Yesterday four family members were found guilty of keeping workers in a state of servitude and forcing them to perform unpaid work in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. The men were held in filthy tiny sheds with no heating or running water. Violence and threats were routinely used against them. They were tired, hungry and ill – one man even had scurvy. Another victim had received just £80 for 15 years of work with the family.
The convictions were only made possible thanks to a modern day slavery law that Liberty lobbied hard for. Unbelievably, before April 2010 it wasn’t actually a crime in the UK to hold another person in slavery or servitude. Thanks to the new offence, adopted into English law via the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, that anomaly has finally been addressed.
Liberty’s campaign for the new law began after we represented a young woman called Patience Asuquo back in 2008. She escaped from slavery only to be faced with a police force uninterested in considering her allegations. We used the Human Rights Act to force them to investigate. Patience’s abusive employer was eventually prosecuted – but not for slavery, which still wasn’t an offence at the time.
Her case alone stressed the urgent need for a modern slavery law. So we lobbied hard for a serious new offence – one attracting a maximum jail term of 14 years. In October 2009 an amendment was taken through the House of Lords creating the offence.
All of which makes yesterday’s convictions – some of the first under the new legislation – hugely significant. It’s very encouraging to see the law we worked so hard for being put to such great use. As Anti-Slavery International said, that these physically fit British men were forced to work in such hideous circumstances underlines the reality of modern day slavery and shows just how crucial this new offence is proving.
