What is modern slavery?
Slavery is an umbrella term for activities involved when one person obtains or holds another person in compelled
Someone is in slavery if they are:
- forced to work through mental or physical threat
- owned or controlled by an ’employer’, usually through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse
- dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’
- physically constrained or have restrictions placed on his/her freedom
The following definitions are encompassed within the term ‘modern slavery’ for the purposes of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
These are:
- ‘slavery’ is where ownership is exercised over a person
- ‘servitude’ involves the obligation to provide services imposed by coercion
- ‘forced or compulsory labour’ involves work or service extracted from any person under the menace of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself voluntarily
- ‘human trafficking’ concerns arranging or facilitating the travel of another with a view to exploiting them.
(unseen)