[coffeedoughnuts]

I didn’t say all ice cream vans or hand car washes are run by slaves.

I said that they carry modern slavery risks in our country at the moment. There is plenty of data to support the claim that hand car wash businesses carry this risk; there was recently an initiative to help identify known problem businesses with an app: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47829016

I recently found out that the ice cream van near us that I have used before is part of a network of vans all around my city that has been linked to modern slavery. It’s not an isolated incident in my part of the country.

I don’t think my statement in regard to the modern slavery risks denigrated the ice cream van industry. If I said ‘don’t use ice cream vans because they are all run by slave masters’ then I would have been tarring the whole industry with the same brush. But I didn’t say that.

[lovemenot]

I would argue that FUD does exactly what you claim to not be doing. Raising concerns without substantiation, against an entire class of trading. Rather than just specific instances of bad behaviour.

I would add that the linked article, which is about car washes not ice-cream vans is equally FUD-driven. Weasel words like "linked to", "concerns", "thought to be" are used frequently, but no hard evidence of slavery is presented.

Slavery is a crime in UK. If there have been successful prosecutions and those demonstrate prevalence, rather than sporadic occurrence in an industry, then your blanket aspersions might be justified.

Otherwise, please refrain. Such FUD is likely to needlessly harm the business of law-abiding traders.

[simonebrunozzi]

What does it mean to "Carry modern slavery risks"? Do you mean "they employ slaves, e.g. the owner took their passports and controls them like slaves?"

[vageli]

> What does it mean to "Carry modern slavery risks"? Do you mean "they employ slaves, e.g. the owner took their passports and controls them like slaves?"

Human trafficking is a real thing. Coffeedoughnuts provided a link with a news story about an app that has been used to report businesses suspected of engaging in that industry.

[lovemenot]

Having the means to be reported and actually doing the crime are not causally related.

My proximity to your smoke machine does not prove that I am on fire.