While many may believe slavery is a thing of the past, there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history; an estimated 40 million men, women and children.  Modern slavery is estimated to be a £115 billion industry in the world today and we all have a duty to not only look but see what is really happening around us and act accordingly. Migrant Help has been assisting survivors of human trafficking since 2008. We provide safe accommodation and support in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

To mark Anti-Slavery Day 2018, staff at Migrant Help worked together with poet Rowan McCabe to create a poem about slavery. The resulting poem below is made from words written by Migrant Help staff and edited by Rowan McCabe.

 

Plain Sight

Slavery

hidden in plain sight.

We want things cheap

but don’t want to know why.

Are we complicit?

What can we do to make a difference?

Is this the system?

Or human being’s

darker

side to oppress?

 

Thrown on the floor

like a suitcase from a plane.

Bones clash.
Roof is my sky.

Thirsty, the light hurts my eyes.

The days are spent on my knees.

Others were pulled in,

poor health.

It lasts too long.

I get so tired that rest never comes.

 

Slavery

hidden in plain sight.

We want things cheap

but don’t want to know why.

I dreamed of life different.

Can’t go back,

just survive.

Fear feels too big in my hands.

I am weary as a fallen tree.

There is too much to say in me,

telling no one, no one

know what I’ve done.

 

Slavery

hidden in plain sight.

We want things cheap

but don’t want to know why.

 

They are footprints on the pavement,

hoods down and eyes cast.

The smell of acetone and alcohol rub,

hands of leather and wax.

 

Nail bar.

Car wash.

Apple farm.

 

Look for the signs,

question why.

They are hidden

but in plain sight.

 

Written by Melvin Witt, Caroline O’Connor, Rachel Hughes, Martyn Quinn, Jae Hassan, Sara Hutchinson, Helen Bransfield

Edited by Rowan McCabe