This Article is written by Zilthai Kwasau, a Third Year Law Student of University of Leicester

What is Modern Slavery?

Modern slavery is commonly understood as any form of recruitment or labour that forces or coerces vulnerable children, women, or men into working or performing duties without pay or autonomy. Those duties include forced labour, facilitating their travel to exploit them (i.e. human trafficking), etc.[1] Research has shown that modern slavery is a widespread, international phenomenon that is not merely a historical issue as many may assume. [2] It is estimated that approximately 50 million people will be living in modern slavery globally in 2021.[3] This illustrates the scope slavery has in the modern day despite the archaic connotations of the word ‘slavery’.

Legislation in England and Wales provides definitions of Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) defines forms of modern slavery and this article will specifically look at two forms of slavery.

1. Forced Labour s.1 (4)(a) and (b): “any of the person’s circumstances…which may make the person more vulnerable than other persons… to work or services provided by the person…in circumstances which constitute exploitation within section 3(3)”[4]

2. Human trafficking s.2 (1) “a person commits an offense if the person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person (“V”) with the view to V being exploited.”[5]

This article will discuss the uncanny prevalence of slavery across the world and the cunningness involved in its operations almost going undetected. Something that arguably should be a historical issue with the passing of human rights laws in various jurisdictions, is so prevalent and harming our national and international society. This will address the different types of slavery, while they are categorized, it should be noted that each type of slavery is quite interlinked. Finally, government accountability and strategies will be discussed in terms of the extent to which they help tackle the worldwide crisis.

Forced Labour

The legal definitions outlined in MSA define forced labour as involving a vulnerable person put in exploitative circumstances.

A key case study was in the UK after some investigation there were found to be several cases of forced labour in the factories of big companies such as McDonalds Tesco, and Sainsbury’s amongst others. The case of McDonald’s found that there were 16 victims forced to work in McDonald’s or the factories of the suppliers of the big food retailers. [6] BBC report clearly expresses a shock at the fact that these people had been victimized right under the nose of companies that should enforce rigorous protocols to prevent such crimes and operations. The money earned by these victims was transferred to one account, and victims worked up to 70-100 hours per week. These were all signs that should have been detected. The victims were described to be ‘vulnerable’ which satisfies the definition in MSA for forced labour. Their pay was stolen from them. This unfortunate turn of events begs the question why does this still happen, and how are criminals able to get away with it for so long?

Another case of Chowdhury v Greece involved people labouring long hours harvesting strawberries. Stoyanova in their journal article analysed the extent to which Greece had failed in fulfilling its obligation under Article 4 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).[7] It states: no one shall be held in slavery or servitude, and no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.[8] The challenge brought up in the analysis of this case was that the victim’s labour was sometimes voluntary. They would offer to work extra hours to make extra money. Similarly with McDonald’s case previously mentioned, people may question the extent to which these individuals were truly victimized into forced labour if they had the ‘freedom’ to leave the workplace after their contracted hours. However, Stoyanova cleverly argues with the backing of legislation (that even if working conditions on the surface do not look bad, any labour that is demanded of people in exploitative circumstances is not voluntary and therefore can be classified as forced labour.[9] This eradicates any doubts as to whether the workers were truly suffering under forced labour.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is another type of slavery that the United Nations (UN) defines as “…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception to exploit them for profit”[10] Essentially it is commonly understood as the act of transporting individuals without consent or through manipulation, from one place to another to exploit them. The exploitation can look like forced labour like the Czech citizens mentioned earlier working long hours at McDonald’s in the UK. It can also be sexual exploitation, child labour, etc. There are an estimated 30.2 million victims of human trafficking over the age of 18 and 10.1 million under the age of eighteen; suggesting that worldwide there is a total of 40.4 million people being trafficked. [11] This illustrates the unfortunate reach this network of enslavement has globally in its many forms.

R v Tang 2008 was a human trafficking case in which Wei Tang was convicted of enslaving five Thai women trafficked into Australia to work in her brothel. To pay off the ‘debts’ of passport and travel expenses they were made to work harder under heavily oppressive conditions. Another sad example involving innocent children was when several men were accused of running a child-trafficking operations. These were children from disadvantaged backgrounds that were trafficked into the UK for labour.[12]

Governmental and Corporate Accountability

Governments and NGOs have done things to try to prevent or reduce the trafficking but there is concern that governments come with their agendas when ‘tackling’ the issue of human trafficking. This alludes to complications for migrant workers when trying to ‘secure’ borders against these gangs that traffic people. [13] An example of authorities taking some form of accountability followed by action is the UK in the Romanian child trafficking case. 120 individuals were convicted in the UK; however, it was reported that Romania “[has] not convicted a single individual.[14] Unfortunately, there are so many complications, from the definition of modern slavery and its complex links to the way different jurisdictions handle the investigating and convicting modern slavery operations. In the UK the passing of the recent MSA can be seen as a way of clearly codifying what modern slavery is. It is the standard with which governments, institutions, and corporate companies should be held accountable to pre-emptively identify and protect victims. Regrettably, the McDonald’s case ‘fell through the cracks’ for lack of better terms, in that the checks and procedures outlined in the MSA did not protect employees from working in enslavement.

