Modern Slavery

Y11 students Charlie, Phil, Sam, Arjun, James, Jack and Ollie have set up the research hub below about slavery linking to their study of migration in the GCSE population topic.

Important Facts

• Official figures on the scale of the problem come from the UK Human Trafficking Centre, part of the National Crime Agency.
• In 2012, it identified 2,255 potential victims of human trafficking - an increase of 178 (9%) on 2011, according to its report.
• Of these potential victims, 778 were either found to have been trafficked or were awaiting a conclusive decision on their status. Of the 778 potential victims, 402 people - or 52% - were found to have been trafficked.
• The top five nationalities of those identified were Romanian, Polish, Nigerian, Vietnamese and Hungarian.
• Some 71% of the potential victims were adults, while 24% were children. The age of 99 potential victims was unknown.
• The two most prevalent types of exploitation reported were sexual exploitation, which accounted for 35% of the potential victims, followed by labour exploitation (23%).
• Of the potential child victims, 28% reported being sexually exploited, and 24% reported criminal exploitation.
•   Estimates indicate that at least 27 million people, in places such as Nigeria, Indonesia and Brazil are part of some sort of slavery.
• The total number of people in debt bondage around the world was about 20 million in 1998.
• The number of children in bonded labour in India alone was at 15 million at the end of the 20th century.
• More than 1,000 women were trafficked into the UK for sexual purposes (mainly from Eastern and Central Europe).
•  There are at least 5,000 child sex workers in the UK, most trafficked into the country.
•  Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 12 million people may be working as slaves and of these; approximately 43 per cent are trafficked into sexual exploitation.
• The worldwide traffic in human beings is worth at least US$32 billion annually.
•   In 2004, 218 million children were trapped in child labour worldwide
• 100,000 – 800,000 people are trafficked into the EU each year
• There are at least 5,000 trafficking victims in the UK
•  About 8,000 women work in off-street prostitution in London alone, 80% of them are foreign nationals
• Over 1000 women trafficked into prostitution have been referred to the Poppy Project since March 2003
•  200-300 victims of trafficking for domestic labour register with the relevant NGO each year
•  It is estimated 330 child victims will be trafficked into the UK each year
• About 60% of suspected child victims in local authority care go missing and are not subsequently found
• There is long-term government funding for 35 places for victims in safe accommodation
• 92 people were convicted of sex trafficking and four for labour trafficking between 2004 and December 2008
• There are only 100-300 prosecutions for trafficking across the EU each year
•  Each sex trafficker earns on average £500-£1000 per woman per week

 Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25048307

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/modern-slavery-united-kingdom

Useful Links:

The link below is to a useful website that includes a defintions of slavery and traffiking, explains what happens to the forced workers and includes a factual passage by previous slaves.

http://www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/trafficking.aspx

An article by the BBC from three days ago stating that offical numbers on the amount of slaves in Wales are just estimates. Also the increase in plans to raise awarness of slavery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26013283

This article from the BBC shows recent, shocking statistics for human trafficking and how it is growing at an alarming rate. It clearly illustrates the scale of human trafficking in the UK and how it is incredibly difficult to prevent it from happening

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19984615

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C9VwiCP2bQ

This video helps people realise what human trafficking is really about and the consequences if you don’t prevent it. It is very effective in keeping you alert about what actually happens in the UK and how you can prevent it from continuing. Not only does it raise awareness, it encourages you to get involved in prevention and to notice where trafficking occurs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25048307

The article sums up what human trafficking is and gives named examples of recent events that have occurred. Information provided also raises awareness of trafficking, including place specifics and stats.

There is evidence of thousands of children working in the sex trade. For example there is a young Romanian girl who had a very tough life at the start when was given the opportunity to find work in the UK in a restaurant but her story got worse as she arrived in the UK. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6224151.stm

It is estimated that 85% of brothel workers are from overseas forced into it.

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6459369.stm this is a link to a horrific story about sex slaves being held in the UK against there will.

Other Sources

(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmhaff/23/23i.pdf)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_the_United_Kingdom)

(https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97846/human-trafficking-legislation.pdf)

InfoGraphics

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UK Storms October 2013 - Collaboration Project

Below is an opportunity to collaborate on a case study project for any Bedford School Geographer, or indeed anyone else there. Just Click a space on the wall and post your most interesting information about the UK storms. We challenge you to be the most interesting. Mr Gracie will provide some edible German confectionery to the most interesting post.

