The Hidden Horror of Modern Slavery

The Slave Trade Is Not Just A Historical Fact But A Current Reality

Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

Here in the West, most of us tend to think of the slave trade as something which was long since abolished. Slavery is something which seems to be seen by modern society as so ubiquitously wrong that it is hard to believe it could be happening on anything but the smallest scale.

Yet, it is estimated that there are currently an estimated 46 million people in the world being held in slavery.

We might think of it as something which happens in third world countries, perhaps where recent history of civil war or domestic unrest have meant a widespread breakdown in Law and Order, but for it to happen on any significantly large scale in Western Europe, for example, or the United States, seems preposterous.

However, even here in the United Kingdom which, thanks to 18th Century abolitionist William Wilberforce, led the world in the movement to end the transatlantic slave trade, slavery is rife, with official figures putting the numbers of UK slaves at 5,000 minimum and probably a lot more.

And the Top 3 countries of origin for the slave-traders’ victims here in the UK? Albania, Vietnam… and the UK itself! That’s right, slave drivers here in the UK commonly prey upon vulnerable…