Anti-Slavery Day takes place every year on 18 October and provides an opportunity to raise awareness of modern slavery, which includes human trafficking and labour exploitation both in the UK and globally. This issue is characterised as both a lucrative and highly organised crime and one of the most severe forms of human rights abuses.
There is no typical victim of slavery. Victims of modern slavery and human trafficking are men, women and children of all ages, ethnicities, and nationalities. However, exploitation is normally more prevalent among the most vulnerable or within minority or socially excluded groups. Poverty, lack of education, unstable social and political conditions, economic imbalances, and war are key issues that contribute to someone’s vulnerability in becoming a victim of modern slavery.
The scale of the issue is such that one part of society alone cannot tackle it effectively; it requires a unified approach.
As an organisation, we have partnered with Unseen to support our development of a robust anti-slavery strategy.
Unseen is a UK charity with its head office in Bristol. Providing safehouses and support in the community for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery. Working with individuals, communities, businesses, governments, other charities, and statutory agencies to stamp out slavery for good.
With a wealth of knowledge, understanding and experience of all forms of modern slavery and exploitation, Unseen provides unique training experiences based on real life case studies and drawing from reports made to the Helpline.
Anti Slavery Day is a great platform to raise awareness of the issue. Through education about the signs of modern slavery and how to report any concerns of modern slavery and human trafficking. As well as engaging with our colleagues, customers, suppliers and partners to prevent human trafficking and protect victims of modern-day slavery.
Modern slavery and labour abuse are issues that affect businesses of all sizes, from multinational corporations to self-employed labourers. Increasingly, businesses seek to work with others who have a robust anti-slavery response. A key way to demonstrate this is through targeted, specialist training.
Training has been instrumental in embedding modern slavery awareness throughout our organisation and with our suppliers.
Without specialist insight, it is incredibly difficult for any business to have clear visibility of the issues occurring down the supply chain. No sector or business is immune to the risks of modern slavery and worker exploitation, and everyone has their part to play. Working with charities like Unseen provides a range of specialist services for businesses, to help tackle worker exploitation in an organisation and its supply chains, creating a culture of continuous improvement to build the capability to reduce and eliminate worker exploitation.
Unseen is working with other charities to raise awareness and ban products tainted by modern slavery. They also run the UK Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline (08000 121 700) which is free, confidential and independent.