Turkish barber shops ‘using slave labour’

TRADITIONAL Turkish barber shops are using slave labour, the police officer behind the UK’S first child modern slavery prosecution has warned.

Det Insp Charlotte Tucker, of Avon and Somerset police, said: “There are barber shops setting up now where people live above the shop and customers pay in cash. Owners are looking to exploit workers and make money.”

Barber shops join a growing list of industries suspected of adopting the practice of modern slavery, which can involve human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation. Other places where slavery has been known to occur is at nail bars, car washes, clothing factories, cannabis farms and in the cleaning industry.

Barber shop wet shaves have become increasingly popular as the male grooming industry has taken off. DI Tucker urged men who use these services to look for signs of exploitation.

One indication of malpractice, she said, is “if you’re in a barbers and, when another customer arrives, a tired or dishevelled barber comes downstairs to start working on them”.

Other warning signs include the business only takes cash payments, staff appearing to live on the premises and are distant from management.

DI Tucker’s two-year investigation into the forced labour of Vietnamese teenagers at Deluxe Nails in Bath and Gorgeous Nails in Burton-on-trent resulted in the conviction of three people earlier this year.

The Home Office estimates as many as 13,000 people in the UK could be affected by modern slavery. Separate research from Freedom United, which includes new forms of slavery such as child drug-runners, suggests this number could, in fact, be as high as 136,000.