We should be proud of our work to wipe out modern slavery

Five years ago I wrote a report for the Centre for Social Justice about the scourge of modern slavery. I argued that human slavery and trafficking were a bigger problem than a lot of people

realised, and that the state needed to take it more seriously, not least to make sure that law-enforcement agencies and others were sufficiently aware of the problem. I wrote that they

“should pursue more proactive investigations into modern slavery crime”. I’m proud that the cause was taken up by Theresa May, first as home secretary and later as prime minister. As a

result of her determination, awareness of modern slavery is much greater today, and many of the vulnerable people who would previously have become its victims are now living lives of freedom

and dignity. We called it modern slavery to concentrate people’s minds and to make it a more tangible thing than human trafficking which, we felt, failed to convey fully the exploitation

involved in this cruel trade. It also helped to build massive cross-party support for the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, which gave police and the courts tougher powers to go after slave

gangmasters and seize their assets, and established an anti-slavery commissioner to shine a light on this long-neglected area of crime. A report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact,

which scrutinises the effectiveness of public spending on aid, yesterday criticised the term modern slavery, arguing that it provoked a backlash among countries with a history of

colonialism. The watchdog said that Britain alienated nations that were already tackling this problem and that, as a result, the performance of our £240 million-a-year effort was

“unsatisfactory”. Perhaps in hindsight calling it modern slavery was always going to cause difficulties in cross-border and international co-operation. The US followed us by adopting the

term but the rest of Europe still refers to it as “trafficking in people”. But while any area of government spending can come in for criticism, I stand by our efforts to raise the profile of

modern slavery. By expending political capital on it, we demonstrated that the only way to change anything in this barbaric trade is by having a serious, multi-agency, and international

response. Critics should look beyond terminology to hard facts. Advertisement FIONA HILL WAS AN ADVISER TO THERESA MAY, 2010-2014, AND JOINT CHIEF OF STAFF AT NO 10, 2016-2017