Nov 25, 2022
In July 2022 the news broke that Sir Mo Farah, four times Olympian for Team GB, had been trafficked to the UK as a child. The headlines enhanced public understandings of trafficking. They brought into the frame the children forced into domestic servitude and the circumstances which mean that their situations may not come to light. Hosts Ala Sirriyeh and Michaela Benson are joined by Dr Hannah Lewis, University of Sheffield to discuss what trafficking is and its relationship to modern slavery and forced labour; public responses to victims of trafficking; and how the Hostile Environment further limits the possibilities of exiting the relationships of exploitation at the heart of trafficking.
You can access the full transcripts for each episode on the Who do we think we are? website
In this episode we cover …
1 Human Trafficking
2 Sir Mo Farah
3 Forced Labour and Domestic Servitude
Quote
... we cannot resolve the problem of severe exploitation in the UK ... without disentangling it from scapegoating of migrants and xenophobic immigration controls. It's not possible to intervene effectively in this area, without tackling the problems that we have in the UK, with immigration controls, and the way in which these are now being woven into everyday life through the hostile environment.
—Hannah Lewis
Where can you find out more about the topics in today’s episode?
Find out more about Hannah and her research on the University of Sheffield website
Read her co-authored book Precarious Lives
Our headline for this episode was Sir Mo Farah ‘relieved Home Office won’t take action over citizenship’
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