Health and Slavery: A Healthcare Provider's Guide to Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking

Aimed at Healthcare Professionals (doctors, nurses, allied professionals) and healthcare students, to raise awareness, recognition and guidance on what to do in the face of suspected Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT).

This textbook includes consideration of the size of the problem, MSHT indicators, important communication skills, the reporting of suspected cases and organisations working in the field.

The majority of victims of MSHT come into contact with healthcare professionals (HCPs) at some point in their journey but HCPs report feeling ill equipped to recognise or manage a potential victim, (90% of victims of MSHT come into contact with a HCP but only 10% of HCPs know how to recognise victims and what to do). As such this topic should be represented in undergraduate and post graduate curricula.

This textbook deals with the identification and appropriate management of suspected cases. It has been edited by Prof Alison Fiander and Ms Jane Lasonder and written by Healthcare professionals, Medical Students from the School of Medicine, Cardiff University as part of a Student Selected Component, Survivors of MSHT, and organisations working in the Human Trafficking field, including the UN. 

Professor Alison Fiander was appointed Chair of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Cardiff University in 2002: practicing as a Gynae-oncologist and colposcopist and

developing a programme of research investigating Human Papillomavirus infection and the management of HPV-related anogenital neoplasia.

Having worked in Sub-Saharan Africa for 4 years earlier in her career, Alison has a keen interest in addressing global maternal mortality and morbidity and left Cardiff University in 2015 to take up the role of Clinical Lead for the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) Leading Safe Choices programme, training healthcare professionals in sexual reproductive health, in Tanzania and South Africa.

She subsequently became the Clinical Lead for the RCOG Centre for Global Women’s Health and coordinated writing and development of the RCOG Essential Gynaecology skills course for Low- and Middle-income countries. As part of this Alison wrote a module on Gender Based Violence (GBV) to help train Healthcare professionals in the recognition and management of women affected by GBV. Alison retired from the RCOG in 2018 but still works as an independent consultant in Global Women’s Health in addition to teaching global health to Cardiff medical

school undergraduates; teaching women’s health on-line for LMIC and directing an on-line postgraduate diploma/MSc in International Women’s Health. She acts as a First Responder for the Salvation Army for the Modern-day Slavery and Trafficking team.

Jane Lasonder is an international speaker and author. She has lived experience of MSHT. She has undertaken consultancy work for the UN, the WHO and OSCE and spoken in the European parliament and other parliaments.

She is a member of ISTAC (International Survivors of Trafficking Advisory Council ) of the OSCE ODIHR and a member of the Interparliamentary Task Force on Human trafficking, 

The Interparliamentary Taskforce on Human Trafficking is a consortium of Members of Parliament and Congress, government leaders, and lived-experience experts from more than 25 nations and 6 continents who are committed to creating policy solutions and educating lawmakers to stop one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world today, human trafficking.

 

Her first book was called Jane, an autobiography written together with Henk Stoorvogel. She also wrote a book  called ‘Red Alert’ about human trafficking to raise awareness of this terrible crime. She decided to start the Red Alert task force after her own experience and hearing stories from victims and survivors of their experiences in health care settings where the signs of human trafficking were missed. She remains concerned that most medical schools don't teach students how to spot the signs of slavery or what to do if they suspect someone is a victim.

She is aware that most schools and universities don't talk about MSHTor about the dangers of grooming.

Jane has trained as a first responder for the Salvation Army where she worked with potential victims of slavery and assessed them via the NRM (national referral mechanism) for the home office.