Out of the shadows

摘要

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 defines the offences that fall under this broad term to include 'holding a person in a position of slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, or facilitating their travel with the intention of exploiting them soon after'. While the crime is often associated with poorer countries, and the 'slaves' themselves as people being locked up and in shackles, in reality there are some 13,000 victims of modern slavery on UK soil, often hidden away doing long hours of labour under terrible conditions, or being held in domestic servitude situations. According to a study by researchers at King's College London, as many as one in eight NHS professionals report having been in contact with a patient they knew or suspected had been exploited in modern slavery. And detective sergeant Helen Gordos, tactical advisor for the National Crime Agency's modern slavery human trafficking unit, says that healthcare practitioners working in the community play a highly important role in assisting the police in their investigations.