North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has tabled a Statement of Opinion in the Senedd to coincide with Anti-slavery Week, recognising the estimated 136,000 people across the UK who are experiencing modern slavery and welcoming ground-breaking initiatives aimed at tackling the problem.
It reads -
“This Senedd:
1. Notes anti-slavery week, 17 – 21 October, and UK anti-slavery day 18 October, to raise awareness of people trapped in conditions of modern slavery.
2. Recognises that over 40 million people in the world today, and an estimated 136,000 people across the UK, are experiencing modern slavery.
3. Welcomes new ground-breaking initiatives, such as British Standard on Modern Slavery BS25700, the world's first that aims to understand and manage the risk in organisations in Wales and across the UK.
4. Encourages the Welsh Government to help raise awareness of the standard and publicise its free availability to all Welsh business and organisations.”
Mr Isherwood said:
“The Centre for Social Justice and anti-slavery charity Justice and Care 2020 report, ‘It Still Happens Here: Fighting UK Slavery in the 2020s’, found that many thousands of children, women and men of all nationalities and backgrounds - including a growing number of British citizens - continue to be trafficked and exploited for profit by ruthless criminal networks; that our understanding of slavery and how to fight it must improve on the frontline if we are to tackle it; that a ‘local lottery’ exists when it comes to prioritising the anti-slavery fight across public authorities, and that Human traffickers and Organised Crime Groups are running riot in too many communities, with very few facing prosecution relative to the number of victims found and even fewer convicted.”
Speaking at the launch of the Conwy Citizens Advice ‘Tackling Modern Slavery in Ever Changing Times’ project in March last year, Mr. Isherwood stated:
“In October 2018 I attended the North Wales Modern Slavery Forum, ahead of Modern Slavery Week that year, and Antislavery Day across the UK, organised by the third sector organisation, ‘Haven of Light’, for survivors of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in North Wales. Their Director, Ali Ussery, is working with Conwy Citizen’s Advice Chief Executive, Gwyneth Millington and Team, as their Modern Slavery Lead.
“At this event, we heard that alongside victims being trafficked into the UK, the biggest affected population in the UK are actually people born in Britain who are being trafficked by Britons.
“We also heard that Modern Slavery was alive in business, agriculture, hospitality, criminal activity and sexual exploitation across North Wales, in rural communities, towns and every single county.”
Mr. Isherwood added:
“Sadly, Modern Slavery is a reality in our country and in order to tackle this crime, we need partnerships between the statutory agencies and the third sector, protecting the vulnerable, educating all members of the community, supporting survivors and working towards making Wales a safer place, where criminals are not able to exploit others.”
ENDS