12 Years a Slave director Sir Steve McQueen has been announced as patron for Anti-Slavery International, a charity that works to eradicate modern slavery, including trafficking and forced marriages.

McQueen hopes his Oscar nominated film about Solomon Northup, a free black man who was sold into slavery in 1841, has raised awareness of modern day slavery, commenting 'Right now, there are Solomon Northups in every region of the world who have been taken away from their families and placed in slavery. We have to do something about it'.