BBC Documentaries

Britain's Secret Slavery Business (2016x57)

Udgivelsesdato: Mar 11, 2016

Investigative journalist Darragh MacIntyre (pictured) exposes the reality of modern-day slavery and exploitation in Britain. From our factories and food producers, our carwashes and nail bars this one-off current affairs documentary lifts the lid on how exploited workers are embedded in parts of our economy. In Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, Darragh hears from one of the Hungarians trafficked to work at Kozee Sleep, a bed factory which supplied to major high street retailers. He reveals how the workers were promised a good job but were paid as little as £10 a week and forced to live in slum-type conditions. The film reveals how people are exploited up and down the country, from the fishing industry in Scotland to the car washes in London. And shockingly, it reveals that this problem not only affects migrants from Europe and other parts of the world - but also people from the UK. Darragh speaks to a vulnerable British man who was abducted off the streets, taken to a South Wales farm and forced to work unpaid for 13 years. The context and scale of modern-day slavery is outlined by Kevin Hyland, the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The Police, outreach workers, and psychologists explain how these exploited people are controlled and are often too scared to even think of escaping. The programme comes just as the National Crime Agency reveals that the number of suspected victims identified here has risen by 40 percent in just one year. Officials believe that the increase is down to better enforcement, but others worry it might be because of ever increasing exploitation.