Human slavery a greater evil today than during transatlantic trade

HUMAN slavery is a bigger scourge now than it was 200 years ago, former British Tory leader William Hague will warn today.

In a speech to the Centre for Social Justice, Mr Hague will argue that criminals have revived the “evil trade” which Victorian reformers such as Abraham Lincoln and William Wilberforce helped abolish. More people are being sold into slavery today than the total number taken from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade, he is expected to say.

Mr Hague will use his inaugural Abraham Lincoln lecture, the first in a series of talks, to call for a new crusade against slavery.

He will say: “At school we have all been taught that slavery is a thing of the past, and that Wilberforce and Lincoln were among the heroes who eradicated its evils from the earth.

“Yes the harrowing truth is that today, in a new form, there are an estimated 27 million slaves around the world, generating roughly $13 billion (9.9bn) a year for their owners. In fact, there are more slaves today than all the people sold from Africa during the time of the transatlantic slave trade.

“The legal, moral and economic arguments against slavery have all been won, but criminals, exploiting the global economy, have revived this evil trade in human beings.”

Official estimates suggest that at least 1,400 women are trafficked into Britain every year.