Modern Slavery Awareness

As you work through this course, you will discover that slavery can impact on all of us. Men and women are equally susceptible, and it affects every part of society. Slavery is used as a blanket term to also cover servitude, forced labour, compulsory labour and human trafficking amongst others. It is important that we know how to identify and deal with this terrible crime. This course is for everyone, as we are all susceptible to modern slavery or may encounter it in our lives. By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Understand how widespread modern slavery is in the UK
• Identify signs of slavery
• Take appropriate action if you or someone you know may be a victim of slavery

You must pass the assessment at the end of the course to receive your certificate. Slavery might seem like an old-fashioned practice that doesn’t exist anymore. However, men and women are still susceptible to a modern-day version of slavery in our society. But rather than using chains and whips to enslave people, modern slave masters use forced labour, human trafficking, and other forms of exploiting people for financial or personal gain. All aspects of modern slavery are still a crime. Anytime someone forces someone else to work under the threat of personal or financial harm, it is a form of modern slavery. It can also be done through means of deception or fraud as well. Everyone should know about modern slavery and how to spot signs of it in your environment. Risk Safety Services offers a modern slavery awareness course to teach students how modern slavery impacts everybody in our society. Students who take our modern slavery awareness course will learn:

• How common modern slavery has become throughout the United Kingdom
• How to spot the signs of slavery in your work or personal environment
• How to help the victims of slavery once you have identified them

Modern enslaved people are not always strangers. They could be your friends or family members in any part of society. The sad part is slave victims are often too afraid to tell anyone they know out of fear of harm. That is why it’s up to their co-workers and loved ones to understand how to notice slavery in order to stop it. Risk Safety Services operates our modern slavery awareness course online 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. A final assessment will get administered to students at the end of the course. Students who pass the assessment will receive a certificate of completion. Contact us at 01304 793058 or email us at info@risksafetyservices.co.uk to learn how to get started.

Why Learn About Modern Day Slavery?

Modern-day slavery may seem an occurrence that is out of the ordinary in your daily life, however, when you consider the many forms it can take, there is a good chance you have already come across it before. The UN estimates that there are 40 million victims of slavery across the world, with a quarter being children and almost three-quarters being either women or girls. According to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), there were over 10,000 victims in the UK as of 2020. The most common forms of modern slavery in the UK have been found to be labour and criminal exploitation. Forced labour involves people being forced to work or provide service against their will and under the threat of punishment. Criminal exploitation is whereby a person is forced to carry out criminal acts through threats or deception. This can include criminal acts of various types like drug dealing, pic-pocketing, ATM theft, selling counterfeit goods, and more. Other common forms of modern slavery that can occur include:

• Human trafficking – Involves the use of threats or violence to recruit, transport and/or harbour people so they can be exploited for criminal purposes such as prostitution, forced labour, forced marriage, or organ removal.
• Debt bondage – Also referred to as bonded labour, it involves trapping poor and vulnerable people into borrowing money and forcing them to work to pay off the debt. They lose control of their freedom, employment condition, and debt.
• Child exploitation – This is whereby a child is exploited for another person’s gain. The child could be trafficked for purposes of being forced into prostitution, for domestic servitude, to marry, or become a soldier.
• Forced and early marriage – This applies to anyone that is married against their will. Most child marriages are considered modern slavery. While it can happen to a person of any age or gender, the problem is more prevalent amongst young females.
• Domestic servitude – This is a form of labour exploitation whereby victims are forced to undertake domestic duties whilst having their freedoms removed. Many end up working as nannies, housekeepers, maids and carers. They are often subjected to abuse and imprisonment.

Why Awareness of Modern Slavery Matters

As evidenced above, slavery still exists even in the modern-day UK. Despite laws that abolished it in the early 1800s, it is a criminal act that sadly continues to flourish, often right under our noses. Many of the victims are people that live in our communities and whose services or labour we have benefitted from unknowingly. From the unpaid migrants that wash cars to the women forced into sexual acts in massage parlours, the number of ways ordinary people unwittingly come across modern slavery is numerous. Slavery is a human rights violation and it is our obligation as members of society to defend and uphold rights that should be shared and enjoyed by everyone. If we should ignore such violations, we normalise the behaviour and provide an environment where such criminality can thrive. Victims of modern slavery often suffer dehumanisation and other forms of suffering. They not only lack control over their fate, but also lack access to many modern-day benefits that ordinary people take for granted such as education, healthcare, freedom of movement and communication, social protection, and so on. They also rarely enjoy the fruits of their labour as most, if not all earnings are taken from them, ensuring they remain poverty-stricken.