By Joseph D'Urso
LONDON, Aug 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Workers inBritain's health service have little idea how to identify orhelp people who have been trafficked, though many think theyhave had contact with trafficking victims, researchers said onThursday.
Some 87 percent of National Health Service staff quizzed byresearchers from two London universities did not know whatquestions to ask to identify trafficking victims, and almostfour-fifths said they lacked the training needed to help suchpeople.
"Medical professionals are the ones that come into contactwith people who have been trafficked," said Jakub Sobik, aspokesman for Anti-Slavery, a British human rights charity."It's a very delicate situation".
One in eight of those questioned reported contact withsomeone they knew or suspected to have been trafficked, risingto one in five for those working in maternity care.
The academics, from Kings College London and the LondonSchool of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, recommended specialtraining for those working in areas where contact withtrafficked people is likely, such as maternity care, mentalhealth, paediatrics and emergency medicine.
"You're essentially looking for people who might be showingsigns of abuse or neglect, so that might be physical injury orsexual abuse," said co-author Siân Oram from King's College.Another warning sign is if a dominating companion makes thepatient reluctant to speak freely, Oram said.
NHS workers "lack confidence in how to respondappropriately" if they recognise someone is a traffickingvictim, said the study, published in the British MedicalJournal.
Midwives, assistants and other support staff were questionedas well as doctors and nurses. "It's something that areceptionist might pick up, it's something a porter might pickup," Oram told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In 2014, 2,340 suspected trafficking victims in Britain werepassed to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), a governmentscheme for identifying and supporting victims of humantrafficking, up 34 percent from the previous year.
"Certainly we're seeing year on year more trafficked peoplebeing identified, but we don't know if people are getting betterat identifying, or there are more victims of trafficking," Oramsaid.
The Home Office (interior ministry) says there are up to13,000 victims of modern slavery in Britain, forced to work infactories and farms, sold for sex in brothels or kept indomestic servitude, among other forms of slavery. Most come fromAlbania, Nigeria, Vietnam and Romania.
Worldwide, people who exploit slaves generate an estimated$150 billion a year in profits. (Reporting By Joseph D'Urso, editing by Tim Pearce. Pleasecredit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm ofThomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights,trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)