Police have revealed that despite lockdown restrictions, Scotland has seen a rise in human trafficking.
Over the last year lockdown has meant travel restrictions, however a Scottish Police detective specialising in modern slavery has revealed that there has been an increase in human trafficking cases over the course of last year.
Speaking in an interview for this month’s edition of 1919, Scotland’s justice and social affairs magazine, Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi highlighted the increasingly worrying situation in Scotland.
He revealed that since last year, the National Human Trafficking Unit in Police Scotland has seen a five per cent increase on this time last year.
Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi said: “For the calendar year 2020, we had 387 potential victims, but then you’ve got to take into account that global lockdown, restrictions in global travel, restrictions in ports, and even freight coming in for clandestine entries.
“But year to date, we had a five per cent increase. And that’s taking into account there’s still loads of restrictions in global travel, with lots of different countries obviously still using different lockdown procedures.
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Mr Capaldi, who is the head of Police Scotland’s National Human Trafficking unit has spent many years in his role and has had to witness first hand the devastation and destruction that human trafficking has brought to peoples lives.
He also revealed in the interview that in 2017 there were 207 potential victims of trafficking in Scotland, which rose to 228 the following year, and then sky rocketed to 512 in 2019. This means that the 387 potential victims last year was actually a decrease in figures, but sadly that is no longer the case.
The Detective said that despite the diversified perception of Scotland, people may think that crimes like this don’t happen in the country. He also believes that the worrying events that have taken in Afghanistan over the last few weeks could lead to further victims being brought to the Scotland and the rest of the UK.
He added: “If there’s any doubt, it happens here, it happens right here, right now, and it’s happening in communities all over Scotland, and we know this. We know this categorically.”
“It’s not an issue that’s going away. And I always say that whenever there’s money to be made, particularly by organised crime groups, they’ll diversify.”
“It is feared that the upheaval in Afghanistan will inevitably lead to more cases of modern slavery in the UK.”
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Police Scotland would like to educate the public on what to look out for in an effort combat the troubling situation.
Signs that could potentially identify human trafficking operations and modern slavery are as follows:
- Large groups of people sharing small properties
- Lots of comings and goings at unsocial hours
- People who don’t regularly and readily have access to documents like bank cards.
If you see any of these signs or have suspicions of Human Trafficking you can contact Police Scotland. via 101 or via the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700.
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