On a more international scale, the United Nations formed the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and, Punish Tracking in Persons for governmental and corporal accountability. Article 5 highlights an obligation for each member of the UN To have legislative powers to criminalize such offences.[15]. The protocol expanded on the protection of victims too in Article 6. So, while the numbers in terms of recorded statistics about human trafficking and forced labour can be quite intimidating, there are efforts made by authorities worldwide with the simple intention of ‘suppressing and punishing’ modern slavery.

Effects of Modern Slavery

People go missing, they suffer violence and mental torment. Some victims are even forced to commit crimes.[16] So the consequences evidently contribute to a more mentally and physically unhealthy society. Modern slavery leaves humans with value and rights, degraded, and dehumanised. The expansion of the global criminal population is the other negative effect of modern slavery. People are trafficked, blackmailed, and coerced into committing crimes on behalf of evil masterminds. Thus, there is more pressure put on the legislatures with more criminals to convict and victims to protect.

Conclusion

It is clear with the good attempts, there is still much work to be done. Modern slavery is a complicated phenomenon that is rampantly operating worldwide. The seriousness of the matter involving vulnerable women men and children does not seem to move governments and authorities enough, modern slavery is ‘no longer a priority for the UK Government’ according to Members of the UK Parliament who sit on the Home Affairs Select Committee.[17] The case of the Romanian child slaves with no convicts reflects this attitude. One could infer that there are conflicting ideologies regarding the brevity of this crisis. Forward-thinking efforts have been made and have been effective in the UK and internationally, but general attitudes towards this issue seem callous and indifferent. Modern slavery continues to be a crisis because of the prevalence of its perpetrators as well as some of the sluggish attitudes of authorities towards the issue.

References

BBC News, ‘Q&A: What Is the Current State of the EU’s Migration Crisis?’ (BBC News, 23 December 2019) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50895988 accessed 21 October 2024

Centre for Social Justice, ‘Modern Slavery: No Longer a Priority?’ (Centre for Social Justice, 19 September 2023) https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/newsroom/modern-slavery-no-longer-a-priority accessed 22 October 2024

Coghlan, D., & Wylie, G. (2011). Defining trafficking/denying justice? Forced labour in Ireland and the consequences of trafficking discourse. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(9), 1513-1526.

Elizabeth Such, Claire Laurent, Sarah Salway 'Modern Day Slavery and Public Health' (Gov.UK, 7 December 2017) <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modern-slavery-and-public-health/modern-slavery-and-public-health#authors> accessed 16 October 2024

European Convention on Human Rights, 1950

Gov Uk, 'Frequently Asked Questions on Modern Day Slavery ' (Modern Day Slavery Further Materials, 16 August 2017) <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a821c2ae5274a2e87dc1317/What_is_Modern_Slavery_NCA_v1.pdf> accessed 16 October 2024

Modern Slavery Act, 2015

R v Tang HCA 39, (2008) 237 CLR 1

STOP THE TRAFFIK, ‘Definition and Scale’ (STOP THE TRAFFIK) https://stopthetraffik.org/what-is-human-trafficking/definition-and-scale/ accessed 22 October 2024.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ‘Human Trafficking’ (UNODC, October 2023) <https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/Human-Trafficking.html> accessed 20 October 2024

United Nations, ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Article 5’ (UN General Assembly, 15 November 2000) https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/protocol-prevent-suppress-and-punish-trafficking-persons accessed 22 October 2024.

Vladislava Stoyanova, 'Sweet taste with bitter roots - forced labour and Chowdury v Greece' [2018] (1)) European Human Rights Law Review 67-75

Walk Free, 'Understanding the Scale of Modern Slavery' (Global Slavery Index) <https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/> accessed 16 October 2024

William McLennan, Phil Shepka and Jon Ironmonger 'BBC News' (McDonald’s and supermarkets failed to spot slavery, 30th September) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2kdg84zj4wo> accessed 16 October 2024

[1] Elizabeth Such et. al, 'Modern Day Slavery and Public Health' (Gov.UK, 7 December 2017

[2] Gov.Uk, 'Frequently Asked Questions on Modern Day Slavery ' (Modern Day Slavery Further Materials, 16 August 2017

[3] Global Slavery Index

[4] Modern Slavery Act, 2015

[5] Modern Slavery Act, 2015

[6] William McLennan, Phil Shepka and Jon Ironmonger 'BBC News' (McDonald’s and supermarkets failed to spot slavery, 30th September)

[7] Vladislava Stoyanova, 'Sweet taste with bitter roots - forced labour and Chowdury v Greece' [2018]

[8] Article 4, European Convention on Human Rights

[9] Stoyanova, 'Sweet taste with bitter roots - forced labour and Chowdury v Greece' [2018] p. 69

[10] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ‘Human Trafficking’ (UNODC, October 2023)

[11] STOP THE TRAFFIK, ‘Definition and Scale’ (STOP THE TRAFFIK)

[12] BBC News, ‘Q&A: What Is the Current State of the EU’s Migration Crisis?’ (2019)

[13] Anderson, 2007 in Coghlan, D., & Wylie, G. (2011). Defining trafficking/denying justice? Forced labour in Ireland and the consequences of trafficking discourse

[14] BBC News, ‘Q&A: What Is the Current State of the EU’s Migration Crisis?’ (2019)

[15] United Nations, ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Article 5’ ( 2000)

[16] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ‘Human Trafficking: Crime’ (UNODC)

[17] Centre for Social Justice, ‘Modern Slavery: No Longer a Priority?’ (Centre for Social Justice, 19 September 2023