Thousands of people in the UK are currently living as slaves. That means their freedom has been taken and they are forced to work against their will.
Labour exploitation is most prevalent in the construction, agriculture and car wash sectors. It is the second most common form of modern slavery in the UK after coerced criminality.
The Clewer Initiative is a Church of England project to develop strategies to detect modern slavery in their communities and help provide victim support and care. Their website contains information and resources about spotting the signs of modern slavery and how to report it. They have also developed apps designed to help tackle modern slavery, report suspicions and ask for help.
The are available free from Apple and Google play stores:
Farm Work Welfare App
The app is aimed at modern slavery in the rural and fresh produce supply chain sectors where both businesses and workers can fall victim to traffickers, organised criminals within the community and illegal or unlicensed labour providers.
The Safe Car Wash App
The Safe Car Wash app is designed to be used by someone going to get their car washed. At the hand car wash they can open the app, logging the location of the hand car wash. They will then be taken through a series of indicators of modern slavery; for example are the workers wearing protective clothing, and are there signs that they are living on site? When they finish the questions, the answers are sent to a database which can be accessed by law enforcement investigating modern slavery.
