AIBU to think human trafficking only happens in foreign countries and not in this country?

[Acrazybimbo]

I’ve been hearing a lot about trafficking lately and always thought it only happens in foreign countries but rarely if ever in the UK as it’s never been a thing or talked about round here. I know a random thread to start but how in this country do they get away with it in this day and age with technology being how it is?

I’m so sorry to hear some of your stories that’s horrible. I’ve heard of men pretending to be victims boyfriends to traffic them. Even heard of fake friends doing it.

Fuck me.

Have you never heard of a ferry, or the people in small boats, or coming hidden in lorries.

Here’s a handy quiz you can do about human trafficking. https://www.unseenuk.org/human-trafficking-quiz/

It definitely happens here. Traffickers are skilled - if you knew I could hurt your family at home if you annoy me, then I told you to smile and pretend we're friends/cousins/a couple while we travel, you would - so airport security etc can be bypassed relatively easily,

There are a lot of awful stories if you look for them.
This one is the one that sticks with me, because the company is so well known - https://amp.theguardian.com/law/2021/jan/14/three-victims-of-trafficking-and-modern-slavery-to-sue-biffa]

Holbeck. Sanctioned by the local council. They were talking about setting up another similar area. I don't know if they did it.

It's huge in the UK Op.

Sexual exploitation for commercial means is massive. Women are usually smuggled in from abroad and literally taken from hotel to hotel to be exploited. They only usually come up on our radar (entering the NRM pathway and supported to claim asylum) when they are pregnant and no longer of use to their handlers. Most currently are Vietnamese, but there are also Chinese, Albanian and people from various African nations.

I supported a vulnerable woman who was smuggled in this way from China. She became a domestic servant to her traffickers wife who she called her boyfriend.

She was eventually found by authorities, provided with support and she joined a programme to support victims of trafficking. Unfortunately she then began to recruit women from the group who had a history of being exploited back into the trafficking circle. She was arrested for running a brothel shortly after and is currently in prison. The only upside is that her trafficker also was sent down too.

Unfortunately trafficking and exploitation are complex. It often involves people who are not aware of their immigration rights, or are indebted to their traffickers in some way, or whose family are at risk in their home country. These factors makes it near impossible for victims to seek support unassisted.

It's a very serious offence. As part of my job once I worked with a lady who'd been trafficked here for sex work. She wasn't totally duped. She knew that's why she was coming but saw it as her only option. The reality of it was down played to her. I think they made it sound like she'd be "high class" and could pick and choose. Which isnt what happened.

Even while she was doing it she convinced herself she was "ok". It was only after the traffickers were arrested and convicted that the reality seemed to really sink in for her and she realised that actually she had never been OK. There had been threats to her family back home if she didn't comply. I think convincing herself she was doing it willingly was a coping mechanism.

This is why I think even if a sex worker is outwardly giving the impression that they're doing it by choice. The reality is never that simple.

Trafficking is a world wide issue. Some come legitimately into the country but then don’t leave whereas others are smuggled in.

Listen to the To Catch a Scorpion podcast - there is a lot of trafficking in the UK

Op, surely being on Mumsnet you've read about coercive control, and domestic abuse that's in the form of threats, emotional blackmail, gaslighting, etc?
Trafficking often involves similar behaviours, by the perpetrators grooming their victims.

I've worked in homeless shelters where we often had victims of trafficking come to us, and we also had to be on the watch for vulnerable people being targeted by people wanting to exploit them - for men, typically with promises of work with accommodation included, for women, 'relationships' that turn into 'debts owed' and forced into sex work.

Bear in mind people can be trafficked into this country, but also from and around this country.

I know they get them trafficked on boats etc but I’m talking about long distance like from Spain to the us for example. How does that work?

“Chinese nail salons” as people call them … trafficked / modern slavery victims from Vietnam (nobody seems too care)

YABU: it’s a huge problem in the UK.

A charity called Unseen run a modern slavery helpline and we have an anti slavery commissioner as well as a Modern Slavery Act.

Thousands of instances reported last year, including 3 to the Unseen helpline for cases of forced surrogacy.

Trafficking is a huge problem, with forced labour in to the care sector, building and agriculture.

You've also got the "private fostering" where kids are brought over been happening for years.....there are no areas it doesn't happen just many where it's not talked about but that nice big house down the lane might have a young house guest doing the cleaning and you will never see them.

Is it always the younger and more naive people who get trafficked or does older people e.g. in their 30s upwards with families

I’m a nurse and I’ve had patients who we realised were victims of human trafficking when stuff wasn’t adding up. It’s very much hidden in plain sight.

Yes , many are. Come in on a legal passport from any European country, promised a job but told to say a holiday if stopped at immigration, passport immediately taken by the trafficker on arrival. Threatened by personal or family violence, lied to about what will happen if they are discovered.

Probably a bit harder if you are originally from outside the EU, but the stories emerge, remember the Vietnamese people who died suffocated in the back of a lorry? Or the Chinese cockle pickers drowned in the North East a few years ago? All trafficked.

I thought a lot of the people trafficked into the UK came here willingly but on false pretences. So getting into the country wasn’t the problem, but they would then arrive to have passports removed, no pay, being controlled, forced to work etc.

It happens here. Trafficking can happen within a country, smuggling is across borders.

deception and exploitation are key words for trafficking.

It's really easy to get fake/forged passports to enter the UK.
Identity theft is a huge problem, and a massive industry. It's used for criminal activity and trafficking but also people who choose to immigrate here illegally can gain access to fake identities surprisingly easily.

Women from South America and South Asia get shipped over here on a regular basis and forced to work for escort agencies etc. They wouldn't be here if there were no demand for sex workers obviously so that's another issue.

Op we had an absolute explosion of slave labour when the eu barriers first came down.

Men with mental health issues or learning difficulties kept in squalor working for over lords, much of it was Eastern European organised gangs.
Many are lured by these gangs to the UK then when they get here, by bus or however their passports are removed. They are threatened with violence and hidden away.

Thank fully... We've not seen too much in the news in recent years so hopefully we are tackling it. I remember one of those real life police programs may still be on player addressing this issue.
They were after a Romanian who held many girls in many brothels.

I'm not sure why you think technology would make it harder, if anything it's made it easier and worse.

Survivor Stories | Medaille Trust (medaille-trust.org.uk)

https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/nsa-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking#:~:text=Almost%20two%2Dthirds%20of%20British,smaller%20towns%20and%20rural%20areas.

😂😂😂😂 it's not a funny topic at all but you made me laugh out loud there.

@Acrazybimbo the UK is probably one of the worst countries for trafficking going undetected.