Modren Slavery

Modern slavery lends itself to a number of professions including agriculture and food processing and this article gives much food for thought. It tells us:

Local authorities are calling on members of the public to be alert to signs of modern-day slavery, as research suggests worrying gaps in reporting across Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire.

The number of people referred to the government’s national referral mechanism (NRM), which identifies and supports victims, increased dramatically last summer. Between July and September 2017, 1,322 potential victims were referred, up 47% compared with the same period in 2016.

But the National Crime Agency estimated that the number of victims was far greater, with tens of thousands of people living in conditions of slavery in the UK. Simon Blackburn, a councillor and chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) safer and stronger communities board, warned that residents may be “unwittingly using victims of modern slavery to wash their cars, paint their nails or lay their drives”.

According to research released on Wednesday, under-reporting is a major concern in areas such as Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Dyfed-Powys and Norfolk. The study predicts areas are likely to have higher rates of modern slavery if they have an above average number of people who are foreign born or who do not have qualifications.

The research, by global risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft, used demographic data to predict the rates of slavery across 42 UK police force areas, and compared this with UK National Crime Agency victim data from 2015-16 and 2016-17.