SLAVE HELL
I thought I was going to be a nanny but ended up locked in a London flat where I was starved and raped
LYING on the living room floor clutching her face, Amy’s cheek burned and her eyes stung with tears.
The 20-year-old had been brutally beaten - by her boss. But Amy could do nothing about this, for the woman who had punched her in the face and kicked her as she lay crumpled on the floor was her master, and Amy was her slave.
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She's one of an estimated 136,000 victims of slavery in the UK, who live alongside us unnoticed - washing our cars, painting our nails and cleaning our neighbours' houses, hiding in plain sight up and down the country.
And when slaves do manage to escape from their masters - 7,000 were rescued in Britain last year - they are shockingly only entitled to 45 days of help from the government.
Which is why The Sun is today launching a campaign to 'Stamp Out Slavery', in conjunction with Co-Op, backing , which proposes to extend support given to rescued slaves from 45 days to one year.
Here, speaking exclusively to Sun Online, Amy, now 25, tells her story.
Fed scraps of egg and rice
Domestic slavery might sound like something out of a Victorian novel, but last year alone 519 people, like Amy - including 97 children - were rescued from domestic servitude across Britain.
As her story proves, almost anyone can be forced into slavery.
Amy, an 18-year-old orphan, was bursting with excitement when she flew over to the UK from Ghana.
After the death of her parents in 2013, she was befriended by a lovely woman called Mary who offered to take her to the UK to become a nanny.
She tells Sun Online: “My parents died and suddenly I was alone. I dropped out of school and had no-one.
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She says: “She knew I didn’t have family and was a hard worker, so she got me a passport paid £6,000 so I could travel over.
"I was going to look after her five-year-old daughter and I couldn't wait.
“Because of the money she’d spent, I felt like I owed her big time.”
But within days of arriving in the UK, Amy realised all wasn't as it appeared and it soon became clear that she wasn't here to look after Mary's child.
Once in the UK, Mary's tone changed and she made Amy sleep on the floor with no duvet or mattress.
Within a week, she was forced into working 20-hour shifts cleaning Mary's flat - and went days without eating.
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Amy says: “I went through hell.
"She told me I had to sleep on the floor. Her friend offered me a free mattress, but she said I didn’t deserve it.
"The only clothes I had were hand-me-downs and I slept about four hours a night. She didn’t want to see me sleeping - if she was in the house and awake I had to stay up just in case.
“I’d sneak one or two meals in when she was out - I’d have eggs and rice, just cooking leftovers.
"Every day I had to hand wash all Mary and her daughter’s clothes and I wasn’t allowed to use the hot water.
“I was trapped and felt suicidal.”
HELP STAMP OUT SLAVERY
Want to help? Here are some of the possible warning signs to look for, according to the Modern Slavery Helpline:
- Domestic slaves may be held in their employer's home and forced to carry out tasks such as childcare, cooking and cleaning
- They may not be allowed to leave the house on their own, or they may be monitored
- The person may work long working hours
- They may not have access to their own belongings, such as a mobile phone or their own ID
- The employer may be abusive, both physically and verbally
- The person may not interact often with the family they are employed by
- A domestic slave may be deprived of their own personal living space, food, water or medical care
- They may wear poorer quality clothing compared to other family members
Suspicious? You can call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700, or fill in an online report at:
'Men gave her a handful of cash to rape me'
Sobbing as she remembers her ordeal, Amy says that Mary pimped her out to strangers who came to the flat.
“Within a month she began to let men sleep with me.
"It happened twice a week - men came over, paid her a handful of notes, raped me and left.
"The first time it happened it was really bad. I told her I couldn’t do it and she said I could, because I’d already been raped."
If Amy didn’t do as she was told, she was threatened.
Amy says: “She took my passport and told me to stay away from the police, and if I talk to them she would stab me with a screwdriver. So I just did what she asked.”
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After 18 months, Amy reached breaking point.
One day while Mary was out, Amy seized the opportunity and found courage to flee, frantically breaking down the lock on the front door.
With nowhere to go, she ended up homeless. But sleeping rough on London's streets seemed like a better option than spending another day under her mistress' tyrannical rule.
A few months later, Amy bumped into Mary on the street.
Amy says: “She slapped me and demanded I collect my belongings. Then she called the police, who called immigration.”
'For a long time I didn't see the point of living in this world'
Now, Amy lives in temporary accommodation in the Midlands, supported by The Sophie Hayes Foundation, a charity set up to help victims of trafficking.
