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REX/Elena Perlino
UK News

Christians stage slavery drama

by Hannah Tooley

It is staging the first in a series of special street dramas in at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Wednesday.

The joint initiative, organised by The Salvation Army's Scotland Office and the Scottish Churches Anti-Human Trafficking Group.

It displays market stalls in different locations around the city 'selling' people as if they were commodities and the dialogue is based on real accounts from trafficking victims.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Roberts, The Salvation Army's Assistant to the Secretary for Scotland, said: "Human trafficking is taking place all around us; in our local communities and perhaps around the corner from where we live.

"We want people to know they can play a role in stamping it out.

"The Salvation Army has a long history of supporting victims of human trafficking and pressing for their legal protection.

"In England and Wales we have provided support services to more than 2000 adult victims of human trafficking in the past four years."

Keith Turton, The Salvation Army's drama co-ordinator, behind the idea said: "We think of slavery as people being chained up and in ropes.

"That may have been the case hundreds of years ago but nowadays it's much less obvious to the casual observer.

"And so the idea is to have a market stall where we will pretend to sell human beings.

"We will have a rail of clothing that depicts the work that people do.

"You can dress these people up to show how they are seen as just commodities.

"It's a dramatic way of highlighting the issue of trafficking and it's a way of saying: 'people shouldn't be bought or sold.'"

CC

Hazel Watson, Convener of the Scottish Churches Anti-Human Trafficking Group, added: "All human beings have intrinsic value and have the right to live with dignity in freedom.

"This drama, shocking as it is itself, is a way of highlighting the reality of human trafficking that is far more shocking. We can all play our part in efforts to combat this horrendous crime."

Two walk-in boxes have also been created, by Stop The Traffik and the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking, to symbolise trafficking and will be dotted around Edinburgh to provide information and first-hand accounts and pictures from victims inside.

Each box highlights a specific aspect of human trafficking from forced labour to sexual exploitation.

Both groups have contributed to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill, which is currently going through the Scottish Parliament.

It aims to create a specific offence of human trafficking for the first time as well as increase the maximum penalty for offenders to life imprisonment.

 
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