Slavery: The victims that are all around us

What makes this particular case stand out is the length of time these women are said to have been held captive - over 30 years.

Although this is an extreme example, this type of slavery is not uncommonin London. Figures from the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre and Serious Organised Crime Agency for this year show that there were 389 potential victims of trafficking in the capital.

Although the women in this case are not believed to have been trafficked, the case shows that hidden slavery is taking place around us, within our everyday environments, whether it be on construction sites, mobile soup runs for the homeless, at cheap takeaways, in nail bars and in domestic homes in our neighborhoods.

Read more: How to recover after decades of slavery?

It's not necessarily organized by criminal gangs - it can involve informal arrangements, carried out by so-called ordinary and even respected people in the community.

I recently published a report called "Shadow City -- Exposing human trafficking in everyday London" that uncovered just how diverse that trafficking is, and that no matter where you live you are probably not that far from someone who is being exploited.

Sadly, authorities are still blind to this. Things need to change, urgently. An overstretched anti-trafficking unit in London's Metropolitan Police, and a figure-driven culture, means police are focusing on large-scale organized cases, and neglecting the informal cases that take longer to find, but are sometimes more serious.

In this case the three victims were lucky. They are said to have contacted a charity that was able to successfully rescue them. Many are not so fortunate.

Source http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/23/world/europe/london-slaves-andrew-boff/