(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
We know how to identify exploitation. Now we need to stop it [1]
[]
Date: 2025-05
2025 marks 10 years since the UK’s Modern Slavery Act (MSA) was passed. As someone who was already working in the sector, I saw first hand how Theresa May’s government used the very real horrors of slavery to drum up support for the bill.
By the time of passage, there was significant cross party support and policymakers were asserting that the MSA would lead the world by tackling exploitation through legislation. The strength of commitment to the issue furthermore suggested the act was only the beginning. The MSA was to be the starting point, not the high point, of work to address trafficking in the UK.
The reality turned out to be far different. Neither the MSA nor subsequent legislative or policy changes took serious steps to address the structural causes of slavery, as can be seen in ever increasing National Referral Mechanism identification figures. Nor did the measures in the bill include pathways into decent work. These would have helped avoid re-exploitation and lower rates of ‘lesser’ workplace exploitation, which are key precursors to what the government calls modern slavery.
This is not due to a lack of awareness. The sector has spent a great deal of time, energy and research making decision makers aware of the root causes of exploitation and the need for systemic change. Both have been consistently highlighted, including by those with personal experience of the systems driving exploitation in the UK.
My experience in this sector has made one thing very clear to me: awareness is not enough.
We saw this demonstrated even in the debates over the MSA itself. In the runup to its passage, overseas domestic workers pushed strongly for an amendment that would reinstate the rights that David Cameron’s coalition government had taken away from them in 2012.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/we-know-how-to-identify-exploitation-now-we-need-to-stop-it/
Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/
