EU defence roadmap targets 2027 for drone wall amid funding uncertainty
The European Union plans to make its “drone wall” fully operational by 2027 under a new Defence Readiness Roadmap, which outlines ambitious milita...
Britain recorded 19,125 potential modern slavery victims in 2024, surpassing previous figures. Experts urge policy reforms as stricter immigration laws leave victims afraid to seek help.
The number of suspected modern slavery victims in Britain reached a record high last year, according to official figures released on Thursday, underscoring a growing crime that experts say demands urgent government policy reforms.
Home Office data revealed that 19,125 potential victims were referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in 2024, surpassing the previous record of approximately 17,000 in 2023. The NRM is Britain’s system for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery.
Modern slavery—encompassing human trafficking, slavery, servitude, and forced labour—is on the rise globally, driven by factors such as poverty, conflict, and migration, affecting millions worldwide.
In Britain, the crime manifests in various forms, with men, women, and children forced into exploitative labour in sectors such as drug and sex trades, car washes, nail salons, private homes, and social care.
According to the human rights organisation Anti-Slavery International, the actual number of people living in modern slavery in Britain is estimated to be around 130,000.
British nationals accounted for approximately 23% of referrals to the NRM, making them the most commonly identified group, followed by Albanians at 13% and Vietnamese nationals at 11%. Children made up around 31% of all referrals, equating to nearly 6,000 cases.
Charities and lawmakers have called for Britain to rethink its approach to tackling modern slavery, advocating for stronger enforcement of labour laws and reforms to immigration policies, which have primarily focused on curbing illegal migration.
Stricter immigration policies are leaving thousands trapped in modern slavery, with many too afraid to seek help due to fears of deportation, Reuters reported last month.
The government has pledged to recruit dozens of additional caseworkers to process claims within the NRM, as more than 17,000 people were still awaiting a second-stage decision on their cases at the end of last year, official data showed.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
The Israeli military says one of the four bodies handed over by Hamas overnight does not belong to an Israeli hostage, raising tensions over the ceasefire deal and aid deliveries to Gaza.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s plane made an emergency landing in the United Kingdom after a crack appeared in the aircraft’s windshield during his return flight from a NATO meeting in Belgium.
The European Union plans to make its “drone wall” fully operational by 2027 under a new Defence Readiness Roadmap, which outlines ambitious military capability goals but offers little on how they will be financed.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Moscow on Wednesday that the United States and its allies would "impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression" if the war in Ukraine does not come to an end.
Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned multiple times while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for president, died aged 80 on Wednesday in India.
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