Geoffrey Bindman QC reports on the attempt to banish modern slavery
The home secretary has now introduced her promised Modern Slavery Bill to strengthen the law against that historic abuse. This follows the story of three women apparently held in captivity in South London for 30 years which aroused enormous public interest. The facts are still under investigation but it appears that the situation of these women may not have fitted traditional conceptions of slavery because they had some freedom to leave the premises where they were living. Modern slavery may not entail permanent captivity but may include a state of psychological dependency very different from the forcible export of black Africans to America which disfigured the world of commerce until the early 19th century. The horrors to which that led are chillingly depicted in the powerful new film 12 Years a Slave. However, the most prominent form of slavery—at any rate in Britain—is the widespread scourge of trafficking of women across national borders for sexual exploitation or for forced labour.
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