Modern slavery in the UK: How many victims?

This article discusses modern slavery in the UK. Hesketh, Silverman, and Bales (2015) explain the experience of a Nigerian woman who was tricked into leaving her home and family to find a better life. The man took her first to Germany and then to the UK, once arriving in Germany the man became aggressive toward her and the other women telling them they would have to work as prostitutes to pay off their travel costs. The authors use this story as a way of introducing the issue of slavery in the UK, and other parts of Europe.

This article is useful to explore modern slavery in the UK because it explains how hidden the issue is to society, and how despite the abolition of slavery it is still a major issue. The definition of slavery outlined in the article is “essentially the complete control of one person by another based on coercion, deception, violence or the threat of violence, usually with the aim of economic exploitation.” (Hesketh, Silverman, & Bales, 2015). Slavery is very serious, slaves can be assaulted, raped, tortured, and deprived of sleep and food, slave labour is thought to generate $150 billion annually around the world and in the UK alone they make up 0.013% of the population which is approximately 8300 individuals (Hesketh, Silverman, & Bales, 2015).

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