The invisible handcuffs: Why didn’t you just walk out?
Neighbours were surprised that three women living with a couple in a quiet street are being investigated as victims in a “staggering case” of slavery. They often saw the women outside, they said.
It was hard to reconcile that with the Met’s original statement that the women had been “deeply traumatised” and in the case of the youngest woman, apparently held in captivity for her entire life.
Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland, from the Met’s Human Trafficking Unit said this week: “Our unit deals with many cases every year but has never unearthed such a staggering example of people held against their will for their whole lifetime.”
Very limited information about this particular case is available said Aneta Prem, the CEO of Freedom, the charity that launched this operation after one of the women phoned them up, but she stressed that people don’t have to be chained up to be enslaved. Ms Prem had this to say in a C4 interview:
“I think basically that a controlled freedom would mean that there are part freedoms, but a lot of it can be psychological and a lot of it can be physical as well,” she said.
She also said that the alleged victims – who are thought to have suffered physical and mental harm – were “absolutely terrified” of the two people who have been arrested.
Psychological locks
Psychology can be as effective as locks in keeping people inside. Understanding this is important in reforming our idea of slavery in modern Britain – allowing it to be tackled, according to the key agencies working in the area.
“Control of the mind is more effective than a pair of handcuffs,” Nick Kinsella, founder and former head of the UK Human Trafficking Centre said.
Control of the mind is more effective than a pair of handcuffs, Nick Kinsella
Other forms of coercion can be economic – but even then the psychological component can still be significant. Confiscating passports or demanding labour for unpayable debts, are also forms of coercion, says 2006 research by Anti Slavery International, but yet the majority of slaves in the EU are legally allowed to be in the country, said director Aidan McQuade.
“Research conducted by Anti-Slavery International in 2006 indicated that across the EU the majority of those who are trafficked for labour exploitation enter the country legally. Traffickers then make their status irregular as a further means, along with threat of violence, debt and restriction of movement, to control their victims.”
The notion that constant physical restraint is the only form of slavery was cited as a key misperception about the problem in 2013 report into slavery in the UK ‘It Happens Here’ by the Centre for Social Justice.
The misperception that victims need to be locked up at all times, means that many cases of forced labour and trafficking are missed. The Centre for Social Justice cited one 2012 case where a defence lawyer questioned how a Romanian man could have been enslaved when he was allowed to go into shops by himself.
“During a trial observed by the CSJ, three individuals were charged with trafficking a man from Romania to the UK and forcing him into work and criminality. During the trial a frequent question from the defence was ‘Why didn’t you just walk away?’. The focus was largely on whether physical restraints were exerted upon the individual, and the defence cited a number of instances where the victim had walked to the local shop and returned to the house.
“Understanding the more subtle psychological controls that are exerted so often over people who have been trafficked is absolutely crucial in cases such as this.
“The CSJ was encouraged to observe that, in this particular case, all three defendants were convicted of human trafficking.”