Modern slavery is a very big issue in today’s society, with latest figures showing that around 45 million people worldwide are still victims of this terrible crime. Eight schoolgirls from Merton have decided to take action and become ambassadors for the organisation, Merton Against Trafficking. Human trafficking is the illegal trade of humans for the purpose of slavery. As Anti-Slavery day took place on October 18th, I decided to interview one of the girls to find out more about Modern slavery and the impacts it has on the community around us.
Veronica is fifteen years old and has been an ambassador for the initiative for 5 months. When asked why she decided to sign up to this she stated, ‘I feel like people always assume that bad things, like modern slavery, happen in places far away from them. Yet it is the opposite and when I found that out, I just knew I had to do something’. She describes how she has attended two meetings with the leaders of the initiative where they discussed the next steps to their campaign. Veronica explained how her fellow ambassadors ‘carried out surveys on small restaurants and takeaway shops’, as ‘legislation requires businesses with a turnover of more than 30 million to put out an annual anti-trafficking statement.’ This means that smaller businesses under this threshold get away with not putting a statement out and meaning that slavery in those businesses is more likely. When asked about about the answers she received from the survey she replied with ‘some were very worrying.’ Veronica recalled how ‘some people had absolutely no idea what the survey was talking about’ and some even wrote mocking answers to the questions, such as when the question ‘What is a common sign of a person who has been the victim of human trafficking’ was asked, a shopkeeper answered ‘Probably voted for Labour’. This shows how many people do not know about modern slavery and how close to home this crime is taking place. When asked about the next steps that Veronica and her friends will take she replied ‘ We are currently working on a report put together by the answers of our surveys, that we are hopefully going to publish’ and ‘we are also trying to raise awareness about MAT (Merton Against Trafficking) by writing articles for local magazines about how to spot if someone is at risk of being trafficked’. She ended the interview by describing how the head of this initiative came to talk in her school assembly and from then on she has volunteered to carry out research and write reports/articles for this campaign.
Merton Against Trafficking aims to end the exploitation of people in the Borough of Merton. Currently, this organisation is working towards stopping slavery and trafficking in small businesses who make less than 30 million per year. These young girls are currently working towards improving the lives of exploited people, just because they want to help people and use the privileged position they are in to make some change.
‘I wanted to do something to improve these vulnerable peoples lives and hopefully, through our contribution, they get help.’
