On the eve of Anti-Slavery Day (18 October 2018), Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group and Leader of the Opposition, is urging local drivers, and their passengers, to be vigilant for the presence of modern slavery when they use local car washes.
Councillor Sykes said: “We have recently debated at the Council the existence of modern slavery in British society, and politicians of all parties are determined to see an end to it. Slavery in all of its forms is totally abhorrent, but it still exists even in Britain and it is often occurring right under our noses.”
The National Crime Agency has indicated that they are thousands of people being exploited in this way in the UK, often working long hours for little or no pay, in the most atrocious conditions and with scant regard for health and safety legislation. Some of these individuals are being coerced to work with the threat of violence.
Councillor Sykes added: “Although we may think that such exploitation may be limited to unscrupulous gang-masters herding their workers to carry out endless, menial tasks in agriculture, modern slavery is on our streets and one of the places it can be seen is amongst the many thousands of on-street hand car washes that have been established in our communities.”
The Church of England has launched a Safe Car Wash app that can be downloaded by the general public to their smart phones and devices to help the police tackle the problem. Users are asked to open the app and complete a short survey about the working conditions for staff that they observe whilst using the car wash. The data is anonymised and then shared with the National Crime Agency and the Labour Abuse Authority.
Councillor Sykes concurs: “Put simply, the Safe Car Wash app is one way that each of us as individuals can make a real difference. I would urge everyone to use Anti-Slavery Day to resolve to download this app and to complete the questionnaire every time they use a car wash to help to bring the scourge of modern slavery to an end.”
The app can be found at https://www.theclewerinitiative.org/safecarwash/