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Amnesty International at the Edinburgh Festival
Throughout the Edinburgh Festival, Amnesty International have been making
themselves noticed. Whether it’s the Fringe or the Book Festival Amnesty have
been there. Bannockburn High School’s own Amnesty International group have also
been eager to get involved and had planned on going to the book festival to hear
author Kirsty Gunn speak at Amnesty’s Imprisoned Writers Series. This series
featured different famous authors reading from the work of persecuted writers
and each day exploring a different theme such as Tibet, Banning the Blogs and
Poetry and Politics.
Unfortunately, due to the long journey, we arrived at the festival late and had
missed the start of the talk and weren’t allowed to interrupt to attend the
remainder of the show. But when you consider just how busy Amnesty are during
the Edinburgh Festival, it’s hardly surprising that we managed to find another
event to attend just up the road!
The Slave Britain Exhibition is being held daily from 10 August to 7
September in St Giles’ Cathedral, High Street. This exhibition sadly reveals
how human trafficking remains a bitter reality for thousands of women, men
and children in the country today, even although it’s been 200 years since
the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Slave Britain calls for an
end to this illegal 21st century trade as it powerfully documents the real
people, ordinary lives and everyday locations caught up in trafficking. The
exhibition is produced by the Panos photographic agency (www.panos.org.uk)
and leaves a distinct impression on all who view the shocking display and
learn about the victims of the modern trade.
Amnesty International are ordinary people from across the world standing up
for humanity and human rights. Their purpose is to protect individuals
wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied. Amnesty have
already, with the help of other organisations, managed to get the UK
government to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Action against
Trafficking. This is just the first step. For the sake of the victims of
trafficking in Scotland and other parts of the UK today, comprehensive
action needs to be implemented without delay. This is why Amnesty have been
collecting a postcard petition to be presented to the Scottish Executive to
urge them to, along with Westminster, take action.
For those who don’t know “human trafficking” means the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people, by means of the
threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud,
of deception, for the purpose of exploitation. Sectors such as the
hospitality and catering trade, domestic labour, care sectors, agricultural
and food processing sectors, construction and prostitution (all in the UK)
show particular evidence of cases of trafficking.
Key Facts
- Up to 1420 women were trafficked for sexual exploitation into the UK in
1998, according to statistics produced by the Home Office. This number is
based solely on reported cases and is thought to have increased
exponentially due to the trade’s profitable nature.
- Metropolitan Police estimate trafficked women see up to 20 and 30 men per
day.
- There is only one dedicated safe house for victims of trafficking in
London. It is called the Poppy Project. It has 25 places.
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