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New student led volunteer group, ‘UKC against Human Trafficking’ raring and ready to Stop the Traffik

This September a new student led volunteer group (SLVG), UKC against Human Trafficking, is starting up to shock, raise awareness and call to action students at the University of Kent to stop the trafficking of people into modern day slavery locally and globally.

The group was started this summer by UKC students who were inspired through Stop the Traffik, one of the UK’s anti trafficking campaigners, and international projects fighting modern day slavery. This summer a few of us volunteered with the UN Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking (UN.GIFT) and Stop the Traffik for their Olympics awareness campaign in central London which was an amazing opportunity. We were really shocked to discover the different types of trafficking taking place around the world, but also in the UK. This year the devastating reports of the Rochdale child sex ring case rocked the nation. A group of men operating from a kebab shop manipulated, transported and exploited as many as forty seven vulnerable teenage girls for sex. Horrifically that is definitely not the first or the last time that human trafficking has happened in our country, and there are many more hidden cases like this.

The group campaigning in London

The definition of trafficking a person is the movement of them for the purpose of exploitation which often leads to what is known as modern day slavery, and it’s usually the most vulnerable people who become trapped. In terms of UKC against human trafficking, Co-chief Gail Commandeur believes that ‘Kent has a responsibility to raise awareness about the scale and seriousness of people trafficking for all the hidden victims that are trafficked through it’. Last year The Guardian reported that 25 children had been trafficked through Kent and luckily rescued by social services… but then had disappeared from care. They most likely were retrafficked into the sex industry or for forced labour such as servants in domestic homes or the hospitality industry.

UKC against Human Trafficking is working in partnership with Stop the Traffik and Kent Community against Trafficking (KCAT), founded by Cliff Grieve, a former police chief who will give the group a better understanding about the anti-trafficking scene in Kent. The group are hoping to organise film nights and creative awareness events with guest speakers and first hand experiences of human trafficking, as well as researching into the issue.

So if you’re shocked and bewildered as to why human trafficking and modern slavery still exists, why it happens here in Kent and want to find out more and help raise awareness with other UKC students, look out for us at Fresher’s Fayre on Friday. Whether you study drama, law or economics; what you study matters and is essential to help us raise awareness. You’re the future writers, accountants, engineers, politicians, teachers, lawyers, psychologists, musicians, scientists, actors and directors, historians, technicians, athletes, medics, designers and entrepreneurs. You can help stop and raise awareness about human trafficking in every type of economy or business in the United Kingdom or around the world. You can help to make a real difference to a very real world problem. On a more minor but important note, it’s great for your CV and you can log your volunteering hours with Kent Union for employability and volunteering rewards.

If you would like to find out more follow us on twitter: @UKCPeopleTraffikFree and Facebook @ ‘UKC Against Human Trafficking’ or email ukcpeopletraffikfree@gmail.com.

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