17 Oct Victims of modern slavery referred from East of England more than doubles in a year
101 people from the East of England have been identified as victims of modern slavery and referred into The Salvation Army’s specialist support service over the past year, a report released today has revealed. It comes ahead of Anti-Slavery Day (18 October), which aims to raise awareness of modern slavery and the victims of this appalling crime.
The number of people referred from the East of England increased by 130 per cent compared to the same period a year ago, when 44 people were referred
The report outlines key data gathered during the seventh year of The Salvation Army’s government contract through which it has managed the delivery of specialist support services to all adult victims of modern slavery in England and Wales since July 2011.
Across England and Wales, a total of 1,856 people were referred into the service – an increase of 19 per cent compared with the same period a year ago – taking the total number of victims supported by the church and charity this year to 3,354.
The majority of victims were female with 1064 referred; 790 were males and two identified as transgender. The highest number of women were trafficked from Albania (308) and Nigeria (111), and the highest number of men were trafficked from Vietnam (130) followed by Romania (123) where there was a 173 per cent increase on the previous year.
45 per cent of victims were trafficked for labour exploitation, 42 per cent for sexual exploitation, and 14 per cent for domestic servitude.
The number of British adult victims nearly doubled in the past year with 86 referred between July 2017 and June 2018, up from 44 the year before – an increase of 95 per cent. Three victims referred from the East of England were British.
