Many experts have repeatedly warned that the Coronavirus pandemic is driving more people into modern slavery and human trafficking rings around the world, and now a new study has reported that there are approximately 100,000 undocumented modern slaves in the United Kingdom alone.

According to officials, this number is 10 times higher than a previous estimate, with activists warning that the majority of victims are undetected. Justice and Care, an anti-slavery charity, and think tank The Centre for Social Justice have both repeatedly said that the real number could be well over 100,000.

This report came to the 100,000 estimate after taking police statistics from one region of Britain that projected the number of local victims using an artificial intelligence model. This data was then extrapolated nationwide.

Both organizations, alongside several experts and studies, believe that because of the Coronavirus pandemic, more people have had no other option than forced labor, earning less than minimum wage if anything at all.

This study comes in the midst of outrage through social media after there were reports that online fashion firm Boohoo’s suppliers in Leicester were not paying their workers properly, and also did nothing to protect them from COVID-19. Boohoo has stated that they are investigating these claims.

Justice and Care has said that political effort to reduce modern slavery has deteriorated over the last decade, and that the Modern Slavery Act that was passed in 2015 created a “false sense of security” in the UK. The charity’s chief executive has said that there is a long way to go and much work to be done in order to properly tackle the situation.

The Modern Slavery Act has been reviewed a few times after receiving mounts of criticism for not being employed to protect jail traffickers. It was also said that the act isn’t helping enough victims and isn’t driving companies to combat forced labor.

Modern slavery within the United Kingdom has many subcategories, including forced labor in several sectors, sexual exploitation, domestic slavery, and sexual slavery. The most common of these in the UK is by far forced labor, especially in car washes, construction, and clothing production.

On the other hand, a form of slavery that is steadily growing is that of trafficking into crime. Here, the trafficking is fueled by abducting and selling predominantly British children into drug smuggling, and also the trafficking of Vietnamese nationals forced to work in cannabis production.

Last year in Britain, the number of those affected by modern slavery was up 52% from 2018, with 10,627 suspected victims in the UK. The majority of these victims came from countries such as Vietnam, Albania, and Nigeria.

Those who get trapped in slavery are usually vulnerable people who will do close to anything in order to provide for their families. These people will generally receive what seems like a good job offer in the United Kingdom and even take a loan in advance from the traffickers.

However upon their arrival in the UK, the situation shifts. The traffickers might take their passports and other forms of identification away, and then tell the people that they must pay off their debts before they can go back home.

By using violence and threats as a means of intimidation, the traffickers trap these people in the UK without possessions, proper identification, and no way to return home. Now, they completely rely on their traffickers.

Although the majority of victims come from other countries, vulnerable British people, especially children, are also targets. Children who come from underprivileged backgrounds are consistently being groomed into drug criminal gangs in “county-lines” trafficking. Young girls are sold as sex slaves or recruited into criminal gangs and forced to sell drugs with no opportunities to escape.

A young girl, who will be addressed as “Amy” in order to protect her identity, was born in the United Kingdom and recruited into a criminal gang at 14 years old. Amy was forced to sell drugs across Britain and managed to escape after a year of endurance.

“I was tied up and trapped in a room for hours. I can’t tell you how long, because I was drugged. I was force-fed, and still people would have sex with me.”

Amy

Britain’s interior Minister Priti Patel has said that the department would be investigating the findings of the report. Patel went on to say that even though the Modern Slavery Act was revolutionary, they are just getting started in the fight to “rid this evil from the United Kingdom.”

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Sign Anti-Slavery Org.’s Petition to Protect, Not Neglect, victims of modern slavery in the UK:

Protect Not Neglect

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