September Autumn PAL Meeting 19/9/19
Frodsham Community Centre
"Are you aware that modern slavery is all around us?"
SLAVERY IN THE U.K.
(A talk given by Libre Solutions Slavery Awareness)
The morning talk was given by 3 ex policemen. The first two on retirement had set up a non profit company called Libre Solutions and their mantra was from a speech by William Wilberforce in 1769 'you may choose to look the other way but you can never again say that you did not know'
The first talk was on
What is modern slavery?
Changes to the modern slavery act
Supply chain management
Nail bar case study
We watched a short video partly given by Princess Eugenie on anti slavery, child bondage, sex traffic, forced bondage, forced marriages and domestic servitude.
There is an estimate of 46.3 million slaves worldwide with 24.9 in forced labour. Shockingly an estimate of 136,000 slaves live in the U.K. and numbers are up every year as the taking of cannabis is now legal but slavery is more profitable than drugs.
Another video told us how the organisers ship people into the U.K. house them 9 - 12 in a 3 bedroom house, mattress on the floor, no heating etc and all the time charging them considerable amounts of money for everything but paying them a pittance.
The slavery masters know how to work the system to get housing allowance, child
benefit and tax credit allowance with an average of £190 per year per person.
If the slaves try to escape or misbehave they are threatened that their families back home will be hurt.
Many nail bars or car wash centres are unlicensed and where cash only payments are taken. The slaves work here in the day with many going on to work in massage parlours later.
Future slaves are easily found at drug centres, runaways from children's homes and adults with poor education or with mental problems.
After the break, the 3rd man Paul Elms told us that while he was still in the police force he had been involved in the two year enquiry into the Morecambe Bay slaves disaster.
As a result of that enquiry the GLAA (Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) had been set up.
We were told to be aware of and to spread the news about slavery in the U.K.
A very detailed and disturbing talk.
(Carolyn John , September 2019)
