Recent events in the media have highlighted the story of Sir Mo Farah being brought to the UK illegally as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant, rescued by his PE Teacher noticing his needs.
As a large organization WeST is required by the Modern Slavery Act to produce an annual statement; but more than that—it’s a real opportunity to protect our community and is aligned to the ethical core values of the Trust.
What is Modern Slavery?
Modern Slavery is the illegal exploitation of people for personal or commercial gain. Modern Slavery can take many forms including the trafficking of people, forced labour, servitude and slavery.
Modern slavery is an international crime, affecting millions of people around the world. The anti-slavery charity evidences that in the UK the number of people identified as victims of modern slavery has been rising year on year, with over 10,000 people referred to authorities in 2019. Slavery’s hidden nature means actual numbers are likely to be much higher.
Are there different forms of Modern Slavery?
The term Modern Slavery captures a whole range of types of exploitation, many of which occur together. These include but are not limited to; sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced labour, criminal exploitation, and other forms of exploitation.
What is WeST doing?
For several years WeST has published a statement to promote the Trust’s continued commitment and steps towards this issue. Please take moment to review the statement and consider the impact in daily operations you are involved in.
More information and resources are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/modern-slavery