Spot The Signs...

As has been said before on this blog, there are very likely to be victims of human trafficking in the town or city that you live or work in.

CCAT (Croydon Community Against Trafficking) has produced a list of potential signs of Human Trafficking that we can all be watching out for in our communities. So, with their permission, I thought it might be helpful to share it here also:

1. People, usually youngsters or children, who rarely come out of a house except with a guardian and speak little or no English

2. Faces that can be seen at windows often looking stressed and never smiling

3. House or flat curtains closed during much of the day

4. Home delivery meals that result in excessive packaging left outside e.g. lots of pizza boxes

5. Frequent visitors to residential premises, often a stream of men arriving and leaving at unusual times.

6. Cars or minibuses picking up foreign nationals at unusual times.

7. Places where 'special services' are offered at a low price often advertised as having particular ethnicity and where the "workers" appear underage or speak no or little English.

8. Teenage girls who seen unhappy, living with older, unrelated males, who drive them about.

9. Commercial premises (including restaurants) that survive despite a clear lack of regular business.

10. Youngsters collected at the school gate by different people each day who are clearly not the parents or grand-parents.

11. Low price deals offered at the door involving cheap labour and invariably for cash, e.g. offers for a new drive or new paving.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but things that we can all be watching for in our communities and neighbourhoods.

Together we can create communities that do not tolerate human trafficking and expolitation.

If you see anything that you think might be suspicious you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. They will then assess whether there is a crime being committed.

Silence

Silence [sahy-luhns] noun

1. Absence of any sound or noise; stillness.

2. The state or fact of being silent; muteness.

3. Absence or omission of mention, comment, or expressed concern

4. The state of being forgotten; oblivion

5. Concealment; secrecy.

There is injustice happening in our world every minute of every day but yet we choose to be silent. We choose to be mute, we choose for there to be an absence of any sound, we choose to continue the secrecy and we choose not to mention, comment or express concern. We choose to forget.

In a society where we have so many ways to communicate, where information is constantly at our fingertips, it is incredible what we will stay silent about.

Many of us know that there are over 27 million slaves in the world today, that there are more people in slavery today than in the time of Wilberforce. But somehow we are already beginning to become immune to this shocking fact.

We seem to continue our lives seemingly so unaffected.

But we have a voice and we have the choice to speak or to remain silent; a choice that is denied to 27 million other people in this world.

Surely those of us who have a voice have a responsibility to speak out for the voiceless.

So often we don’t. We choose silence.

Silence caused by apathy, inertia, discouragement as we focus on our own comforts, become overwhelmed by the issue or turn a blind eye.

But yet when we remain silent we become a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.

We line ourselves up in agreement with the traffickers and abusers. We agree with their actions through our silence. We allow injustice to continue.

When we consider it this way, silence is not an option. We have to use our voice to fight for the rights of the voiceless. We have to use our voice to restore justice where there is injustice. We have to use our voice to bring light to dark places. We have to use our voice to bring freedom where there is slavery.

I’d challenge you to find a way to use your voice today for those who have no voice.

Lets break through the silence.