Modern Slavery 

This statement sets out guidance on how to identify and respond to a child or young person where there are concerns that they may be a victim or a potential victim of Modern Slavery. The statement should be read in conjunction with our Child Trafficking Policy

A: SCOPE & DEFINITION:

  1. Modern slavery is a form of organised crime in which individuals including children and young people are treated as commodities and exploited for criminal gain. Traffickers and slave drivers’ trick, force and / or persuade children and parents to let them leave their homes. Grooming methods are used to gain the trust of a child and their parents, e.g., the promise of a better life or education, which results in a life of abuse, servitude and inhumane treatment. 
  2. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides for two civil prevention orders – the Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order (STPO), and the Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order (STRO). 

B: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

  1. Child trafficking or child modern slavery is identified as child abuse which requires a child protection response. It is an abuse of human rights, and all children, irrespective of their immigration status, are entitled to protection under the law. 
  2. Children are not considered able to give “informed consent” to their own exploitation (including criminal exploitation), so it is not necessary to consider the means used for the exploitation – whether they were forced, coerced or deceived, i.e. a child’s
    consent to being trafficked is irrelevant and it is not necessary to prove coercion or any other inducement. 
  3. Boys and girls of all ages are affected and can be trafficked into, within (‘internal trafficking’), and out of the UK for many reasons. In all forms of exploitation – e.g., sex trafficking – children can be groomed and sexually abused before being taken
    to other towns and cities where the sexual exploitation continues. Victims are forced into sexual acts for money, food or accommodation. Other forms of slavery involve children who are forced to work, criminally exploited and forced into domestic servitude.
    Victims have been found in brothels or saunas, farms, in factories, nail bars, car washes, hotels and restaurants and commonly are exploited in cannabis cultivation. Criminal exploitation can involve young people as drug carriers, and in begging, pickpocketing,
    debt bondage (forced to work to pay off debts that realistically they will never be able to), organ harvesting, and benefit fraud.
  4. Victims often face more than one type of abuse and slavery, for example they may be sold to another trafficker and then forced into another form of exploitation. Modern Slavery Statement| Moxie Gibson Consultancy, Office 71 Room 11, 1 Empire Mews, London, SW16 2BF Phone: 07494405047 | Email: enquires@moxieconsultancy.co.uk