Last October Caritas Salford inspired and organised the In Plain Sight conference to develop a Catholic partnership to combat human trafficking and modern day slavery. The conference concluded with the words of Cardinal Vincent Nichols. He said that the conference opened the door to the next phase and called for a non-competitive, deeply respectful and shared vision around which we can build effective partnerships, apply the perspectives of faith and Catholic Social Teaching and be more strategic.
Caritas Anti-Trafficking continue to play a key part in developing the partnership strategy and Mark Wiggin, as Director, represented Caritas Salford at the next stage. On 20 February 2020 representatives from the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Santa Marta Group, Religious Orders, Dioceses, service providers and support agencies attended a further meeting in London.
Luke de Pulford of the Arise Foundation presented a Declaration of Values and Intent building on his experience of partnership building in India. There was a unanimous agreement for the need to collaborate in partnership and strong support for Luke’s draft Declaration as the basis for future cooperation. The document now moves to a wider consultation phase.
There was also agreement for:
- A National Coordinator for Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery focussed on coordinating improvements in awareness raising, advocacy and victim support
- Development of a national strategy with aims, objectives and clear targets, encouraging awareness raising and education, linked to local partnership-based responses
- Awareness raising in parishes and schools to be increased considerably
- A platform for resources which organisations and groups could use for storage of resources for others to access and freely use and adapt
- Engagement of the theological community in producing catholic social thought commentary and reflections on this work
- The full account of the Church’s work to be collated, appraised and made known as the basis for future action
Caritas Salford Anti-Trafficking has started down this road and is sharing ideas and resources with the archdioceses of Birmingham, Liverpool and Westminster. A key priority for us is the development of education in schools to raise awareness on the nature of human trafficking and modern day slavery and how pupils can play their part in recognising the signs. In addition, the number of potential victims of human trafficking logged by the National Referral Mechanism has increased substantially due, at least in part, to the recognition that many vulnerable young people involved in County Lines are victims of Child Criminal Exploitation. This raises a serious safeguarding issue. School children as young as seven have been identified and there can be little doubt that there will be County Lines victims in our diocesan schools. Caritas Anti-Trafficking is exploring existing County Lines advice to schools via local authority children’s safeguarding boards and the Greater Manchester Police Challenger Project with a view to working in partnership with them.
Covid-19 is likely to impact on those industries that employ low skilled workers resulting perhaps in an increase in labour exploitation and the need to look more carefully at modern day slavery in supply chains. Catholic dioceses do not currently need to have the modern slavery statement which currently only applies to organisations with a turnover of over £36m. However it is almost inevitable that there will be slavery in companies contracted by dioceses and Caritas Salford is exploring the idea of having a statement for the charity and for the Diocese as a whole to demonstrate commitment to fighting modern slavery.
Another issue where there is increasing awareness and exacerbate by Covid-19 is homelessness and homeless people being picked up by traffickers on the streets or within homelessness providers. Working with Lancashire Police and Greater Manchester Police Caritas Salford has produced a draft document for homelessness organisations to assess their services for awareness and action.
Anthony Brown works with Caritas Salford Anti Trafficking.
What do you think?
You can post as a subscriber user ...
User comments (0)