by Ismail Khwaja

Police have made up to 150 arrests this year in connection with modern-day slavery cases in Kent.

Officers also rescued 37 victims and referred them for support in the first six months of 2018.

The figures emerged as experts attended a conference in Canterbury today to mark Anti-Slavery Day.

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It is being held to raise awareness of the signs of those who may be affected and to report it.

Detective Inspector, Gary Scarfe, who was among the speakers at the conference, said: “We’re now identifying the huge scale of the problem.

"When it first got noticed in 2015, we were really unaware of what we call 'hidden crimes'.

“So the fact we are now identifying more victims and safeguarding victims has got to be a positive.”

Det Insp Scarfe was joined alongside StoptheTraffik Kent and the Salvation Army, who offer support to victims, for the event run by Soroptimist International.

“The best way to tackle slavery and to safeguard the victims is for everyone to work together.

“If you see something and think it may be, don’t think about it, report it.”

Some indicators of the crime could include, "an influx of males or females" going into a small-bedroom house, who are picked up and brought back, but not seen out in places like a local store.

Nail bars and car washes are also predominant areas used for slavery.

Detective Inspector Gary Scarfe added: “We’re not saying it’s all nail bars or car washes.

"It’s when you’re just going to get your car washed, just looking at the people who are working there; do they look happy at work?

“If you look a bit further sometimes, you can see that people are traumatised, they’re being controlled.

"They may have injuries that you think, 'why hasn't that person had the treatment for that injury?'"

According to a report by the UK Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, there were 2,118 suspected child trafficking victims reported to the UK authorities in 2017, a 66% increase from the year before.

In Kent last year, there were 103 victims who were rescued and referred for ongoing support.

This has coincided with a rise in reports of suspicious activity, which Detective Inspector Gary Scarfe has put down as a reason for more arrests being made.

“The public are starting to report what they see as possible indications of slavery and trafficking. We will obviously respond to that," he said.

“This year we actually dismantled the whole Romanian organised crime group here, safeguarded a number of woman and all those Romanian offenders were sent back to Romania to be prosecuted for human trafficking and exploitation.”