A story of modern slavery in the UK

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ayo is a victim of trafficking and modern slavery and tells us his story of being taken from Nigeria to the UK and forced to work.

We also hear from Emily Kenway, a former policy adviser to the UK’s first anti-slavery commissioner and author of The Truth About Modern Slavery, who explains what modern slavery actually is.

Sara Thornton, who was the UK’s independent anti-slavery commissioner until April 2022, explains some of the reasons behind an increase in the number of people being recognised as victims of modern slavery in the UK.

We also explore some incoming changes to the UK’s world-leading anti-slavery legislation, changes that Kate Roberts, head of policy at the London-based anti-trafficking charity Focus on Labour Exploitation, tells us she is very concerned about.

Producer/presenter: Frey Lindsay

(Photo: Child behind wooden crate. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, Namulanta Combo here and I'm excited to tell you that my award-winning podcast, Dear Daughter, is back for a second season and it's available now.
0:11.3	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:17.8	Hello and welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service. I'm Frey Lindsay.
0:23.4	Coming into the UK, it wasn't like I have any choice to say I'm not coming.
0:28.7	This is Ayo. That's not his real name and I'll be leaving out many details of his story today
0:34.4	because he's a victim of trafficking and modern slavery. And that's the subject
0:39.5	of today's Business Daily. We're going to dig into some of the reasons behind an increase in the
0:45.0	number of people being recognised as victims of modern slavery in the UK. And we'll look at some
0:49.9	incoming changes to the UK's world leadingleading anti-slavery legislation.
0:54.6	Changes that have some observers worried vulnerable people won't get the protection that they need.
1:03.1	Before we go any further, though, let's be clear what we mean by modern slavery.
1:08.6	Yeah, we're talking about severely exploitative circumstances. Emily Kenway is
1:13.7	former policy advisor to the UK's first anti-slavery commissioner, and she's the author of the book
1:18.9	The Truth About Modern Slavery. Usually that exploitation is happening for the benefit of someone
1:23.6	else, and people may or may not have been deceived into that situation but there is a
1:29.5	factor once they're in it that makes it hard for them to leave it and that could be physical
1:33.5	entrapment it could be threats it could be things like having ID documents or bank cards confiscated
1:39.3	you'll recognize a lot of what emily just described in a.O's story He spent his early childhood in Nigeria and he never knew his parents. After his grandmother died when he was around 12, he was out on the streets, taking care of himself. He scraped a meager living by hawking, that's selling small items on the street. And after he'd been living on the streets for some years, some older men came along, acting like they wanted to take him under their wing.
2:03.2	He didn't know these people before, but over time they gained his trust
2:06.5	by promising him a better life and that they would take him to the UK.
2:10.7	They explain a lot of opportunities that whenever you get there,
2:14.1	you can go to university, you can study and everything like that.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.