Countries must work together work to fight modern slavery, commissioner tells summit
THE UK must work more closely Australia and the US to tackle the blight of modern slavery, according to the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
Speaking at the first Wilberforce World Freedom Summit, at the University of Hull, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland said each country should “take the lead in areas of the world where we have the necessary knowledge, experience and influence.”
He has recommended that the UK work with Australia to tackle the Vietnamese organised crime gangs who control the UK’s cannabis trade, forcing vulnerable boys and young men to work in illicit factories.
He said: “The UK was looking to scale up its activity in Vietnam. But the UK’s footprint and overall influence in Vietnam is relatively limited. Australia, however, has a much larger presence there, and has developed influential relationships over the years. So rather than try and reinvent the wheel and start from scratch, I have recommended that we work with our Australian partners.”
UN General Assembly estimates that over 40m adults are enslaved worldwide, with a further 151m children trapped in slave labour.
The Home Office estimates there are 13,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK alone. But Mr Hyland thinks the true figure is in the tens of thousands, from the nail technicians forced to work excessively long hours to the domestic slaves, eating scraps and forced to sleep in storage cupboards.
He said: “The tools to tackle contemporary slavery in the UK might require more resources, more funding and more efforts than we have previously.
“But the fight against contemporary slavery is the same now as it was in the time of Wilberforce more than 200 years ago.”