Five Mohamed Al-Fayed sex abuse survivors were victims of human trafficking

Five Mohamed Al-Fayed sex abuse survivors were victims of human trafficking One woman reported being recruited into a false role within Harrods, while two were hired for legitimate roles and selected for abuse "off the shop floor" At least five survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of billionaire Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed were victims of human trafficking. Their experiences include international and domestic trafficking, as well as trafficking within the Harrods building itself. One survivor reported being recruited into a false role within Harrods, while two others were hired for legitimate roles and then selected for abuse off the shop floor. Another survivor worked as a domestic worker for a member of the Fayed family after being recruited via a letting agency. Their cases date back to the nineties, while the most recent took place after Harrods was sold in 2010. All five survivors have received conclusive grounds decisions from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) that they are victims of modern slavery, after being referred by the charity Unseen UK. The NRM is the framework for identifying victims of modern slavery in the UK, including human trafficking, forced labour and servitude. Police, Border Force, the National Crime Agency and local authorities must offer an NRM referral to any adult they have reasonable grounds to believe may be a victim of modern slavery. Charities like Unseen, the Salvation Army, Bernardo’s and the Refugee Council are also able to make referrals as non-statutory first responders. In April, Rachel Louw had received a positive conclusive grounds decision, after reporting abuse suffered at the hands of Mohamed Al-Fayed and his late brother Salah, who died in 2010. Since then, all four members of an advocacy group for Al-Fayed survivors called No One Above have received conclusive grounds decisions that they are victims of modern slavery. Justine, Elizabeth, Margo and Isabella are not their real names but used to protect their identities. Justine worked at Harrods for more than three years in the nineties, and was trafficked and abused during this time. She said: “It’s not something I realised was happening to me at the time, so it’s all part of this journey that we're on now in reliving this experience, and actually really understanding what happened to us, which is very difficult. "But it’s a really significant thing, getting that decision, seeing it in writing that you were a victim of modern slavery and trafficking is very… it’s really shocking to read.” Justine said the Home Office had confirmed that survivors were victims of human trafficking and that the scope of experiences are wide. They range from domestic to international trafficking, from those who worked at Harrods to those not involved with Harrods at all. She said this is very significant, because Harrods’ position has been that the abuse was just the actions of “one bad man”, and that there is nothing they can do now he is dead. Justine said: “These decisions illustrate that that is not the case at all.” Elizabeth was also a Harrods employee and received a conclusive grounds decision that she was a victim of modern slavery in May. She insisted that the victims were recruited, exploited and silenced and were all trafficked. She said: “Everybody connected with this case is a trafficking victim, because it was all one system. “You can’t say that victim A wasn’t trafficked and victim B was. “I think there’s this persistent misunderstanding, possibly within the Metropolitan Police themselves, which is scary, that trafficking only involves being moved across international borders. “There have been positive conclusive grounds trafficking decisions in cases where the trafficking occurred within the Harrods building.” Margo was a domestic worker for Fayed after the sale of Harrods, and was recruited via a letting agency. She received a positive conclusive grounds decision that she was a victim of human trafficking in July. Margo had not felt like a victim of trafficking “because really I didn’t know what trafficking was, especially domestic trafficking”. She said the trafficking network went “so beyond Harrods”. “This was Balnagown, it was Saint-Tropez, it was Fayair, it was Fulham Football Club. “Everywhere he went he had enablers, and everywhere he went he had the capacity to abuse. All of his residences, all of his businesses,” she added. Margo did not originally come forward because she did not work at Harrods. She added: “There has just been so much emphasis put on Harrods to the point where I believe that there are so many more victims that haven’t come forward because they believe that it’s solely a Harrods issue. “I know of one other Hyde Park Residence victim, but there has to be hundreds more somewhere.” Isabella worked in the chairman’s office at Harrods in 2001. She received her conclusive grounds decision that she was a victim of trafficking in May. She said: “I think one thing that the public doesn’t understand is they think this was one bad man, but he couldn’t have done what he did without Harrods processing women to him and silencing them afterwards. “And it wasn’t just Harrods, obviously. It was any entity that Al-Fayed owned or had control of. “It was his yachts, his aviation business, the Ritz Paris, his properties all over France and Monaco, it went as far as the States and the UAE – anywhere that man touched.” It was not just Mohamed Al-Fayed either, she said, but “a wider network of perpetrators”. Isabella added: “We are not aware of any negative decisions in this case, and there have now been many self-initiated referrals through Unseen.” Under UK law, human trafficking is defined by the 2015 Modern Slavery Act as a person arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to that person being exploited, including for sexual purposes. It applies to movement into, out of, or within the UK, and victim consent is irrelevant. More than 400 allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against Al-Fayed, dating between 1977 and 2014, including sexual assault, rape, sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The Met Police are investigating at least 156 victims who contacted them directly, including 21 who came forward before Al-Fayed’s death in 2023 at the age of 94. The investigation, known as Operation Cornpoppy, is looking at people who may have facilitated or enabled his crimes. Four people have been questioned to date, 19 months after the investigation opened. The Home Office has been approached for comment