Paul Calvert spoke with Jane Overnell about trafficking

Jane Overnell

Trafficking occurs when people coerce, abduct, or deceive the vulnerable in order to gain control and exploit them. It is modern day slavery. There are an estimated 12.3 million people globally who have been stripped of their dignity through human trafficking, primarily for sexual or labour exploitation.

"All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to look on and do nothing" - Edmund Burke

Heaven's Attic is an online shop with a difference. Selling jewellery, accessories, and products for young girls and products for your interior, they partner with a few key charities that are fighting against human trafficking, rescuing girls from the sex trade and lobbying to change legislation. Twelve percent of every online sale is given away.

To find out more Paul Calvert spoke with Jane Overnell.

Paul: Jane, what is Heaven's Attic?

Jane: Heaven's Attic is an online gift and accessory company. We do various gifts and then from the sales we give 12% to anti-trafficking charities.

Paul: Is there a lot of trafficking going on in the UK?

Jane: Yeah. I mean statistics are really hard, people throw around statistics, but since the Salvation Army have been doing that, in the last year alone they had over 172 cases.

Paul: And how are people getting involved in trafficking?

Jane: There are a lot of charities within the UK doing a lot of awareness-raising within schools, because trafficking does actually happen in some of the estates. They send in boys to groom the girls. So A21 have a schools campaign; other charities, Salvation Army, Unseen, work with girls that actually are trafficked. They go and help rescue and then restore the lives. Obviously we have immigration issues in this country; legally at the moment you can hold them for 42 days without them having to be sent home.

Paul: Is it predominantly women that are being trafficked?

Jane: Yes in sexual trafficking, but it isn't just a women issue. There's obviously bond servitude; we've seen some news cases where people get worked in factories; young boys are brought over too, not just for sexual exploitation, but for drug mules. They put drugs in their stomach and they're sent over in aircrafts. A big thing at the moment is they fly in boys from Colombia and often use them for cannabis farming which is very dangerous.

Paul: And how do these people actually end up getting involved in something like this?

Jane: Trafficking really is just done by coercion. It's all lies; it's done by fear. Often they're offered a job, maybe as an au-pair, coming over here especially through Europe. Then their host asks for their passport, which is quite normal; they get rid of the passport. When they're brought into a lot of the European countries often they get the police force of that country, someone to dress up and they're gang raped. If a girl runs and asks for help there are cases where one of those girls will be brought back and shot in front of other traffic victims. Once you've seen something like that, you live under that fear of, 'well I've seen it happen'. So when someone tells you, "We'll go back, we'll kill your family, we'll kill you", there's no doubt in one of those victims that people like that will do it.