How tiny charity uncovered Britain’s most extreme case of domestic slavery

David Cameron with Aneeta Prem of the Freedom charity

The Guardian, November 22, 2013

The Freedom Charity volunteer staffing the organisation’s 24-hour helpline one day in October would not have been expecting the startling phone call that would lead to the uncovering of what the Metropolitanpolice would call the most extreme case of domestic slavery they have seen.
The tiny charity specialises in going into schools to deliver talks about how to recognise the signs of forced marriage.
It encourages calls to its helpline from predominantly south Asian youngsters worried they are being pushed into marriage against their will, or fearful of becoming the victim of so-called “honour crimes”.
But the volunteer knew exactly how to respond.
Although the story she heard – of three women held captive in a south London house for 30 years – seemed on a scale that was hard to believe, she recognised the telltale signs of fear and coercion.
The women had watched an ITV documentary about forced marriage which featured the work of Freedom Charity.

According to the charity’s chair, Lord Harris of Haringey, that gave the captives the confidence to make the initial contact.
“One of the women saw the programme and clearly thought ‘they look like nice, safe people’ and made the call.”
More calls followed over the next few days as the helpline operators patiently built up a rapport with the nervous women.
When the three of them walked free from the house to the safety of waiting police officers in late October, at the conclusion of an operation planned with “utmost sensitivity and secrecy”, there were cheers at Freedom Charity.
“There were lots of tears and hugging,” said charity founder Aneeta Prem.
Extraordinary as this particular case was, enforced domestic slavery is not unique in the UK, although it is often hard to detect, hidden as it is behind closed doors on ordinary streets in ordinary towns and cities.
Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland’s specialist police unit receives reports of 200 slavery cases a year. “We’ve dealt with cases, and convicted people, who’ve kept children in houses in similar circumstances – it’s something we would bring to the attention of communities that it does happen,” he said.
Katie Barker, UK community action coordinator at the charity Stop the Traffik, says that trafficking is one of world’s fastest growing crimes, and more common in the UK than people may think.
“It’s always shocking. But,” she added “we were not necessarily surprised” as reports of the story of the three women emerged. “We know that this goes on.”
This case involved three women: one British and aged 30, thought to have been held at the house in Lambeth all her life; a 57-year old from Ireland; and a 69-year-old from Malaysia.
“Anyone can be trafficked,” says Barker. “It does not matter where you are from or what your background is.
“It’s about vulnerability: coercion is a major part of trafficking. If people can be exploited, then someone will exploit them.” The Walk Free Foundation estimates there are between 4,300 and 4,600 slaves in the UK.
In the three months since April there were 383 referrals to the Home Office trafficking database, comprising individuals from 51 countries of origin.
Experts warn that as the referral mechanism is dependent on self-reporting, the figure may be higher.
The most common “exploitation types” for both adults and minors found to have been trafficked were domestic servitude and labour exploitation, although significant numbers of referrals involved trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
A series of recent court cases have shed some light on the phenomenon. In one of the most high profile examples, in July last year, four members of a family, described by police as “an organised criminal group”, were found guilty at Luton crown court of forcing destitute men into servitude.
Tommy Sr, James-John, Patrick and Josie Connors were convicted of controlling, exploiting, verbally abusing and beating the men for financial gain and face a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Many of the victims were homeless and addicted to alcohol or drugs. They had been recruited in soup kitchens and outside dole offices and promised cash payments for manual labour.
Once in the family’s grip they were forced to work up to 19 hours a day for no pay while being routinely abused, underfed and housed in filthy sheds and horse boxes.
A pre-dawn raid in September freed 23 men from the Greenacres caravan site at Little Billington near Leighton Buzzard. Convictions followed under section 71 of the 2009 Coroners and Justice Act, which outlaws slavery and servitude.
A report this year by the Centre for Social Justice thinktank, entitled It Happens Here, warned that despite William Wilberforce’s abolition campaign over 200 years ago, there are still slaves in Britain.
Many cases, it said, do not involve international trafficking: “Increasingly we are seeing that UK nationals are also forced into modern slavery, without crossing any international border.”