UK Sees Highest Spike in Alleged Victims of Modern Slavery Since Records Began
The United Kingdom has seen the highest spike in the number of people allegedly victimised by modern slavery since statistics began, official data has revealed.
The United Kingdom has seen the highest spike in the number of people allegedly victimised by modern slavery since statistics began, official data has revealed.
The Home Office has reported more than 10,000 suspected cases of modern slavery in the UK last year, though the effects of lockdown mean that the figure could be even higher.
A Member of Parliament has linked illegal sweatshops in Leicester, England, to the coronavirus outbreaks which have seen the city put into special lockdown measures, as a parliamentary committee takes Internet retailers employing their services to task and law enforcement carry out a spate of modern slavery arrests elsewhere in the country.
British police ignored sweatshops full of mostly South Asian heritage workers in the British fashion industry over fears that they would be called racist, according to reports, mirroring decades of a similar lack of action taken by police in confronting the scourge of mostly Muslim grooming gangs.
China’s state-run Global Times took great exception to Golden Globe Awards host Ricky Gervais’ slam at the Apple corporation for using “sweatshops in China,” publishing an editorial response on Monday that criticized Westerners for “refusing to work hard and pinning their hopes on public welfare.”
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick said that U.S. troops were plundering the “non white world” even as he rakes in millions from shoes made in Nike factories full of cheap labor all across the developing world.
In the 1990s sportswear giant Nike became a target of complaints because it used sweatshop labor in Asia to manufacture its products. Despite subsequent efforts to end the practice, some human rights activists say the company still has issues with unsafe and unfair labor practices.
In 1997, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) blasted the Nike multinational corporation for outsourcing much of their workforce to alleged sweatshops in Vietnam.