In 2016, Pope Francis called Modern Slavery a ‘true crime against humanity’ and urged the Catholic Church to assist in the fight to eliminate it. The eradication of
Modern Slavery was included in the United Nations Sustainable Development goals in 2015. As a Church we are in a privileged position as many of those exploited look
to the church and come to the Church for help. In this survey we are asking you to help us identify these vulnerable communities – who they are, where they are, what they need, and what you need to support them effectively.

The Modern Slavery Act (2015) defined the crime of modern slavery as occurring when any person holds another person in slavery or servitude, or when a person
requires another person to perform forced or compulsory labour. In this country there are many faces of modern slavery: people who find themselves in situations of
domestic servitude; women and girls from abroad and from the UK trafficked for sexual exploitation; men and women abused by drug cartels and organized crime
groups who end up in car washes, nail bars and as cleaners; and finally the thousands of people recruited from Eastern European countries who are exploited in
various industrial and agricultural sectors – farming, fishing, poultry and factories. Human trafficking, more specifically, occurs when one person arranges or organises
the movement of another person (within the same country or across national borders) so they can exploit or enslave that person.

We are therefore contacting parishes and chaplaincies across the UK to assist with a short survey about modern slavery and would appreciate your time in sending this
email with the attached link to the parishes and chaplaincies in your dioceses to enable them to respond to the survey via the link.

This survey will assist us, via the Santa Marta Group, in gathering important data in the fight against Modern Slavery. It is being conducted in collaboration with the
Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery at St Mary’s University. We appreciate your time in completing this short survey.

To access the survey online, please go to the link below and input the password: Bakhita

https://stmarys.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/informational-survey-2017-modern-slavery

Thank you for your assistance.
With my prayers and good wishes,

Bishop Patrick Lynch.