Letters from a refugee

I really like this article on the BBC website about a woman's letters back to her sister in Iran. A pleasant and touching insight

Stop the Traffik

I have blogged previously on the Stop the Traffik campaign and this month sees the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, cause for celebration indeed. But the selling of people into slavery is the 3rd biggest illegal industry and it would appear to have less of the risks involved than producing, processing and distributing drugs has and its appeal as a trade is growing.
The definition of traffiking (found here) is:

“Trafficking in human beings” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

From the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website (an excellent study resource) here are some snippets of info from this latest report on slavery in the UK:

• UK enforcement agencies estimate there may be as many as 10,000 gangmasters operating across the various industrial sectors. Many operate legally but some do not.
• People are then trafficked by agents into forced labour in such areas as agriculture, construction, cleaning and domestic work, food processing and packaging, care/nursing, hospitality and the restaurant trade, as well as into sexual exploitation.
• Complex sub-contracting and supply chains, managed by agents elsewhere, often obscure the involvement of people trapped in slavery
• The UK has tended to address trafficking as an issue of migration control rather than one of human rights and statutory agency personnel are often unsure how to assist trafficked migrant workers and keep few or no records as to their subsequent well-being.
• Research indicates that although the police see trafficked people as victims, the immigration service sees them as illegal entrants.

Scary stuff. Keep informed and spread the news in the build up to Freedom Day, which is March 25th.