Under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, companies carrying out business or part of a business in the UK and which provide goods or services with a turnover of £36m or more are obliged to publish a Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement setting out the steps the company has taken to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in its supply chain or its own business.

TH Languages Ltd trading as Talking Heads does not fit into this criterion; however as a company whose supply chain includes individuals across the world, it is imperative that the whole team is aware of the UK Modern Slavery Act and its potential effect on our company and our freelance linguists.


UNDERSTANDING

Modern slavery is the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion and abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. Individuals may be trafficked into, out of or within the UK, and they may be trafficked for a number of reasons including sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude and organ harvesting.(source: www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/safeguarding/our-work/modern-slavery).

It is hard to pin down an exact figure of the number of slaves across the world today and how we, as a company, can be aware of (and prevent) modern slavery within our supply chain, however approximate 2014 facts and figures were as follows:

  • An estimated 20 to 30 million slaves across the world. It is hard to count the exact numbers of a hidden population.

  • 90% of women and children who end up as sex slaves were victims of childhood sexual abuse before they were recruited.

  • An estimated number of 800,000 people are illegally trafficked across international borders every year.

  • There are 161 countries affected by human trafficking.

  • The total yearly profit gained from human trafficking is a staggering $32 billion a year.

  • Majority of modern slavery victims are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old.

  • 1.2 million children are enslaved through forced labour and exploited in the sexual industry each year.

  • In 1850, the cost of a slave if converted in today’s dollar value, would be $40,000. The cost of a modern day slave is $90.

  • Brazil leads the world in fighting modern day slavery.

  • In terms of profit, Human Trafficking is ranked as the 3rd largest international crime industry – just behind Drugs and Arms Trafficking.

  • 54% percent of modern day slaves were recruited by strangers and 46% were recruited by people they know.

  • 78% of modern day slaves are in the Labour Industry, while 22% are in the Sex Industry.

  • 55% of modern day slaves are women and children and 45% are men and boys. 26% of them are children under 18 years old.

    (source: www.theworldcounts.com)


HOW MIGHT WE COME ACROSS MODERN SLAVERY:

Areas in which a Talking Heads team member may come across Modern Slavery include but are not limited to:

  • It may become apparent to you that linguists or individuals associated with linguists may be under duress or are being forced to be in a situation not of their own will.

  • During the course of our company providing language services it may become apparent to you that there is an individual or individuals who are experiencing modern slavery. Indeed, this may be the very reason for our expertise being required; we may be working for a Child Sexual Exploitation Team or a Law Enforcement organisation.

  • During the course of recruitment, we often come across ‘scammers’; individuals or organisations that are not what they claim to be. There may be Modern Slavery connections to this.

YOU SHOULD FAMILIARISE YOURSELF FURTHER BY VISITING WWW.ANTISLAVERY.ORG AND WWW.NOTFORSALECAMPAIGN.ORG.

Therefore we all have to be aware of the following:

  • The Talking Heads’ Policy towards Modern Slavery

  • Who is responsible for Modern Slavery within the organisation?

  • How to report Modern Slavery issues and to whom they should be reported.


MODERN SLAVERY POLICY

  • We actively wish to work towards preventing Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in any way that we can.

  • Each team member will be aware of the parts of our company operations and supply chains where the risk of these impacts are the most salient, that is, where they would be the most severe in terms of the impact on people, were they to occur, and where they are the most likely to occur.

  • We believe that it is important to engage with suppliers who are reputable and it is each team member’s responsibility to ensure they are confident in the repute of suppliers at the point of recruitment and induction and on an ongoing basis.

  • Our supplier recruitment and induction processes include the extraction of information from a supplier which enables team members to fully understand them, their personal situation and company setup and processes, if relevant.

  • At Talking Heads we engender an ‘open voice’ policy where any team member can report any issues in confidence to the Company Directors and be assured of attention.

  • Where the potential of a Modern Slavery issue is a concern, an alert is immediately raised.


HOW TO REPORT MODERN SLAVERY ISSUES AND TO WHOM THEY SHOULD BE REPORTED

Within Talking Heads Company Director Eileen Enos will respond to and manage all Modern Slavery issues and concerns. Any team member should make this person aware of any Modern Slavery concerns.