ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now the you may be surprised to know that the number of people being used as slaves in the UK is increasing and charities have warned that the true extent of so-called Modern Day Slavery could be ten times worse than official figures suggest.  That follows a Sky News investigation which found out that more than 300 cases of slavery have being examined by police in the last three years.  The government has appointed a Minister for Modern Day Slavery, Karen Bradley and she joins me now from Leek in Staffordshire, a very good morning to you, Ms Bradley.  Does the government have an estimate of how many modern day slaves there are being held in the UK?

KAREN BRADLEY: Well we have the figures that are available through the National Referral Mechanism for those people that are identified as victims of human trafficking but we do believe that that is an underestimate, that there are far more people out there and we are absolutely determined to find those victims. 

DM: And of course it takes many forms.  Modern day slavery doesn’t have the chains and plantations anymore, it can be very hard to detect. 

KAREN BRADLEY: Absolutely and your report demonstrates just how difficult it is to find the victims and to identify them and to catch the perpetrators and I want to thank Sky News for bringing this report forward because it helps us in our aim as a government to raise awareness of this crime, to help find more of those victims. 

DM: Just give us a sense of who is doing it and why, how do they profit from it? 

KAREN BRADLEY: It is a wide range, it tends to be organised criminals but it is a wide range of people and it can be sexual exploitation, it can be people working in nail bars, working as labourers, on agricultural farms, it can be labour in restaurants and cafés, it can be all over the place and it is happening on our doorsteps.  .

DM: What are the means of captivity?  How do they hold on to them, how do they stop them running away, talking to the authorities or whatever?  

KAREN BRADLEY: It is unbelievable the lengths to which the slave drivers will go to to keep the victims captive and to keep them for their own profits and their own purposes.  The stories I have heard, there is no one theme running through it except there are very, very vulnerable people who are owned and controlled by other people for the purposes of profit and that that is completely wrong.  The one thing, the message to anybody who is a slave driver today is that that this government is absolutely committed, if you are involved in this hideous and disgusting trade in human beings we will find you, we will prosecute you and we will lock you up.

DM: Well you have got to send that message to the police as well, are you satisfied that all police forces in the United Kingdom have this high up there agenda?

KAREN BRADLEY: Well that’s something we’re working towards.  We have a dedicated Modern Slavery Unit within the National Crime Agency, we’re working with all police forces at all levels to make sure there is appropriate training for officers to identify the signs and we have also set up an international policing organisation, the Santa Marta Group, which is led by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, and that is to help co-ordinate the international fight against modern slavery because this is not something we can tackle on our own in the UK.

DM: Exactly but in terms of seeking out the perpetrators, I guess one of the best ways of catching them is those that are being held coming forward.  Isn’t one of the restraints on them coming forward, is that many of them may well be illegal immigrants and they feel that if they do come forward they will be deported.  

KAREN BRADLEY: That is something we’re looking at as part of the Bill because you are absolutely right, anybody who has come into the country illegally will be unwilling to come forward and name the slave driver because they are fearful of what might happen to them and I want to reinforce that these people are the most vulnerable people in society.  They would not be in the position they are in if there were not incredibly vulnerable and I want to thank all the charities, Hope for Justice and others, for the work that they do, the incredible work that they do, the incredible work that they do to bring people from having escaped from a slave driver to the point where they can actually give evidence and testify because if we don’t catch those slave drivers we won’t be able to stamp out this crime.

DM: So are you offering them a guarantee that wherever they come from, if they come forward and prove that they have been held as some form of modern day slave, they can stay in the United Kingdom?  

KAREN BRADLEY: What we do is what’s right for the victim, it’s what is appropriate for them given their circumstances.  Some of these victims are UK nationals, they are people who have been trafficked within the UK and I think that it is absolutely vital that  what we do is get this right for them and make sure we help all those victims as is appropriate for them.  

DM: What about those who aren’t EU nationals, who don’t necessarily have a right to stay in the United Kingdom but because of their circumstances would they have an exemption from being deported?  

KAREN BRADLEY: They go through the normal asylum process but the victims I’ve met, it would seem quite clear that they are clearly escaping from persecution in their own country which is why they have taken the step to come to the UK.  They come here knowing that they are coming into the UK illegally but think they are escaping from something worse at home, it actually turns out they’re not, when they get here their situation is far worse.  

DM: Okay, Karen Bradley, very good to talk to you, thank you very much indeed, that’s the Minister for Modern Day Slavery.