“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 construction, hospitality, agriculture, fishing, service industry such as, nail bars and car washes as well as in domestic servitude, sexual and criminal exploitation.
Scotland is fortunate to have robust legislation seeking to tackle the problem of human trafficking. The Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 into legislation. This was followed by the publication of the first Scottish Government Human 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.”
Humza Yousaf MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Scottish Government