Is the UK a safe haven for modern slavery? asks Gwendolen Morgan
Slavery was officially abolished more than 150 years ago. However, it persists in the modern forms of forced labour and servitude.
Anti-Slavery International estimates that there are several thousand victims in the UK and at least 360,000 in western industrialised countries. There is exploitation across a range of sectors but it is particularly common in domestic work, the care sector, contract cleaning, agriculture, cannabis cultivation and food processing.
Legal framework
People trafficking has been high on the political agenda lately. However, this may mask the lack of protection for those who are subject to forced labour or servitude who do not come under the narrow definition of trafficking for the purposes of exploitation.
The reality is that there are far more people working in conditions of forced labour than those who have been trafficked.
Although the criminal law offers protection from offences such as false imprisonment, fraud, blackmail, obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception, assault and battery, money laundering (and
