CSAN, together with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales (CBCEW) and St Mary’s University, Twickenham, hosted a webinar during Anti-Slavery Week 2024 to discuss the realities of modern slavery and how it impacts our communities. This year, Anti-Slavery week ran from 14-20 October, with Anti-Slavery day marked on 18th October.
Experts estimate that more people are trapped in slavery today than at any point in history. Slavery impacts men, women and children of all ages and backgrounds. Its presence and impact in our communities is often overlooked, but Government statistics note that UK nationals account for 25% of potential victims.
In this webinar we heard from three expert speakers to discuss the prevalence of slavery in our communities across the UK and what we can do to help raise awareness and support the work of those supporting survivors.
We first heard from Father Mark Odion, Missionary Society of St Paul and the liaison officer on the Nigerian Anti-Trafficking Project at the CBCEW. Fr Mark discussed the importance of raising awareness of human trafficking and modern slavery in our communities and you can view the recording below:
Our second speaker was Carole Murphy, a Professor of Sociology and Applied Research at St Mary’s University and Director of the Bakhita Centre for Research on Slavery, Exploitation, and Abuse. Carole spoke about British victims of slavery and exploitation, her work with survivors and the findings therein of missed opportunities to prevent, identify and protect. You can view a recording of her presentation below:
Our third speaker was Ben Ryan, Deputy CEO at Medaille Trust, a CSAN member and one of the leading anti-slavery charities in the UK. Ben talked about Medaille Trust’s work supporting survivors and you can view a recording of his presentation below:
You can learn more about Medaille Trust and its work supporting survivors on their site.
Earlier this year, we also published a worksheet on Human Trafficking & Modern Slavery (HTMS) as part of our Do Justice campaign: https://dojustice.co.uk/resources/downloads/
You can also download the worksheet below:
