Modern day slavery

Reported cases of “modern-day slavery” are becoming increasingly common, according to the police and homeless charities.

Thames Reach, which works with homeless people in London, said that so far this year, it was aware of at least 37 incidents involving vulnerable people who had been forced to work for little or no pay and even made to break the law.

The exploitation involves trafficking people into the UK but also targeting homeless people on the streets.

Mick Clarke of the Passage Day Centre in London’s Victoria, which helps homeless people, said its clients were regularly targeted both at the centre and at soup runs.

“They said they’d provide them with accommodation and money and when we challenged them, they sped off. It struck me how brazen they are in targeting the vulnerable,” he said.

Clarke said the gangs were benefiting from a “perfect storm” because the economic downturn meant people were ripe for exploitation.

“It’s linked to the economy – people are more and more desperate,” Clarke said. “And there is real diversity in the backgrounds of people who are doing this — there are builders, people in suits, people from all ethnicities.”

www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/sep/30/slavery-homeless-trafficking-gangs