Antislavery actors evoke the history of the transatlantic slave trade in campaigns to claim that similarly to transatlantic slavery, people today are being reduced to objects which are forcibly trafficked and sold. This talk will argue that instead of looking at parallels between evil traffickers transporting the so-called objects into slavery, we should engage with histories of transatlantic slave fugitives to understand the historical continuation of some colonial forms of inequalities, legal systems and polices that still restrict the movement, and access to rights of people that appear in dominant discourse as at risk of “modern slavery”.

Samuel Okyere (University of Bristol, Senior Lecturer in Sociology)

Trafficking Borders: Antitrafficking as Migration Deterrence

This talk critically examines the proliferation of anti-trafficking interventions across West Africa, drawing on the experiences of Nigerian women who have been "protected" from trafficking and labour abuse in Europe according to NGOs and state agencies promoting the antitrafficking interventions. The women’s accounts, I contend, support the criticism that anti-trafficking is a defective project that serves the advancement of oppressive anti-immigration regimes and reinforces stigmatising racial and gender stereotypes. I conclude that in an era in which mobility has become an even more critical to accessing fundamental human rights, antitrafficking and other humanitarian initiatives that offer immobilisation as a solution should be questioned.

Nigel Oseman (West Midlands Anti-Slavery Network, Independent Modern Slavery Advocate)

As a former Police Officer with the West Midlands Police I had a varied and highly fulfilling career, I have worked in some very diverse areas throughout my years - included Community Policing, Learning and Development, Criminal Investigations; including that of Serious and Organised Crime, Murder, Kidnap and Drug Dealing and Firearms however I can say without equivocation none are as abhorrent as those crimes associated to Modern Slavery.

After retiring from the Police I turned to working with survivors of Human Trafficking; being victim centred in all my undertakings I have managed a number of projects around the UK, I have worked with charities and third sector organisations, business’ and public establishments and now find myself supporting Law Enforcement, Council Authorities and their communities in the County of Warwickshire.

I have assembled a wealth of experience over the last decade working with the victims of this crime type but it would be naive of anyone to believe that they are an expert in this field, there is always much to learn and this can only be achieved by listening to the victim’s accounts, the journeys they have encountered and working collaboratively with partners to ensure through our networks that we are better equipped to conquer this issue, ideally to prevent the crime all together.