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Anti-Slavery Day Bill

My Lords, I too thank the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, for introducing this Bill and the noble Baroness, Lady Young, for stepping into her place so eloquently. I too add my support to this Bill. If I had the opportunity to publish a book of beautiful letters, it would include a personal letter of just 500 words written by St Paul to his friend Philemon. Somehow, it found its way into the New Testament. Philemon had a slave called Onesimus. He had run away and found his way eventually to Rome where Paul was under house arrest. Paul sent the slave back, in theory, I would imagine, to possible death. After all, within the context of the culture, he was only a slave. He sent him with an impassioned letter saying, "Welcome him back as you welcome me—not as a slave, but as a brother. And if there are any financial issues, I will cover them". That could have included the price of his redemption. It is the understanding that we are all brothers and sisters in the one human family that conquers slavery and the related abuses about which people have spoken already. Civilisation is rather like the earth’s crust. It is much thinner and much less stable than we might imagine. The last century has shown us all too tragically how barbarism can erupt even as a nation pretends to be civilised. Holocaust Memorial Day has given us an annual warning, lest we forget. An anti-slavery day will do the same. The Diocese of Bradford has a link with the church in Erfurt, Germany. Early in my time as a bishop, I paid a visit to Erfurt for a long weekend. It was the weekend of Remembrance Day in England. It was also the anniversary of Kristallnacht and the pogrom against the Jews, as well as the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Just for good measure, it was also the anniversary of the baptism of Martin Luther, who had been a student in Erfurt and had divided western Christendom. Twenty thousand Protestants and Catholics celebrated Martin Luther’s baptism side by side with great rejoicing. The bishop went to the synagogue in penitence. We remembered together. A day remembering the horror of slavery must be a time when we remember together, whether as representatives of abusers or of victims. How we remember is more important than the mere fact of remembering, if we are to live together as one family and if slavery is truly to be abolished. I had originally intended to suggest a date—30 July. For once this week, I could speak of the church perhaps being ahead of this House, rather than somewhere in the slipstream. We already have an anti-slavery day, when we remember people like William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and fellow members of the Clapham Sect. One of the people we remember by name has already been mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Young. Olaudah Equiano was born in the mid-18th century in what is now Nigeria. He was captured, sold into slavery and passed from one person to another. In the process, he was transported to the Americas. He purchased his freedom, became a sailor, and apparently was the first black man to try to reach the North Pole. Whether that it is worth trying to do, I am not sure. Eventually, as a free man and a sailor, he arrived in this country. He settled here and joined the anti-slavery movement. His autobiography was a runaway success and a major factor in changing hearts and minds in this country. He was someone who had been what others were talking about. Incidentally, he was baptised in St Margaret’s, Westminster, just across the road. I think the date mentioned was 11 January, which would be much better than 30 July, given that the latter date is in the school holidays. I hope that the Bill will become law and that the church will change its anti-slavery day to match. We are witnessing slavery in our own society today, given the global village we live in. Extensive mention has already been made by the noble Baroness, Lady Nicholson, about sex trafficking. I am also concerned about the domestic slavery which takes place in this country and in the lives of British citizens. I am thinking especially of those who come from south Asia or who are sent there, often unwittingly, to enter into forced marriages. I have met Albert David, who works for the high commission in Islamabad; indeed, a television programme featured him not many years ago. When called, he goes out to rescue girls and young women who find themselves in forced marriages, and brings them back. It is interesting how many of the husbands, as they are, are willing for their wives to leave. Perhaps they made their lives such a misery; I do not know. I commend the work of the British high commission in rescuing young women who find themselves forced to live in a country they do not want to live in and with a family they do not want to live with. Here in Britain there are also women, perhaps from south Asia or perhaps from this country, who are forced into domestic slavery. In Keighley in the Diocese of Bradford we have a shared project sponsored by Faith in Action, the Keighley Asian Women’s and Children’s Centre and Bradford University. Together a safe place is provided for young girls. We can alert them to the danger of forced marriage and assure them that they have a choice. Talks are given by the police, by a Muslim worker from Bradford Cathedral speaking on the Muslim perspective of marriage, and by another person on Christian marriages. Six of the girls produced a drama which has been recorded by Bradford local radio. The play is based on the experience of one of those girls of an attempt to force her into marriage. We must keep the issue of slavery in the minds of all our people for fear that things go on that we cannot imagine continue to go on. All our communities should be aware of this abhorrent blot on the history of humanity so that it does not continue as a live issue in our midst.