She says: “I don’t trust people. I don’t sleep properly and am on antidepressants. For a long time, I wanted to take my own life. I didn’t see the point of living in this world."
Sadly, stories like Amy’s are far from unique.
Called a 'dog' and fed bread crusts
Elvira, 50, from the Philippines also arrived at Heathrow in 2014 and was taken to a luxury flat in London’s Kensington where she was forced to work 20 hours a day.
“I had to work all the time, without a day off, and I slept on the floor by her bed,” Elvira told The Guardian in 2017.
“My mistress would shout at me, saying I was stupid or call me a “dog”. I was given just a piece of bread and cup of tea for the whole day. I became emaciated. I felt like a slave, like I was in prison.”
She wanted to run away but her captors had her passport.
One morning, when he 'employer' went for a nap, she found the keys to the door and ran. Hiding in a nearby church, she called for help.
Thankfully she did manage to escape.
Of the 519 referrals for potential victims of domestic servitude made last year, 364 were female but it shows it's not only women who are at risk.
Ofonime Inuk was 14 and an orphan when he was lured to the UK from Nigeria and kept as a slave for 24 years in the West London home of NHS doctor Emmanuel Edet and his wife.
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His passport was confiscated and he was forced to work 17-hour days cooking and cleaning, with a thin foam mattress in the hallway as his bed.
In 2015 Edet and his wife were sentenced to six years in prison but Mr Inuk, now 41, said: “I’m not going to get my life back, it’s gone now.”
'I was treated as an animal'
Brenda, 40, from South East Asia, was beaten, abused and kept as a prisoner for four years by a London family.
As a single mother, she'd sought work abroad to provide for her two children but was not never allowed to return home.
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“I was forced to care for a bed-ridden old man and was beaten badly," she tells Sun Online. "I was only fed his leftovers and he called me 'animal'.
"It went on for four years. I was starved, they held my passport and locked me in."
Her chance to escape finally came when cleaners knocked on the door of the apartment and she screamed through the door.
The cleaners called 999 and 10 minutes later the officers freed her.
Brenda says: "I was scared, because I didn’t have anything, only my clothes. I didn’t know what to do.”
The Sun wants to Stamp out Slavery
Slavery takes a variety of forms, but most commonly forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic work or forced criminal activity.
The Home Office estimated that there are 13,000 people held in slavery in the UK, with the Global Slavery Index suggesting the figure could be as many as 136,000.
The UK recognised a staggering 5,145 victims from 116 countries in 2017, including adults who had been used for organ harvesting and children that were forced into sexual exploitation.
At present, trafficked victims have just 45 days support after being freed before they are expected to leave the UK and are deported by the Home Office.
During this short time, they are given accommodation, financial aid, medical treatment, counselling, a support worker, a translator and legal advice.
We want the government to:
Back Lord McColl's proposed bill, which suggests all victims of modern slavery should be given a year's support to recover.
Alongside that they should be given special support to help them, including housing benefits, financial help and other services.
The struggle for support
She was directed to the National Referral Mechanism, a framework for pinpointing victims of human trafficking or modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support.
But after 45 days, the Home Office issued a negative decision on Brenda's right to asylum.
She was removed from her safe-house and referred to charity, Kalayaan.
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Working on her behalf, the charity launched legal action against the Home Office who are now reassessing Brenda’s situation.
She has been waiting for a decision on her claim for four years. During this time she has not had permission to work so her children have continued to struggle back home.
“I am angry,” says Brenda. “I need justice.” Thinking of her children, she starts to cry. “It’s a long time since I have seen them. I miss them so much.”
Latest News:
Photo of a woman cleaning windows is shared by cops with a serious warning about Slavery in the UK
Last year, Avon and Somerset Police's #telluswhatyousee campaign went viral, after they released a seemingly innocuous video of a woman cleaning the windows of an ordinary suburban house and taking out the rubbish. The video aimed to highlight that modern slavery can be very difficult to spot, and flagged up the signs to watch out for.
Justine Currell, Director at modern slavery charity Unseen, says: “Domestic servitude is one of the most hidden and under-reported forms of modern slavery, taking place mostly behind closed doors."
Heartbreaking stories like these are why The Sun is backing calls for a change in the law so that specialist support given to modern slavery victims – including forced labour and human trafficking – is increased from as little as 45 days to a full year, as they rebuild their lives.
You can sign the petition for the Modern Slavery Victim Support Bill .
Find out more about Co-Op's Bright Future programme, which offers employment to survivors of modern slavery, .
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