- By Emily Jupp
- Monday, 17 October 2011 at 7:20 pm
Today, a number of representatives from charities like the International Organisation for Migration, Barnardos and the Human Trafficking Foundation will be in Trafalgar Square, London, imprisoned underneath a giant, upside-down shopping trolley.
Today is anti-slavery day, and the publicity stunt has a serious purpose. It represents the plight of trafficked workers – who are shipped to the UK to work for little or no cash, often unable to leave their job and effectively kept as prisoners.
“For too long the belief has been that human trafficking can only be tackled in source countries,” says International Organisation for Migration Director, General William Lacy Swing. But this is not the case, “human trafficking is driven by the demand for unreasonably cheap labour and goods across the world, including in the UK.”
The IOM has helped hundreds of trafficked workers. They sent me the story of an 18-year-old who came to London hoping to get work to support his family. He was recruited by a man who gave him a job distributing leaflets for 18 hours a day with no break. He made no money, had his documents confiscated and could not interact with anyone other than the man that recruited him. He was also physically abused.
Another couple who saw an advert for a packing company on the internet came to the UK to earn some money to support their disabled son. On arrival they were escorted to a town they didn’t know. With no family in the country and without access to a phone or email they had no access to the outside world. They were forced to work for no money, imprisoned in the factory and shared workers’ flats.
These are not isolated accounts. Kalayaan, an NGO, estimates that between 16,000 and 18,000 migrant domestic workers enter the UK each year, brought by their employer on a specific visa. Around 58% of those surveyed by the charity reported having their passports withheld and said they were not able to leave the house without someone else to accompany them. According to the report, around 9 of the workers who were reported to their local authorities as victims of trafficking were brought to the UK by diplomats.
This situation has become worse over the last 30 years, according to an International Labour Office report on fairer treatment for domestic workers, and it could continue. The Government is planning to remove protections provided by the migrant domestic worker visa, which gives them the ability to change their employer, ensures they are recognised as workers and allows them to renew their work visas. Kalayan says the result of losing these protections will be an “increase in abuse, exploitation and trafficking for domestic servitude.”
What can I do?
- Buy fair trade where possible
- Email or write to your local shop to ask for more guarantees about where its products come from
- Look at sites like www.buyresponsibly.org to get advice on how to buy responsibly
- Visit www.kalayaan.org.uk for information on the trafficking of workers
- Write to your local MP and Damian Green MP, the Immigration Minister
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