Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group and Leader of the Opposition, was appalled to hear that over 2000 instances of possible human trafficking occurring in the UK. These were reported through the Safe Car Wash app in the first year of its launch.
In October 2018, on the eve of Anti-Slavery Day, Councillor Sykes called on the residents of Oldham Borough to support the campaign. Set up by the Church of England and the Catholic Church, it aimed to expose instances of slave labourers employed in Britain’s car washes by reporting concerns online using the Safe Car Wash app.
Councillor Sykes MBE said: “The fact that around five reports of potential slavery were reported every day by users of the app is great, but the findings are horrific, particularly in a modern Western European state.”
“People with smart phones who uses car washes should take five seconds to download this app and to use it if you spot something of concern. You could be saving someone from terrible suffering as a modern slave.”
The Home Office estimates that there are more than 10,000 victims of slavery in Britain working for little or no pay with no rights, without decent working conditions and often in dangerous or unhealthy situations. Hand car washes are frequent employers of such labour.
The app can be found at https://www.theclewerinitiative.org/safecarwash/
Copy of call in 2018
Date: 10 October 2018
Liberal Democrat Leader’s Plea to help make Car Washes Slavery Free
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 in 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 Gangmasters and 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/