeing political conflict in Bhutan.
With no legal right to work he took a job illegally – being paid well under the living wage – in order to feed and support his wife and baby.
He said: ‘During this time I did so many jobs – on farms, cleaning, gardening, even in a butcher. I needed to eat and live but people took advantage of that and underpaid me.
‘I had no choice but to live as a slave.’
‘Without a steady income, victims of modern day slavery can easily become at risk of further exploitation,’ charity founder Alex Stephany said. He runs social enterprise Beam which crowdfunds job training for disadvantaged people.
Beam raised £1,360 for Hadi to train as a chef, and she now works at a Lebanese restaurant in London. Nabin was given £1,378 to complete forklift driving training to become a warehouse operative.
The charity raised £1,365 for Dayo to become a healthcare assistant.
She said: ‘I am really enjoying my shifts as I am meeting new people and also enjoying working with the service users.
‘I am extremely happy because I am working with really nice people, right from the manager to all the members of staff that I have met so far.’
The most recent data from the National Referral Mechanism showed that in the first quarter of 2020, potential victims of modern slavery fell by 14%. But the figures revealed a 13% increase from the same quarter in 2019.
Between January and March this year, 2,871 people were referred to the NRM as potential victims, with 61% saying their exploitation took place in the UK.
Around 40 million people are thought to be trapped in modern slavery worldwide, with 71% being women and girls and one in four being children, according to human rights charity Anti-Slavery International.
It says people who become enslaved are often poor and excluded which makes them ‘vulnerable to being tricked, trapped and exploited’.
‘Political, economic and social systems that disadvantage some groups in society push people into taking risky decisions in search of opportunities to provide for their families,’ the charity said.
Anti-Slavery Day falls on October 18 each year and is seen as an opportunity to raise awareness and encourage government, local authorities and individuals to do what they can to eradicate all forms of slavery, human trafficking and exploitation.
Types of modern slavery:
- Human trafficking. The use of violence, threats or coercion to transport, recruit or harbour people in order to exploit them for purposes such as forced prostitution, labour, criminality, marriage or organ removal.
- Forced labour. Any work or services people are forced to do against their will under threat of punishment.
- Debt bondage/bonded labour. The world’s most widespread form of slavery. People trapped in poverty borrow money and are forced to work to pay off the debt, losing control over both their employment conditions and the debt.
- Descent–based slavery. Most traditional form, where people are treated as property, and their “slave” status was passed down the maternal line.
- Slavery of children. When a child is exploited for someone else’s gain. This can include child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage and child domestic slavery.
- Forced and early marriage. When someone is married against their will and cannot leave. Most child marriages can be considered slavery.
Source: Anti-slavery International
*names have been changed to protect identities
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