“Slavery is what slavery’s always been: About one person controlling another person using violence and then exploiting them economically, paying them nothing.
That’s what slavery’s about.”
Professor Kevin Bales, Slavery Expert
Modern slavery is much closer to home than most people realise
Human trafficking is a hidden crime reducing people to commodities for financial gain. Despite it being illegal worldwide, it can be found in almost every country of the world. Contrary to what most of us think, in addition to people being trafficked from other countries, there are increasing numbers of UK citizens being trafficked all across Scotland. Most commonly, people are held in forced labour in areas such as domestic service, agriculture, fishing, nail bars and car washes as well as in sexual exploitation and forced marriage.
Scotland is fortunate to have robust legislation seeking to tackle the problem of human trafficking. The Scottish Government followed the passing of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 with the development of their first Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy in 2017.
“It is completely unacceptable these crimes are taking place in modern Scotland and we are determined to do all we can to support victims and target perpetrators.”