UK to double aid spending:
Antislavery activists on Wednesday welcomed Britain’s pledge to double its aid spending on global projects tackling the crime to 150 million pounds ($203 million), and boost training for police and prosecutors, yet called for greater support for victims.
British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the spending - which will be funded from Britain’s overseas aid budget and support programmes in countries including Nepal and Nigeria - at a panel on modern slavery at the annual UN General Assembly.
Speaking in New York late on Tuesday, May said the spending would include 20 million pounds ($27 million) for the US-based Global Fund to End Modern Slavery - a public-private partnership seeking $1.5 billion in order to combat the crime globally.
“For a crime that has no respect for borders, we need a truly international response,” May said at the event, which followed the publication of the first joint effort by key anti-slavery groups to estimate the number of victims worldwide.
The International Labour Organization, rights group Walk Free Foundation and International Organization for Migration said that at least 40.3 million people were victims of modern slavery in 2016 - trapped in forced labour and forced marriages.
Britain will also train new slavery investigators and police officers, and help prosecutors to handle complex cases, May said at the UN panel, which included an address from Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump. Anti-slavery groups such as Anti-Slavery International, the Freedom Fund, and International Justice Mission welcomed May’s pledge as a step forward in the global drive to end slavery.
“However, it’s concerning that there’s barely a mention of protecting the victims, which is still the biggest weakness of the UK’s response to modern slavery,” Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email.