First time the UK has recognised that a woman who was abused in a victim of modern slavery

[IwantToRetire]

The Home Office has for the first time formally acknowledged that a woman who was abused by Mohamed Al Fayed was a victim of modern slavery, the BBC understands.

Where an individual receives what's known as a positive "conclusive grounds" decision, they are considered to be a confirmed victim of modern slavery. Legal experts say such a decision lends credibility to witnesses in a criminal court and may have an impact on the way police investigate a case.

The Modern Slavery Act, which came into force in 2015, defines human trafficking as arranging or facilitating the travel of another person within a country or across borders for the purposes of that person being exploited.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g0qer941jo

Wow! Just read a bit more about what he did that constitutes trafficking. I had no idea he was THAT bad. Thanks and good wishes to the women who've had the courage to describe what they went through.

I hope this leads to further action against his co-conspirators and enablers, as they've asked.

Yes the scale of this is just appalling. And he got away with it all, living a long and happy life into his nineties 😢 God, I just hope they learn something from this and ensure it doesn’t happen again. Those poor women.

I'm prepared to be wrong but if

The Modern Slavery Act, which came into force in 2015, defines human trafficking as arranging or facilitating the travel of another person within a country or across borders for the purposes of that person being exploited.

surely it applies to the female children and young women who were caught up in the rape gangs?

Appalling that old bastard and his brother never faced charges or spent a second behind bars.

Good point about the rape gangs @lcakethereforeIam

Traditionally, and still, women and girls are tacitly understood to be not quite human, and of no importance. Therefore, 'slavery' was what happened to men.

So, of course, is 'torture': Some Canadian nurses tried to point out that using the term only in the context of soldiers in wartime was missing the point:
In wartime, civilian women and children are usually the greatest number who are physically attacked and deliberately harmed by some of the enemies.

True. But then, the same goes in peace-time, and in every country. The threat to women and children are some of the men, everywhere.

Because this is Mumsnet, it may not be obvious that not only women, but other groups, too, are tacitly understood to be not quite human, and of no importance:
Age, and disability, can and will put humans at risk of being transported "within a country, for the purposes of that person being exploited".

Relatives, 'care' organisations, 'homes', and 'romance fraudsters' will extract the maximum money, frequently requiring a change of abode to facilitate it.

Predators will of course also use any opportunity to take advantage of prey:
Repeatedly, rapists and sadists are discovered to be exploiting the incarceration of disabled and/or old people to rape and assault them. e.g. the recent case of a man who had imprisoned his eighty year old mother, for the purpose of daily rape.

Yes this came up on earlier threads. So this is why this acceptence by the UK is so important.

But the difference here is that most talk about trafficking.

Modern slavery is a far wider and more important definition as it recognises that unlike someone being trafficked, which could be a single journer, modern slavery is about people being held, or coersed into being in the power of someone else.

Just like so many young women recruited from eastern Europe thinking they going to take up some respecatable job in the UK (and no doubt other European countries) on arrival have their passports taken away and "enslaved" into being kept in a place controlled by the Modern Slave traffickers.

It seems that the Harrods pathway was slightly different. Accepting and starting an ordinary job and gradually over a period of time being coerced into a position where they no longer had any control of their lives and were told where they should go etc..

It is just shameful that many of these women, as in the case of Epstein told the police etc., of this type of exploitation for years and years, decades. And somehow no one thought it a crime.

It is disgusting and a shame on all those who ignored or looked the other way when it was (and probably still is) going on.

I wonder if any of these women who have continued to battle against the indifferent authorities and the media will one day for instance be awarded an "Honour" instead of some jobs worth civil servanct who gets an "Honour" just because they did the same job for 20 years of something.

Edited to add this link https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a821c2ae5274a2e87dc1317/What_is_Modern_Slavery_NCA_v1.pdf

It has been acknowledged that the victims of rape gangs were/are trafficked - taken to other places to be used by other men. Applying the legal definition clarifies this aspect of the crimes, which should make prosecution more straightforward.

Agree with @logiccalls that women, children, old and disabled people are often understood to be not quite human but more as resources for exploitation.

As I said upthread, trafficking is only part of Modern Slavery.

This is why this ruling is so significant.

As it recognises the control aspect of the modern Slaver / Slave Master.

There is a caveat about officials who are gullible, easily tricked, "useful idiots": Many rapists suddenly notice they have become 'trans', while in the police van, in order to ask for a sentence in a women's prison. In the same way, plenty of experienced criminals and experienced "sex-workers" declare they came into the country because they thought they were being offered jobs as cleaners or shop workers. They work at their old trades for as long as possible, as agreed, but if there is a police raid, on the massage parloour or cannabis farm, they will suddenly notice they need to claim they had been 'trafficked', and lied to.