edinburghcentric - what’s going on in Edinburgh

A shocking report by Amnesty International has been released, which describes how a “21st century slave trade” is in existence in Scotland.

The report, published this month, tells us of cases found across Scotland since 2002, with 13.5% of the total UK trafficking trade occurring in this country. Scottish police forces have raided over fifty properties, yet to date there have been no convictions for these crimes.

The problem exists in both rural and urban areas and Amnesty are branding it “slavery”. Back in 2003, 14 Chinese cockle pickers were detained after being discovered working at Cramond Bay, just north of the capital. Even more disturbingly, some women are being brought here legally as wives of UK citizens and subsequently treated as household servants, suffering terrible abuses.

Fortunately some action has already been taken, the aforementioned police raids being one such response and the vital work of the likes of the TARA Project in Glasgow and the POPPY project in London, who provide support and accommodation to women trafficked into prostitution.

But more needs to be done say Amnesty International and we completely agree. Nobody should have to suffer such inhuman experiences and there is a real opportunity for the Scottish Government to step up and implement some of the solutions suggested in this report, in order to tackle this issue.

You can read more about AIUK and how you can help here.

Photo by photojenni on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

For more stories like this, you can follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our RSS feeds or visit our page on Facebook.