Cabinet Secretary committed to fighting modern slavery

On Anti-Slavery Day (Friday 18 October), Social Justice Secretary Jane Hutt has reaffirmed the Welsh Government’s commitment to working in partnership to overcome the immense challenges of modern slavery.

Last year, First Responder organisations in Wales identified and referred over 500 people for support, all as potential victims of modern slavery.

Children and adults were subjected to criminal, labour, and sexual exploitation, and domestic servitude. Some were trafficked from other towns and cities in Wales and the UK, and some were trafficked from other parts of the world.

Conference

This week, the Anti-Slavery Wales conference was held at Aberystwyth University where people came together to learn more about modern slavery and to share knowledge and expertise.

The Social Justice Secretary says partnership working is key to tackling modern slavery and protecting people at risk of exploitation.

Challenges

Jane Hutt said: “The Anti-Slavery conference highlighted the immense challenges we face in overcoming modern slavery in Wales and we cannot ignore the scale of this issue.

“As a government, we are committed to working with the UK Government, other devolved governments and organisations across all sectors to tackle the challenges of modern slavery.

“Through working together, we can make even more progress in protecting people and supporting individuals who have been trafficked. We can also continue to pursue and prosecute the criminals responsible for carrying out this terrible crime and work to identify and mitigate risks of labour exploitation in business activities and supply chains.

“We all have a part to play, and we can all make a difference.”