MODERN-DAY slaves are being brought to Devon and put to work in the sex and drug industries, according to former Totnes MP Anthony Steen.
Mr Steen, who represented the area in Parliament until 2010, and who founded the Human Trafficking Foundation, said slavery is still a major problem.
He highlighted Vietnamese cannabis farms like the ones found in Plymouth as a place where young men and boys can be forced to work.
A new Modern Slavery Bill, which had its Second Reading in Parliament last week, aims to crack down on slavery and make it easier to prosecute offenders.
Detective Inspector David Dale from Devon and Cornwall Police's serious organised crime investigation team said: "It's an incredible thought that slavery still exists in our society."
Home Secretary Theresa May said in Parliament last week: "Women forced into prostitution, raped repeatedly, and denied their liberty; children groomed and sexually exploited for profit; vulnerable men conned into brutal and inhumane work in fields, in factories and on fishing vessels; people forced into a life of crime; and some people even made to work as servants in people's homes.
"Throughout, there are accounts of sexual violence, beatings, humiliation, hunger and mental torture.
"This is a crime that is taking place, hidden from view, across Britain today."
There are more people in slavery today than in the entire history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, netting more than £87billion a year for traffickers.
There were 1,746 victims found as slaves in the UK in 2013 coming from 112 different countries, up 47 per cent on the previous year.
The largest number of modern slaves are women trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Behind that comes forced labour; trafficking of children for shoplifting, begging, pick-pocketing or ATM thefts; domestic servitude; and, finally, debt bondage.
The top five countries of origin for victims are: Albania, Romania, Nigeria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. But not all slaves are trafficked from foreign countries. The number of British slaves trafficked within Britain rose 173 per cent in 2013.
Yet few traffickers are convicted: eight in 2011, 12 in 2012, and 19 in 2013. And not all received custodial sentences.
Slaves have been found in Plymouth — including in the city's cannabis farms — which nationally are operated by trafficked Vietnamese boys.
Mr Steen said: "If the Bill follows the Israeli example, the Government will put trafficking and terrorism on an equal footing, with police resources to match.
"Traffickers will face life imprisonment, and this and other provisions in the Bill will raise the profile so that the 43 UK police forces will be required to put modern slavery in each of their action plans.
"In Devon and Cornwall we are fortunate to have Shaun Sawyer, the national police lead fighting modern slavery, as our Chief Constable. But law enforcement on its own is unlikely to be enough to deter traffickers in such a lucrative business, when human beings are a recyclable commodity which can be exploited time and time again.
"The Home Secretary wants the legislation to be a world leader; I support that. But to achieve this, the government must be prepared to do something more.
"Longer punishments are a start, but it is the confiscation of their assets that will really hurt them."
Mr Steen is also calling for better tracking, measurement and statistics as found in other EU countries — as well as an awareness campaign.
He said: "Awareness raising is of course important, and that is why I set up the Human Trafficking Foundation with Baroness Butler-Sloss and Clare Short in 2010; that is why I passed Anti-Slavery Day (October 18 each year) into legislation. And that is why I have been shouting from the rooftops, asking questions and stirring the pot ever since.
"Victims deserve nothing less. Thanks to the Home Secretary, the logjam is at last starting to move."
