13,000 Enslaved in Britain: Officials

London: Up to 13,000 people are estimated to be kept in conditions of slavery in Britain, four times higher than was previously thought, officials said Saturday.

The Home Office figure for 2013 includes women forced into prostitution and people forced to work in factories and fields, many of them foreign nationals.

Data from another government body previously put the figure for 2013 at 2,744, but the 13,000 number is an estimate that factors in the "dark figure" of undetected cases, it said.
The figure emerged as Prime Minister David Cameron's government launched a strategy to combat modern slavery, with new legislation likely to be passed next year.

"Be in no doubt, slavery is taking place here in the UK," Home Secretary Theresa May said.

"Young girls are raped, beaten, passed from abuser to abuser and sexually exploited for profit. Vulnerable men are tricked into long hours of hard labour before being locked away in cold sheds or rundown caravans," she said.

"People are made to work in fields, in factories, and on fishing vessels. Women are forced into prostitution, and children systematically exploited."