Lewisham Council will build a modern-day slavery and human trafficking profile to better understand the issue locally.

This comes after an 11 per cent increase in reported victims of trafficking this year compared to last year, with 1,631 potential victims submitted to the national referral mechanism.

Lewisham Council’s head of public protection Geeta Subramaniam-Mooney said modern-day slavery and human trafficking locally was something authorities “knew very little about.”

Speaking at a Safer Lewisham Partnership meeting, a crime and disorder partnership between the council, police, fire service, youth offending service and other stakeholders, she said: “Modern-day slavery and trafficking has been identified as an area that we probably know very little about in terms of the local drivers and the local response.”

She said there was misunderstanding in the community and voluntary sector about human trafficking or modern-day slavery.

“Often people have a certain perception about what that [human trafficking and modern-day slavery] looks like and actually then almost miss the point about other elements of modern-day slavery,”  she told the partnership.

“The other main issue I think was this anomaly that people didn’t really know what do to –  if I find this, what do I do?

“The last bit around all this is around awareness raising. People in the community don’t know what this means in the real world.

“There are all sorts questions about car washes, nail bars – all the kind of stuff you hear about, but is that a Lewisham issue? We don’t know the answer to that question yet.

“And of course the Government set up the national referral mechanism…but there is a real gap about ‘oh I didn’t know that or who [I should contact]’ and if I was a voluntary sector organisation I really don’t know what I should be doing,” she said.

She said the partnership would set up a task group to create a protocol on the issue.

“We hope to in September to have protocol in draft and have a much more enhanced document about drivers and issues for Lewisham specifically,” she said.

“What response can communities take and how do we galvanise that through planning or other regulatory bodies we might have some influence over?"

Signs someone may have been trafficked include a fear of police and authorities, physical or psychological trauma, limited freedom of movement and access to health care, and if someone mentions that they have no passport or that someone else is holding their passport.

If you suspect someone is a victim, please call the 24-hour confidential Referral Helpline on 0300 303 8151.