We think this format may have the power to do some quite special collaborative work too, so please do contribute if you find anything interesting... You can click on the wall below to post or open it in a new window with this link: http://padlet.com/wall/BSStorm

Created with Padlet

Guerrilla Geography at School Site - results

As published last week, open day at the school inspired a study by year 12 students to see whether the perceived status or value of cars influenced their location. When collecting the data, it had appeared that smarter cars located closer to the most visible and walked past locations on the school site. The location of the cars was mapped out in the field then transferred to a map in the classroom. The map includes a key where the colour denotes the car type. Note that the tabular form of the key allows an easy analysis at first glance of car types and their proximity to what was deemed to be the highest exposure site: immediately next to the South porch, the main entrance for the day.

Click on the images below to see them clearly and on a larger scale.

Fig 1: Map showing the locations of car types and the prime location (marked by an X)

The students have also graphed the number of each car located within 50 metre intervals of the prime location:

Fig 2: Bar graph of 50m wide radii of location and brands within them

So... do the cars that are better locate closer to important locations, and do those that are worse hid further away?

From the map, the closest cars to the prime location are Vauxhall, Audi and Lexus. The degree to which this can support any theory depends on which model. Certainly those spotted on the day appeared smarter. Within 50m there are also pockets of BMWs and VWs. So, though there are smarter cars close to the most visible location, there is no dominance by any particular brand.

The key on the map gives some more revealing information however, when the proportion of each car in each circular band is given. Audi, BMW, Lexus, Vauxhall and Mercedis all show a tendency to locate closer to the most visible location, whilst Ford, VW and Range Rover are skewed the other way.

The graph, displays some interesting trends too. The most notable bars are those for the Audis within 50m and the Fords between 150 and 200m. There are brands which  havn't located within the 150m-200m category at all: High range BMWs, Jaguar and Lexus, whilst some have not located within 50 metres: Honda and medium range BMWs.

Some data needs no analysis since it is likely that Jaguar and Porsche drivers will locate wherever they like!

Overall, the data probably supports the initial theory that drivers of nicer cars locate closer to the most visible locations, although it would appear that the visual study at first may have carried an emphasis on those cars which were more striking since the spread of cars is greater than was first anticipated. being able to investigate and quantify Geographical observations has been a very useful exercise, as has using different forms of presentation to highlight certain data more clearly. We are on the lookout for more small scale investigations around us...

Excellent Swanage Map

Below is an excellent map of the Isle of Purbeck made by Tom Lousada. Underneath he details how he created it. This is a very useful set of skills to practise in general, but they will be particularly helpful for writing up fieldwork projects.
(To see the map in a larger format, just click on it)

Slide Background:
The slide background was a screenshot taken off Google Earth. The Google Earth Image had been created by Pinpointing various geological features; i.e. Durdle Door, using the Pinpoint button on the top bar.
The layers of rock geology were created by drawing a polygon over the areas of each rock type. The data for this was taken from the booklet we received before beginning the task. These polygons were then made only 60% opaque and pinned to the ground so that we could see the land underneath.
Making sure only the Pins and the polygons were ticked on the side bar, the screen was then print screened and pasted into Paint where it was then cropped and saved as an image. A PowerPoint document was then opened up and the layout changed to blank. By right-clicking on the slide, format background was selected and the Google Earth picture was selected from a file. The edges were then edited so that the picture was 0 on every side.

Pictures on slide:
After finding pictures of each geological feature on Google, they were all pasted onto the document. Making sure that they were all selected as ‘tight’ in the text wrapping pane, they were spread evenly around the document, avoiding the top and bottom right hand corners, with each picture near to its corresponding Pinpoint.
Arrows were then inserted from the pictures to their Pinpoints and the colour changed so that they could be easily seen against the background.

Title and Key:The title and key were both created by inserting a textbox into the top and bottom right-hand corners and then changing the ‘fill’ of the textbox to white. At the top, the title was written in bold and underlined in a large font, while underneath was a brief summary of what the slide showed and how they were formed. At the bottom, a key was placed describing the colours of the geology on the background in terms of what rock type they were (and whether they were more or less resistant).

By Tom Lousada