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Anti-Slavery Day

Today is Anti-Slavery Day, which falls on 18 October in the United Kingdom. Modern slavery is closely linked to human trafficking and transnational organised crime. Slavery is one of the topics we investigate on our research project, as part of examining representations of human trafficking and slavery in representations from media, true crime and crime fiction. 

 Anti-Slavery Day was created to raise greater awareness of the crime of modern slavery, and to urge government, business and individuals to eliminate it. 


(image from http://www.antislaveryday.com/)

The horrors of modern slavery are put under spotlight at Migrant Help UK exhibition. The exhibition will be on show at London’s Victoria Station on Monday 17 October. It will move to Bristol Temple Meads station on Anti-Slavery Day, Tuesday (18); Birmingham New Street station on Wednesday (19); Liverpool Lime Street station on Thursday (20) and Edinburgh Waverley station on Friday (21).  

Migrant Help UK state that:  “An estimated 13,000 people are being held captive in modern slavery in the UK [...] These people are coerced into forced or bonded labour, domestic servitude, prostitution, forced marriages and even child slavery. They are imprisoned, beaten, violated, threatened, blackmailed and denied their basic human rights on a daily basis.” (Migrant Help UK website)

 The GLA (Gangmasters Licensing Authority)  is a UK Government agency that works in partnership to protect vulnerable and exploited workers.  Read about how to spot the signs of modern slavery in the definitive guide from GLA here. 
Our research project explores representations of transnational human trafficking, including slavery.  The media and news bulletins depict these crimes every day, and there is an increasing awareness in politicians and the wider population of these crimes.  We examine how that awareness is shaped by depictions in the media and in fiction and true crime, thereby contributing to public debates around these matters.










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