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Amnesty International is a worldwide voluntary movement of 2.2 million people who campaign for human rights. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. Our vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.

Slavery “The word “slavery” today covers a variety of human rights violations. In addition to traditional slavery and the slave trade, these abuses include the sale of children, child prostitution, child pornography, the exploitation of child labour, the sexual mutilation of female children, the use of children in armed conflicts, debt bondage, the traffic in persons and in the sale of human organs, the exploitation of prostitution, and certain practices under apartheid and colonial regimes”. UN office of the high commissioner for human rights.

This exhibition marks the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK and it is important to remember this context. Between 1450 and 1850 at least 12 million Africans were enslaved as part of the transatlantic slave trade. They were subjected to brutality both in their passage to the colonies and once they began work on the plantations of the Americas and the West Indies. The British played a key role in the transportation and exploitation of men, women and children, and the wealth gleaned from that exploitation has formed the basis of some of our most recognisable financial, academic and cultural institutions and paid for the architecture and wealth of many of our greatest cities and stately homes. Perhaps unwittingly, we continue to enjoy the benefits of the slave trade just as many of the descendants of the enslaved remain trapped by the poverty, inequality, racism and marginalisation that are its legacy.

In 2006, Anti Slavery International produced a report on modern day slavery in the UK entitled “Trafficking for Forced Labour: UK country report” and hauntingly cited the same statistic on the transatlantic slave trade. It is estimated that there are over 12 million men, women and children around the world who are forced to lead lives as slaves. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their “employers” or “owners”.

What types of slavery exist today?
There are a variety of different forms of slavery that exist today. Whether a person is subjected to trafficking, bonded labour, early and forced marriage, forced labour, slavery by descent or the worst forms of child labour, which affects an estimated 126 million children around the world in work that is harmful to their health and welfare.

Trafficking
Human trafficking involves the movement of people through violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of forced labour, exploitation, servitude or slavery-like practices. It is slavery because traffickers use violence, threats, and other forms of coercion to force their victims to work against their will. This includes controlling their freedom of movement, where and when they will work and what pay, if any, they will receive. People are trafficked into a variety of situations. For example, cases have been reported of Vietnamese men trafficked to the UK to work in hotels, West African children trafficked into a range of exploitative work throughout the region and Philippine women trafficked into domestic work.

It is important that the difference between trafficking and people smuggling and illegal immigration is clear. Firstly, trafficking always involves coercion, fraud or deception. In addition, in people smuggling, although the smuggler may extract extortionate sums to transport people in appalling conditions yet on arrival at the destination the people are free to make their own way as best they can. Trafficked victims, on arrival are exchanged for money or profit and/or continue to be held in controlling and abusive conditions to exploit them. Many victims of trafficking are brought legally into the country at least at the outset, it is the conditions in which they are held and exploited that are, or should be, illegal. They may also be held longer than their valid visa so that they become illegal through no fault of their own.

Root causes: Trafficking in human beings is not new. But it is a rapidly growing problem. A number of factors have led to its expansion, such as the demand for cheap labour and cheap products, easy profits made from exploitation; growing deprivation and marginalisation of the poor; discrimination against women; restrictive migration laws; a lack of information about the realities and dangers of trafficking and insufficient penalties against traffickers.

Statistics: Trafficking is a global problem affecting every continent and most countries. It occurs within and across national borders and ranks as one of the most lucrative forms of international crime. The International Labour Organization, in 2005 estimated at least 2.4 million people have been trafficked and that the worldwide traffic in human beings is worth at least US$32 billion. Anti-Slavery International believes that at least 270,000 people have been trafficked into forced labour in industrialised countries. Of these, approximately 43% are trafficked into sexual exploitation, 32% into forced labour and 25% are exploited for a mix of sexual and labour reasons. However, because trafficking is an underground activity, its true extent is not known.

Trafficking International work
AI has worked on the issue of trafficking, slavery and violence against women for a number of years. Over the years, we have produced a number of reports that show the scale of the problem across the world. In a 2000 report on Israel we highlighted the Israeli authorities’ complicity in trafficking and their treatment of trafficked women from Eastern Europe and Russia as criminals and illegal immigrants. What was particularly striking was that in a country with some of the strongest border control regulations in the world it seemed remarkably easy for women to be transported unchallenged across borders.

Israel
STORY in Box: Nina, a 19-year-old from Minsk in Belarus, arrived in Israel in late 1998 on a tourist visa. She knew that she would be working in the sex industry, but had been promised good working conditions. After about three months working in a brothel in Haifa, she was abducted at gunpoint, “sold” for US$1,000, beaten and raped. She escaped and returned to the first brothel in an attempt to earn enough money to pay for her flight back to Belarus. Nina was arrested by the police in a raid on a massage parlour in Tel Aviv in March 1999.
She was imprisoned in Neve Tirza Prison on the basis of a deportation order issued by the Ministry of the Interior. However, even though she had a valid passport and a ticket, she was not deported because the Haifa District Attorney’s Office issued an order prohibiting her from leaving Israel to ensure that she testified in a criminal case being brought against the three men who had abducted and raped her. She was finally deported in June 1999 after having been held in Neve Tirza for more than two months.

Kosovo
In our 2004 report on Kosovo we highlighted the escalation of forced prostitution of girls and women and trafficking in Kosovo following the arrival of peace-keepers in the region.

STORY in Box : “A friend introduced me to a woman, she offered me a job abroad and said she would prepare a passport for me, for free. I asked if the job was sex related and she promised that it was not.”

1. “I was beaten and I was forced to have sexual intercourse… if we were not willing, they just beat us and raped us.”
2. “Even in cold weather I had to wear thin dresses … I was forced by the boss to serve international soldiers and police officers ... I have never had a chance of running away and leaving that miserable life, because I was observed every moment by a woman.”

Japan
Amnesty International also recently reported in 1995 on the demand 60 years on for reparations from women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the Second World War. These women stand as an example to all who are working to defeat trafficking and other forms of modern day slavery.

STORY in Box : Jan Ruff O’Herne, was born and raised in the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia). She was 19 years old when the Japanese invaded Java in March 1942. All Dutch people were taken to prison camps.

When she had been in the camp for two years, in 1944, the Japanese military took her to a “comfort station” where she was repeatedly raped for three months; She suffered in silence for many years but some 50 years later she describes how she was inspired to speak out: “So in my old age, I said ‘now I know!’ I had to be the speaker; it has to be my voice that has to speak up so these things can never happen again. First the Korean women publicly spoke out, I saw them on television. Kim Hak-soon was the first Korean woman to speak out. I realised there was no reason to be ashamed anymore, she had the courage to speak out. I thought that the world might not listen to just a few women but if other women also European women spoke out maybe the world would pay even more attention. I first spoke out in December 1992, I was asked to be a witness at a public hearing on Japanese war crimes. It was the hardest thing I had to do because I had to tell my daughters and grandchildren. After I spoke out I collected a box full of letters from people all around the world. Now I’ve been speaking out for 12 years.

My last trip to Japan was about reconciliation. I sat at a table with an elderly Japanese gentleman who had been a soldier. I asked him whether he had raped any of the so called “comfort women” and he said ‘of course’. At the time he thought it was right because they had been told it was their right and it was given to them. Being given these women that they could rape was the same as being given a packet of cigarettes. He said now he realises the wrong that he did.

Indonesia
Finally this year we reported on Indonesia and exposed the widespread exploitation and violence against child and women domestic workers in Indonesia and lack of state protection and redress for victims.

Trafficking UK work
The following provides a snapshot overview of the extent, variety and abuse involved in trafficking in this country:

Children: In 2004 the End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes UK (ECPAT) organisation found that 32 out of the 33 boroughs in London were concerned that they had a problem with trafficked children. ECPAT UK’s most recent research found that 80 trafficked children had gone missing across three regions in England: the North West, North East and the Midlands. They had been subjected to various forms of exploitation including sexual, domestic servitude, forced marriage, used for benefit fraud and subjected to labour exploitation.

STORY in Box : Maryam was ostracised by her family when she refused to undergo female genital mutilation prior to a likely forced marriage after her twin sister had died of the same procedure in Africa. She was picked up by a child trafficker at age 13 and brought to London where she was locked in a basement and suffered repeated rape as a child prostitute. At 19, possibly being now too ‘old’ for her trafficker’s clients, he provided her with false documents and let her go. She tried to leave the country on those documents and was arrested and convicted. She served a 10-month prison sentence.

Sexual Exploitation: The Home Office has estimated that in 2003, there were 4000 trafficked women in the UK. The majority of these women are from Eastern Europe, West Africa and South East Asia.

STORY in box: “My life was normal before I was trafficked at the age of 15. My friend was offered a summer job in London and I decided to go too. At the airport we were met by some men who handed £3,500 to the guy who’d travelled with me. To my horror, I realised I’d been sold.

I was taken to Birmingham by the man who’d “Bought” me and he raped me and took me to a brothel and said I had to have sex with the customers, I was too terrified to refuse. One of the other girls said “Don’t even think about trying to escape, wherever you run they will find you”. I worked there for several months before I escaped. Clients could see that I was distressed but none of them ever offered to help.”

