Contemporary slavery in the UK: Overview and key issues
| Author | Martin Evans |
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505070540030803 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Finally the review examines the issue of motives for drug use and suggests these
are as important as the risk and resilience factors in determining drug use and
that understanding the context of drug use contributes to knowledge about how
risk and resilience factors impact on experimental and sustained drug use. There-
fore, this review offers a positive focus for further study in exploring combined
predictive factors together with increased understanding of motives for drug use
and for practice in terms of the value of working with drug users on the factors
that can impact positively in promoting resilience.
Predictive Factors for Illicit Drug Use among Young People: A Literature Review
by Martin Frisher, Ilana Crome, John Macleod, Roger Bloor and Matthew
Hickman. Home Office Online Report 05/07. Download free from: http://www.
homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/rdsolr0507.pdf
Jonquil Ifans
Senior Lecturer in Social Work, NEWI
Contemporary slavery in the UK: Overview and key
issues
Reviewing this report during the weekend of remembrance and commemoration
of the bicentenary of the 1807 legislation abolishing the slave trade emphasized
the extent of the continuing exploitation of human beings and how much still needs
to be done. Over the same weekend a Home Office report (2007) on trafficking
notes that ‘organised immigration crime, including human trafficking, has been
factored into the strategic planning for the Olympics 2012’ (p. 33), and The
Sunday Times carried a story headlined ‘£3 a day “serfs” die for Dubai’s dream’
and contained accounts of exploitation, low wages, indebtedness and suicide
amongst workers recruited from the Indian sub-continent (Smith, 2007).
This report reminds us that slavery did not end with Wilberforce’s Act of 1807
– its shape and configuration may have altered but it is alive and thriving two
centuries later. The report commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to
‘review the nature and extent of slavery in contemporary Britain as a contribution
to the debate about slavery and the conditions under which it is still possible for
it to happen’ (p. 10) is short (79 pages) and succinct. It is ambitious in scope and
makes telling use of a number of case studies to illustrate the extent of human
exploitation in the UK. It provides a sobering account of human exploitation in the
UK, and is a valuable addition to our knowledge of the subject. Between a brief
scene-setting introduction and its conclusions and recommendations, the report
focuses on five distinct but inter-related themes.
The first theme examines The Scope of Modern Slavery – Definitions and Numbers
and acknowledges that the ambiguities around the definitions and characteristics
of contemporary slavery complicate the task of identification. For example ‘Very
often trafficked people do not see themselves as victims of trafficking; rather they
simply see themselves as people who have no other option but to do what is
demanded of them’ (p. 17). The Report identifies the most significant forms of
279
Research & reports
To continue reading
Request your trial