Why raising awareness of modern slavery is so vital

Great progress has been made in raising awareness of modern slavery – with members of the public now much more able to spot the signs, the Sussex police and crime commissioner has said.

Katy Bourne said many investigations had been sparked by a resident calling up police to say: “I’m not sure but...”

She said: “They refer to modern slavery as hidden in plain sight. Getting the public to recognise it is absolutely important. Members of the public are the eyes and ears of the police.”

There are many challenges when it comes to investigating modern slavery offences, according to Mrs Bourne, who said there were currently 25 live police operations in Sussex that were either exclusively or partly relating to modern slavery. One of the cases in Brighton & Hove has been running for two years, ‘which shows you how difficult they are’, she said.

The passing of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 had helped increase recognition of these offences, Mrs Bourne said.

And representations in the media, such as a recent storyline in the BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, which involved two builders keeping three ‘apprentices’ as slaves, had widened people’s understanding of exactly what constitutes modern slavery.

Sussex Police DCI Kris Ottery agreed.

“What is really reassuring is that people are more keen to report it now and they recognise it in a wide range of settings,” he said. “We want people to keep reporting it and we will always do our utmost to investigate it.”

Someone who knows all too well how modern slavery exists in our communities – but often just out of sight – is Natalie Williams.

She is the community engagement director at Kings Church in Hastings, which

runs a project called Restore, aimed at supporting survivors of modern slavery.

For years she has worked with victims and police around the topic, and had even travelled to Cambodia with the charity International Justice Mission to see the work they carried out there to combat the crime.

But within a few weeks of returning home, she was called out to join a police raid on a property where slaves were suspected of being held – which turned out to be a few doors down from her own home.

“I thought one of the police officers was joking,” she said.

“I had flown to Cambodia, and it turned out that it was happening even on my street.

“It was such a shock to me. Even someone like me, who knows a lot about the issue, I had no idea it was happening there.

“It is on our doorsteps, without us even knowing it.”

Some members of the public still had some misconceptions of what the crime involved, she said. “You think of it like you see in the movies, people kidnapped and bundled into a car – that’s not what happens here.”

Giving a more realistic example, she said: “Someone has been promised a job, job security, they think it’s going to be great. Then their ID, passport, anything they would need to do anything is taken away. They don’t have a key to the property they live in, they are driven to their place of work, they are threatened.

“That can equally happen to British people.”

The Restore project at King’s Church supports around 12 survivors at a time, usually women and children.

It involves a befriending service, meeting up for coffee, and providing any necessary support – helping them travel to court if necessary, or sourcing school uniforms for children.

Natalie said the people there supported were ‘incredibly traumatised’ but that there was help available. “We’ve got some people where they are now flourishing,” she said.

“They get their own accommodation, they are working, they have kids in local schools. That is an incredible thing to see.

“If you met them, you would have no idea of what they had been through.

“But it’s a long journey to get to that place.”

Find out more about modern slavery in Sussex at www.sussex.police.uk/advice/ advice-and-information/ms/ modern-slavery/