Translator: Moe Shoji Reviewer: Ellen Maloney
I would like to introduce you to Grace.
Just so you know, Grace is not her real name but her story is very real.
Real for her and many men and women like her.
Grace is an Ethiopian lady. She is married, with a small daughter.
A few years ago, in Grace's village, there was an uprising.
A local militia group came through, looting, raping, burning
and killing indiscriminately.
Grace managed to hide and escape the onslaught.
Her husband and her daughter were not so lucky.
With no money, no home, and no family left,
Grace decided to leave her village.
She made ends meet by collecting plastic, glasses and bottles from the street,
and swapping them for small amounts of money so that she could get food.
While she was living on the street, she was approached by a man
who seemed to understand her situation.
They began to build a friendship and she began to trust him.
He seemed to understand all that she had been through,
and offered Grace the opportunity to get away from it all:
to start afresh, to get a new job,
and to rid herself of some of her memories that this place held.
Grace decided that things couldn't get any worse
and decided to take this opportunity.
She did not realize that the job was not in Ethiopia.
She did not realize she would have to get on a plane for the first time ever.
Nor did she realize that she would be sold.
Grace arrived in England and was taken to a flat.
She was introduced to a man
and told that she must do everything he told her to do.
Grace was then locked into that flat
and raped daily by men who rented her out.
She was isolated, she didn't speak the language,
she had no idea where to go for help.
Grace was trapped and had been enslaved.
"Slavery": it is a powerful word.
Civilizations trade wealth.
Even cities - London, Liverpool, Bristol, to name a few -
have been built on the global trade in people.
It is a word that conjures images of the transatlantic slave trade
of cotton-picking, of sugar plantations, and of slave ships.
For many of us, we believe that slavery was abolished
with the William Wilberforce movement.
However, for a staggering 46 million people,
slavery is not a historical fact.
It is a present reality.
46 million people.
That is the equivalent of two-thirds of the UK's population.
Once we begin to see slavery,
it is staggering how our lives connect with it.
You may have seen in the news recently,
one in ten senior Brazilian politician funded by companies linked to slavery.
Yezidi women sold by ISIS as sex slaves.
There's then the Libyan slave markets selling people
for as little as 400 dollars each.
Then, there are the people with limited choices,
forced to work to meet our demands for cheap goods.
The children of the DRC, mining minerals to make mobile phones.
The women and girls in factories in Bangladesh, working 12 hours a day
for as little as 16p an hour to sew clothes and garments.
The pickers in fields, picking fruit and vegetables
to provide what we need.
Once we start seeing slavery and see how it connects to our lives,
we begin to realize that actually
those clothes are the things that we are wearing.
Those tomatoes being picked are in our kitchen shelves.
And those mobile phones are in our back pockets
and in our handbags.
Today, I would like to make the invisible visible,
and the unseen seen.
Last year, my organization was involved in an operation
with Devon and Cornwall Police.
We were worried that there were car washes right here in Exeter
that were having people working on them that were forced to work.
The police were worried that people may be enslaved
and asked us to visit these sites.
On the day of visiting, we were met by nine disheveled Romanian men.
Wary, nervous, and not wanting to talk to us or engage.
They had been told that they would be deported if they spoke to anybody.
They were EU citizens.
They were unaware of their rights and entitlements here,
that they were legally allowed to be here, and legally allowed to work here.
They told us they worked for as little as five pounds a day.
They worked in all weathers, seven days a week,
washing our cars.
They then went on to tell us
that actually they also then owed the person that bought them here:
for their transportation, they owed them for their rent,
and they then owed them for their food.
The job that they had hoped to secure to send money home
was getting them into a perpetual cycle of debt.
They then took us to where they were living.
Cramped, horrific conditions: nine bunk beds,
a shower and a toilet - that was good.
They didn't work. They weren't plumbed in.
And they kept themselves warm by keeping the oven door open.
Hidden in plain sight, here in Exeter.
This is not just happening in Exeter.
It is happening in cities and towns across the whole of the UK.
Slavery is the commodification of people for the purpose of exploitation
and financial gain.
It is ownership.
It restricts freedom, and it controls by force and psychological force.
It affects men, women, and children.
It takes many forms and does not discriminate.
Anybody can be bought or sold.
Poverty, limited access to education, limited choices,
unstable political and social climates, economic imbalances, and war.
People like Grace.
People like the guys that I met on the car wash forecourt.
Lured by the false promises of a better life.
Modern day slavery is far from the transatlantic slave trade.
The shackles and the chains are no longer there.
But the bonds have become powerful and invisible.
Psychological bonds.
Slavery thrives on threat, coercion, and deception.
It prays upon vulnerability and it abuses power dynamics.
Slavery is worth 150 billion dollars.
That is more than the profits of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Starbucks.
And larger than lots of the world's economies.
It is the fastest growing international crime,
second only to the arms trade.
It has now surpassed the drugs trade, purely because people can be bought
and sold more than once.
To definitively define the number of slaves in the UK
is really, really tricky.
Last year, statistics told us
that there were 5,000 potential victims here in the UK.
Experts believe that this number is likely to be far higher.
5,000 men, women, and children exploited in all forms
of different sectors.
They came from 100 different countries.
The top three countries:
Albania, Vietnam, and right here in the UK.
The people that pick the daffodils in the fields
that end up on our supermarket shelves.
The people that help pave your driveway.
The people that may clean your homes.
The people that work in hotels.
The guys that make your favorite curry on a Friday night.
The people that paint your nails.
The people that wash your cars.
I'm not saying that all of them
are going to be forced against their will to do this.
And nor am I saying that all of them will be slaves.
But what I am saying is that slavery has been identified
in each of those sectors right here in the UK.
Slavery does not treat people as unique individuals
but as commodities, things through which money can be made.
You may be sitting there today and thinking, "What can I do?"
You can spot the signs of slavery in your communities.
Behind me on the screen now are eight general indicators
that you could look out for.
Through the stories I have told today, you will also understand
where slavery may exist and where else it may interact with your community.
For a house on your street that has comings and goings
at all times of night and day.
The person that serves you but doesn't give you eye contact,
appears withdrawn.
The service that you purchase
but a third-party comes and collects the money.
All of these things may be indicators that slavery is occurring.
I think, often, we hesitate.
We're unsure, we don't want to get it wrong.
But the Modern Slavery Helpline is there to assist you.
If you have any concerns around slavery, if you think you have spotted any signs,
call the Modern Slavery Helpline
and they will be able to help you and advise you.
If after today you want to take action,
go on to the Modern Slavery Footprint website.
This is a website that allows you to understand
where your lifestyle choices connect with slavery.
It gives you an estimate of how many slaves are working for you.
I am ashamed to say that after all I know and after all I try to do,
I have a staggering 38 slaves working for me.
Once you are armed with this knowledge,
you can start making personal choices about what it is you want to do
to start tackling this issue in your own life.
One day, Grace's exploiter left the door open.
They left it unlocked.
And she decided to take her chance.
The police delivered Grace to Unseen Safe House
where she was able to access the care and support she needed.
She accessed the doctor, sexual health support,
counselling, and legal advice.
Grace is now living independently in the community.
She is an amazing woman.
She is learning English, and not only that,
she is now volunteering to help other vulnerable women.
The guys in the car wash: five of them bravely decided to leave
with the police and Unseen that day.
We assisted them to get better accommodation,
and also safe and secure employment.
I would like to leave you today with the words of William Wilberforce.
"You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again
say that you did not know."
Thank you.
(Applause)