Domestic and Labour Exploitation: There are no reliable statistics on domestic and labour exploitation. However research by the TUC and Anti-Slavery International has found evidence of labour exploitation in the agricultural, catering, construction, cleaning and domestic work sectors and several women in these sectors have also been subjected to sexual violence and/or sexual exploitation. Astoundingly the UK Government is currently proposing to remove the sole protection domestic workers enjoy against such abuse: the ability to leave their employers.

STORY in box: “I have been living rough in Britain for the last seven years. I know your park benches very well. I live hand to mouth. The trouble began when the Kuwaiti family I was working for suggested I come to England to look after their son and his family. The woman there told me I would sleep on the floor in the utility room. It was stone-cold in winter. I became sick. My eyesight started failing. I think it was from hunger. They wouldn’t let me eat their food. I could cook it. But not eat it. I couldn’t stand the shouting and the hitting. After six months, I crept out. I went to the police, but my English was poor. They couldn’t understand. They told me to go away. After that I had to go to the park to sleep and it’s been like that for most of the time since. A job for one week, one month, whatever. I¹m very wary of men who offer me work. If I was in trouble and had to call the police, they’d arrest me because I am now an illegal immigrant “ Divia, a 28 year old Indian national who was trafficked for domestic servitude into the UK.

AI UK believes that the stories of victims of trafficking and their voices should be heard. They are shocking to anyone who comes across them and we hope will make people take action today.

Campaign success
In our most recent campaign we were one of a number of organisations calling for a convention against trafficking and helped shape and draft the terms of the European Convention on action Against Trafficking. Since then we have been lobbying for the UK to sign, ratify and implement, to the highest standards, the terms of the convention. At the time of writing (May 2007) the UK has signed but not yet ratified or implemented the convention. The importance of this convention is that it is the first international legal instrument that requires the countries that sign it to provide, at least, minimum standards of support and protection to victims of trafficking, offering vital support in the fight against this egregious human rights abuse.

We are particularly concerned that certain legal provisions are particularly at risk of revictimising survivors. So for instance the political and media climate around immigration often leads the authorities to prioritise immigration law over and above the needs of the victim. Trafficked victims often are not identified as trafficked people who have suffered human rights abuses. These abuses can include mental, physical and sexual abuse, false imprisonment, abduction, slave labour, theft. More often they are identified only as people who may be in breach of immigration law sometimes through no fault of their own. We believe that continuing to campaign on this issue will ensure that the UK Government ratifies the treaty and encourages others to do so in order that the obligations listed will come into force across Europe. If implemented to the highest standards, for example allowing for a 3 month reflection period and the granting of 6 month residence permits where required as informed by best practice elsewhere and by the research and expertise of NGOs, this could provide the best support for victims and a practical example for other regions across the globe. Please log on to our website and take action : www.amnesty.org.uk/svaw.

“F. was recruited by a man whom she believed to be her boyfriend and who promised her a job in a neighbouring country. As soon as they were over the border, the ‘boyfriend’ disappeared, and between five and seven men came into the hotel room. They repeatedly subjected her to rape, as well as physical violence and threats, until she no longer offered any resistance. She was then sold for the first time, and then a second time, the sale taking place in her presence. The day before the hearing at which she and members of the network were charged with living off immoral earnings, her lawyer asked her which act of violence or humiliation had marked her the most. F replied, “Being sold as if I were a cow”. AI France report AI Index EUR 21/001/2006

APPENDIX (or box)

Identification
Amnesty International UK (AIUK) recommends that the UK Government should adopt a UK wide system of mandatory procedures for the identification and referral of trafficked persons in line with Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recommendations.

Support and Accommodation
AIUK believes that the UK Government should ensure that all trafficked persons should receive:
•Access to appropriate, safe and secure accommodation with 24 hour help available (which is not conditional on cooperation with law enforcement);
•Support from staff who are trained with working with victims of violence against women, or who are experts in working in child protection;
•Support and services by registered providers who must be screened through a Home Office accredited scheme, must comply with UK wide minimum standards of provision of care for trafficked victims and must be subject to monitoring.
•In addition AIUK urges that there should be a prohibition on the detention of vulnerable people including those suspected of being trafficked or who have been trafficked.

Criminalisation of Trafficked Persons
•AIUK recommends that the Crown Prosecution Service should expand current guidance on non-prosecution for all victims of trafficking in relation to any unlawful entry or residence, ‘documentation offences’ or unlawful activities which are a consequence of their situation as a trafficked person.

Asylum and Immigration Protection
•AIUK calls for the UK Government to provide trafficking victims with a 3 month reflection period in line with the recommendations of the Joint Committee of Human Rights, research and best practice.
•AIUK calls for the UK Government to grant renewable 6-month residence permits which are not linked with cooperation with law enforcement efforts against traffickers, in line with best practice in Italy, where trafficking victims are granted renewable 6-month residence permits instead of reflection periods.