Women freed from 'slavery' in London thank charity that helped them

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/22/women-slavery-london-thank-charity

Version 0 of 1.

Three "traumatised" women alleged to have been held as slaves for 30 years have thanked the founder of the charity that helped rescue them.

All three – a 69-year-old from Malaysia, a 57-year-old from Ireland and a 30-year-old who had had no contact with the outside world – were freed from a house in south London last month.

A couple, who have not been named, were released on bail after being arrested on Thursday on suspicion of being involved in forced labour and domestic servitude. They are not British citizens and are both 67.

Police and campaigners said the horrifying case highlighted a growing problem of slavery in Britain.

Aneeta Prem, founder of the Freedom Charity, told ITV's Daybreak programme she met the three women on Thursday.

She said: "They're quite traumatised … but they're very relieved to be out.

"When I met them, it was a very humbling experience. 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."

The women were rescued after the Irish woman saw Prem on a TV documentary and contacted the charity for help.

Prem said it would be "a very long journey" to rehabilitate the women.

She said: "If you have spent your entire life in captivity and know nothing different, then even the smallest freedoms, the smallest things, you have no knowledge of.

"It's going to be a difficult process. Bear in mind these ladies have left with absolutely nothing at all. The charity is going to have to try to help and support them through this difficult journey."

The Irish woman contacted Freedom on 18 October to say she had been held against her will for more than 30 years, and that two others were held with her.

She and the British woman met charity workers and police on 25 October before returning to the address and rescuing the Malaysian woman.

Prem said: "The ladies had seen me on various news channels throughout a period of the summer when we were doing a campaign about forced marriages and young girls going missing.

"They said they felt they could trust me because they had seen me on the TV."

After a "traumatic and very difficult" first call to Freedom staff, Prem arranged a single point of contact for the women and began "secret negotiations" to bring them out.

She said: "We did it in a very slow way to gain their trust, because after 30 years of people being held in very difficult circumstances, one of the things we didn't want to do was to add any more trauma."

Police delayed the arrest so they could work sensitively with the victims to establish the facts of the case.

Investigating officers said they had "never seen anything of this magnitude before" but there was no evidence to suggest anything of a sexual nature.

The charity's chief executive, Vineeta Thornhill, was put in charge of contact with the Irishwoman, who would telephone at pre-arranged times.

Speaking to the National News agency, Thornhill said: "The operator was very upset about what the woman was saying and just told me the woman may try and call me in a few days and she had been given my personal number. I just waited for the phone call."

She described her first contact with the woman. "I asked what her situation was and what we could do to help her. She was not forthcoming, she was just afraid and did not want to give anything away.

"She did not say anything about coercion or violence. They just wanted to get out.

"They were afraid for their lives, it's fair to say. The Irishwoman, she gave very little away."

Thornhill said: "They would obviously make calls when they could. It took time to build up trust. They were not sure if they would get found out making the calls. It was quite secretive phone calls and obviously when the people were not there to overhear.

"They were very secretive about what they were telling us. We tried to reassure them, to let them know we would get them out.

"We would never know if the call would come. Until the day we got them out it was on tenterhooks."

She said her helpline had never heard of a case like it. "It was harrowing. We were jumping with joy when we found out it went well."

Andrew Wallis, the chief executive of the charity Unseen, which helps victims of trafficking, said the case highlighted an increase in "modern-day slavery".

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he said: "It is horrendous in terms of the length of time these women have been held in slavery. It is indicative of a growing problem in the United Kingdom and around the globe.

"Two hundred years ago we had iron shackles that control slaves. Now we have the psychological shackles that control these people. It's an industry – an illicit trade with low risk of being caught and high return with a human being turned into a commodity, bought and sold and exploited."

Shaun Sawyer, the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police and the national policing spokesman on migration, agreed. He said: "There is a growth in this area within the UK that is simply unacceptable."

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.