Modern Slavery: What we’re doing to stop it
Monday 14th of October 2024Anti-Slavery Day is celebrated on October 18th each year as part of Anti-Slavery Week. Its purpose is to raise awareness of modern slavery, human trafficking, and exploitation.
Modern slavery is a crime which is a growing problem for all care providers, with around 800 potential victims identified in the sector last year.
“The issue with care workers experiencing exploitation is that very vulnerable people are being employed to care for very vulnerable people”
Justine Carter, Director, Unseen
Modern slavery often involves people being forced into taking jobs by criminal networks, who then take some or all their earnings for themselves.
But it can take various forms.
Group Director of People, Caroline Neal, describes how Avenues has been protecting people from the crimes, and what people can do wherever they work:
“Avenues has always put people first, both the people we support and employees, and we are determined to defend our community against the criminals behind modern slavery.
“It has multiple victims. Of course, there are the enslaved victims of the gangs who may find themselves working with us. But the teams around them are affected, and of course the people we support are put at risk through the potential consequences.
“We are committed to protecting the Avenues community from the gangmasters.
“We have a number of organisational measures and indicators in place to identify instances of modern slavery. We will never be complacent though and are constantly looking for additional safeguards.
“Through our new partnership with Unseen, a charity which works with the survivors of modern slavery, we will further improve how we protect Avenues from the criminals.
“But everyone in our communities has a part to play, by understanding how modern slavery works, what the signs are, and how to report concerns.”
Find out more about modern slavery at the Unseen website, or by watching the video below: