Google – AFP, Danny Kemp (AFP), 22 November 2013
 |
Detective
Inspector Kevin Hyland addresses the media outside New Scotland Yard
in London
on November 21, 2013, during a press meet concerning the rescue of three
women
believed to have been held as slaves for 30 years in a South London house
(AFP,
Ben Stansall)
|
London —
Two people accused of holding three women captive in a London house for 30
years were released on bail Friday, as Britain struggled to come to terms with
its worst case of modern-day slavery.
The man and
a woman, both 67, were bailed pending further police investigation into the
"barbaric" plight of the women, who include a 30-year-old who
detectives believe spent her entire life in servitude.
She was
rescued on October 25 along with a 69-year-old Malaysian woman and a
57-year-old Irish woman after they made contact with a charity.
Police said
they had to verify the women's accounts before raiding a house in the south
London borough of Lambeth on Thursday and arresting the suspects, described as
non-British nationals, on suspicion of involvement in forced labour and domestic
servitude.
 |
Detective
Inspector Kevin Hyland addresses
the media outside New Scotland Yard in
London
on November 21, 2013 (AFP, Ben
Stansall)
|
Detectives
do not believe the women were sexually abused but say they are "highly
traumatised", noting they had limited freedom but "no real exposure
to the outside world".
Many
questions remain about their ordeal, but experts said they were likely kept in
check through physical violence and years of mental subjugation.
"Two
hundred years ago we had iron shackles that controlled slaves, now we have the
psychological shackles that control these people," said Andrew Wallis,
chief executive of the human trafficking charity Unseen.
Detectives
said they did not know where the youngest woman was born. The relationship
between the three victims is "part of an ongoing investigation".
"However,
we believe that the 30-year-old woman had been in servitude all her life,"
Scotland Yard said in a statement.
Police
explained the delay in making arrests on the need to work sensitively with the
victims and establish the facts.
"We
have never seen anything of this magnitude before," said Detective
Inspector Kevin Hyland, head of Scotland Yard's Human Trafficking Unit.
"These
women are highly traumatised, having been held in servitude for at least 30
years with no real exposure to the outside world, and trying to find out
exactly what has happened over three decades will understandably take some
time."
'Scourge of
modern-day slavery'
Home
Secretary Theresa May said she was "shocked" and promised action
against the "scourge of modern slavery"
But one of
her deputies, James Brokenshire, said such cases were on the increase in
Britain.
"Slavery
is one of those issues which people felt had been consigned to the history
books," he told BBC radio.
"The
sad reality is that it is still there. We have seen increases year on year in
the number of cases reported, and I expect that will continue to
increase."
'They
thanked us for saving their lives'
The women,
who are now in an unspecified location, were rescued after the Irish woman
"found the courage" to call the Freedom Charity on October 18 after
it was featured in a TV programme about domestic slavery, police said.
The charity
usually deals with forced marriage and honour-based abuse but is also used to
working with women who feel trapped in difficult situations.
With the
help of secret telephone calls, the British and Irish women agreed to meet
charity workers and police outside the house, before taking them back to the
property to rescue the Malaysian woman.
Aneeta
Prem, founder of the Freedom Charity, said: "They all threw their arms
around me, and apart from crying enormously, they thanked the charity for the
work Freedom had done in saving their lives."
She said
the women's treatment was "barbaric", and it would be a "very
long journey" to rehabilitate them.
"You're
basically looking at domestic slavery, and you wouldn't expect that to be
happening in the UK, in London, in 2013," she said.
The case
has sparked national soul-searching amid warnings that it could be the tip of
the iceberg.
The
anti-slavery Walk Free Foundation estimates that more than 4,000 people in
Britain are trapped in debt bondage, forced marriage, human trafficking and
forced labour.
In one of
the worst cases to come before the courts, an 84-year-old man was last month
convicted of repeatedly raping a deaf and mute Pakistani girl who had been
trafficked into Britain and forced to work for his family as a servant.
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