In this part, Michael Cox speaks with Ms Bissett about the politics surrounding Roadkill.
Michael: I think I know the answer to this already, but was the woman who trafficked the girl who first spoke to you ever brought to justice?
Cora: No, not as far as I know. It’s a complex scenario because these people are so untraceable and because they move around so much. This is one of the things that happen: the girls who are trafficked won’t stay in one place for long. They’ll be literally moved every couple of weeks to different flats across the city. So, even if neighbours are starting to get suspicious about something, they’re gone, they’ve long disappeared and it’s very hard to track these people down.
One of the most difficult things is to get the young girls to testify. They are quite literally indoctrinated with abject terror that they will be killed if they ever spoke against them, or their families will be killed. In the African cases, Juju will be used against their family. And these are very real and genuine fears, and they are not unfounded because they are dealing with very ruthless people. It’s very hard to get justice because you just can’t get anyone to speak up in court.Many of them are totally psychologically damaged. They get here, they’ll quite often be gang raped so that their spirit is completely broken from the offset, and in a state of abject terror they will do whatever anyone asks of them because they are absolutely fucking terrified.
Michael: Did the first production at the Tron have an effect on the cast or audience?
Cora: We met a lot of people who were interested because they were intrigued by the subject, but a lot of other people who are coming from charities and social services and areas of various kinds of...shall we say ‘social issues’. It was nice for them to see the story they deal with, and we got really good feedback from them. It’s very hard for them to watch it, but it felt very truthful to them. We’ve had child immigration lawyers come in and advise us.
Michael: Did your cast have much knowledge on the subject matter?
Cora: They knew a bit. Before we went into rehearsals I emailed everybody loads and loads of links on YouTube and interviews with women, documentaries, films, a lot of resource material that I’ve been reading. So I kind of gave everyone a real big backlog I wanted them to get through, and we discussed all that the first couple of days. I think they had a bit of an overview but, like most people, once you start getting into it you go ‘Geez, I didn’t realise this happened so much HERE, I didn’t realise it was so brutal and I didn’t realise that people could just be killed and thrown away and never discovered.’ We all grew and learned a lot of common knowledge so we were all singing from the same hymn sheet when we got into improvisations and things.
Michael: You have such a wealth of information. Is that information made available to the audience outside the production?
Cora: When we get back on the bus, because you’re taken on a bus trip from the theatre and taken back, there’s a condensed epilogue saying where a character like our protagonist would now be and...I shouldn’t really say how the story ends, but we say ‘Okay, you’ve just watched that story, here’s what she’s potentially up against now. She might go through an immigration process, she might be seeking asylum, she might have to live in a safe house for a while. She may not get her asylum. So, we give you the potential outcomes after the story has ended, but there’s also different links to Anti-Slavery UK, the Scottish Refugee Council and a Nigerian anti-trafficking organisation. So, if you want to donate or get on the mailing list or want to do any of those things to follow up then there’s lots of information about that.
And also, interesting enough, we’ve been working with the Lothian and Borders police and the Strathclyde police about this because they’re trying to re-educate their police right now in how to detect signs of trafficking. They might bust a flat for potentially thinking it was a brothel, and they might go in thinking ‘This is just people selling sex,’ but they might not have been clued up on the fact that there might be a bit more going on; someone might have been trafficked and being held against their will. And they’re being re-educated in how to read indicators of all that. That’s going on right now across Scotland, but also they’ve given us a lot of flyers which tell you of all the indicators to look out for.
That may sound a bit crazy, but even if you were someone employing people, because it isn’t just the sex trade that people are trafficked. It’s in domestic trade and in all sorts of factories. So, you might think that you’re just employing an immigrant, but they might be someone who’s been trafficked by someone else. And so we’re dealing with a whole different issue. It kind of gives you a rundown of all this.
And as for men who use prostitutes...look, I’m not making a judgement call on your use of prostitution, that’s a whole big market area that I’m not making any moral judgement on. But, if you’re going to do that, then look out for this because there’s an increasing chance that you could be having sex with a girl who has absolutely no say in the matter, which is quite a different issue, I think.
So, yeah, we’ll be giving those flyers out at the end, which are directly from the police, which I think is brilliant. They’ve been really supportive of this.”
Michael: It’s great to hear that there’s a large involvement in this.
Cora: Yeah, absolutely. And it seems that the organisations are linking up with each other. Amnesty are linking with the police, and the police are working with us and seem very open to it. I’m working with the Refugee Council. That’s all any of us can do, is just try to keep raising that awareness so that it’s spoken about.
I know that a theatre play can’t change the world, but you use the medium you’re in and you can go ‘Well, at least I can talk about it and get other people talking about it.’ And I do believe that talking can do a lot.
Michael: With all of this, your work and research and all the people you’ve spoken with, is there a question or point that hasn’t at all been raised?
Cora: No one’s really put the question to me: how do you think the situation can change. I think it will be a very slow-burn process. I think ‘awareness raising’ sounds like such a jaded term but we must not become jaded by it. I think we must believe that constantly talking about things and that trickle-down effect, creating those ripples where one conversation may lead to someone else having that conversation, can have an effect.
I suppose I liken it to a very slow burn campaign of domestic abuse that has been going on for the past 20 years. I remember when I was 17 and had just left home, and there were huge posters down Princes Street speaking about ‘zero tolerance’ and that abuse is just not acceptable. Obviously domestic abuse still goes on massively, but I think at least there are steps taken where women needing to know where to go for help know that abuse isn’t acceptable and you don’t have to put up with it in your marriage or relationship. And I guess similarly, all I can hope is that plays like this, and I know there are a few others going on in this year’s festival, and films and documentaries get people talking, men and women amongst each other, and say ‘What do you think about prostitutes,’ and ‘what do you think of people who are prostitutes but don’t want to be prostitutes, is there a difference?’ or ‘are all prostitutes essentially chained by the job they’re doing?’ Maybe by women and men sharing these discussions, that will ripple down. And perhaps a man who uses prostitutes, the next time he’ll look at the girl and think ‘Is she a prostitute or potentially a slave?’
I would just like to plant those seeds out there.
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