By Tobias Thienel

Okay, so technically, the case was not about slavery in the strict sense, but the facts certainly amounted to human trafficking and forced labour. But quite regardless of the epithet, the facts of OOO v The Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, a recent case in the High Court in London, are chilling.

This case under the Human Rights Act was largely about questions of fact, but these are remarkable enough. The story the judgment tells is of a number of young girls who were tricked into coming to Britain from Nigeria on the promise of being given a better education, but who were, it appears, ruthlessly exploited. Once they had arrived in Britain, they were taken to British family homes, where they were made to work long hours for no pay, and where they were often physically abused.

Against that background, the case was about whether the police had done enough to investigate the complaints of the victims and prosecute those responsible. The judge – Wyn Williams J – found that they had not discharged their obligations of investigation under Article 4 of the ECHR. In that, the case is a lot like Rantsev v Cyprus and Russia and Siliadin v France (which the judge duly applied).

On the law, the judge rightly but not very remarkably held that the limits applicable to the obligations of investigation under Article 4 were much the same as under Article 2. What is remarkable is that these things appear to have happened more or less in the centre of London. Moreover, what is potentially more worrying is that either the police dragged their feet despite the serious crimes that had been brought to their attention, or the victims hesitated to seek help and push for prosecutions.

Neither state of affairs would be at all satisfactory, given that conduct of the kind alleged in this case ought to be a thing of the past. The authorities should surely bequite proactive when such allegations are made, and circumstances should be such that victims will not be afraid to seek help (which is a matter not least of immigration law). This should be so everywhere, but politically speaking, action against human trafficking and ‘modern slavery’ ought to have particular traction in a continent and a country that pride themselves on having acted against ‘old slavery’ centuries ago (even if that came some considerable time after starting the slave trade in the first place).